Yorkshire Sustainability Award Success

We are delighted to announce that we have won the Property and Construction Award at this year’s Yorkshire Sustainability Excellence Awards. This recognises that we are building a better future, and as we continue through 2024, we are committed to continuing to make progress against our ambitious net zero goals.

Through our market-leading Net Positive Responsibility strategy, our projects have made significant contributions to the increasingly important decarbonisation agenda and the UK’s ambition to achieve net zero by 2050. 

The strategy is driven by the six key pillars of zero carbon, zero waste, zero harm, sustainable growth, delivering social value, and being a great place to work, which ensures we put more into society and the environment than we take out. 

In 2018, the IPCC warned that to avoid the catastrophic impacts of climate change, emissions must halve by 2030 and be reduced to net zero by 2050. With the building sector accounting for 36% of the world’s final energy consumption and 37% of global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, the scale of the challenge faced by the industry is daunting.

We are addressing this head-on by directly influencing the change to a lower-carbon future. We have committed to reducing our absolute scope 1 and scope 2 greenhouse gas emissions by 50% by 2031. We have also committed to making reductions to our scope 3 emissions, ensuring 75% of our suppliers will have science-based targets by 2027. 

Our achievements have included:

• Reducing our emissions - since our baseline year of 2018/19, we have reduced our absolute CO2 e emissions by 29%, from 8,201t/CO2 e to 5,834 t/CO2e
• As a trusted Net Zero partner we have developed a net zero pathway to help our clients understand how they can transform their estates through mechanical, electrical, and plumbing (MEP) solutions and the use of offsite manufacturing to deliver these solutions
• Leading the EV revolution - in 2022, we launched our EV business to use our 100 years of electrical infrastructure expertise to support our customers on their net zero journeys
• Using education to drive change - we are also working to develop the net zero knowledge of our colleagues, partners, and suppliers. 

Natalie Wilkinson, Head of Responsibility, said, “We know that we are at the beginning of our journey, and there is much to do to ensure we play our part in the UK’s ambition to reach net zero by 2050. However, with a vision to create and maintain exceptional buildings and infrastructure that can help society prosper both now and in the future, we know that implementing net zero solutions at speed is essential. 

Because of this, we are taking bold action and tackling the challenge of net zero head-on and ahead of many others in the construction industry, to ensure we play our part in creating a better and more sustainable future for all.”

The Yorkshire Sustainability Excellence Awards have been created to recognise the businesses and organisations in the region that are making permanent and positive changes to their environmental impact.

Well done to all those involved.