We are conscious of the impact we all make on the environment and believe that, as a construction, property and development business, we bear a particular responsibility. We aim to minimise our use of resources and our waste and strive to continually improve our environmental performance.
The Code for Sustainable Homes / Ecohomes
We work with the Building Research Establishment system of property evaluation in order to promote a green agenda. Under the scheme, residential properties are graded on issues including energy, transport, materials, pollution, water, land use and ecology, health and well-being, and management. Homes are designed to minimise the amount of energy used and to promote the use of renewable and low-emission energy sources; to use insulation with a global-warming potential of zero; and to use energy-efficient lighting. Under the scheme we also aim to reduce water run-off (reducing the risk of localised flooding), pollution and other environmental damage, and to use responsibly sourced materials and to recycle rainwater into a potable supply.
We meet The Code for Sustainable Home / Ecohomes regulations on all of our social housing contracts.
Air
We work hard to reduce the emissions and disruption arising from our activities. We use electric mixers to reduce sound and air pollution; we reduce dust pollution by venting equipment exhausts upwards; and we use electronic communications between head office and our sites and vehicles, so that fewer fuel-burning trips need to be made.
Asbestos
We take great care to safely remove asbestos from all older buildings, providing a clean and safe product for future generations.
Recycling
We actively sort waste materials for both environment and economic reasons; for example, we recycle all of our plaster and plasterboard waste on-site, while in our offices, we recycle our ink and toner cartridges.
Protecting natural resources
Wherever possible, we purchase diesel-powered vehicles in order to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we consume. We aim to source all of our timber from managed and certified sources, and we ensure that all insulation is ozone-friendly.
Free energy
We promote the use of free energy sources; on one recent scheme, we installed photoelectric-cell roof tiles to provide part of the electricity demand. The system returns surplus energy to the National Grid.
Rainwater attenuation
On-site, we have installed several methods of rainwater attenuation, including large-diameter pipes and Hydrobrake systems; ground tanks to allow the re-absorption of water into the ground; and grey-water harvesting, where rainwater is re-used through toilets and washing machines.
Removing ground contamination
Many of our projects involve reusing old property for new schemes and means the cleaning-up of sites that were previously unusable through ground contamination. This brings back into use sites which may have been ignored for many years and also reduces the pressure on greenfield sites.