Green

Sustainability

Sustainability

We really believe that good environmental practice makes good business sense.

For us, sustainable development is a concern for the wellbeing of the environment; the communities in which we invest; our customers’ views and expectations; the health and welfare of our employees; the ethical treatment of our suppliers; and the considered development of new products and services.

What’s more, through our contribution to urban regeneration, we want to play an active part in improving the environments in which we operate.

What’s more, through our contribution to urban regeneration, we want to play an active part in improving the environments in which we operate.

Here are just some of the ways in which we’re putting our beliefs into practice:

• Running a Carbon Management programme in association with the Carbon Trust.
• Ongoing focus on redeveloping brownfield sites.
• Making intensive use of the sites we develop.
• Conserving energy through improved insulation and the use of efficient heating and lighting systems.
• Incorporating renewable energy into our new buildings.
• Encouraging the use of building materials and furnishings from sustainable sources.
• Actively encouraging customers to use less energy and recycle more – such as providing real incentives for switching off lighting and heating when they are not needed – and practicing what we preach.
• Making extensive use of modular construction. Off-site manufacturing significantly reduces material waste compared to traditional construction methods. What’s more, it uses around 30% less material by weight than traditional methods. Modular construction represented 70% of our new projects in 2007 –

Our carbon footprint

We have established our carbon footprint using 2006 as the baseline year. All CO2 equivalents have been calculated using the Defra conversion factors. The baseline has a clear set of boundaries within which the CO2 emissions attributable to our business are calculated. These boundaries are:

• Electricity and gas used in residential buildings;
• Electricity and gas used for internal operations and manufacturing;
• Road haulage emissions;
• Business travel (road);
• Business travel (air).

The baseline calculation shows that some 95% of our carbon dioxide emissions arise from energy use within our residential estate. So we’ve launched a number of initiatives designed to encourage our customers to reduce consumption of resources. These are being launched in five major cities from September 2008.

Carbon Footprint