Creating sustainable developments begins with thoughtful and effective design:

• We build homes that meet the Code for Sustainable Homes’ levels three and four. This is an industry specification which aims to improve the sustainability of new homes across the UK. 
• We have reduced the use of water and energy in our homes by carefully selecting more efficient fixtures such as dual-flush toilets and low-energy light fittings.
• We consider each site’s location and surroundings, its relationship and links to nearby community facilities and, in particular, its connection to transport links to reduce car use, encourage walking, cycling or the use of public transport. 
• We design our sites and buildings carefully to keep the amount of waste taken off the site (from demolition, excavation and construction) to a minimum.
• All sites have an ecological impact assessment to assess the effect development will have on the plants and wildlife in and around the site (either positive or negative). Final designs often include features to reduce any negative effect of the site on the ecology of the area or to improve the ecological value of the site, for instance keeping significant landscape features such as hedgerows or providing routes for local wildlife.
• In order to reduce the risk of flooding, our developments are designed to keep run-off of rainwater to a minimum and to not overburden the public sewerage system.

We acknowledge the global threat of climate change and our responsibility to reduce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gas emissions. We recognise that we contribute to climate change with the emissions produced through our supply chain, the construction process, and the future occupation of the homes. We aim to reduce the carbon dioxide emissions produced by our developments. We are committed to working with the Government and others to achieve this.

The Way We Work

We have calculated the ‘greenhouse gas footprint’ for our business, including our supply chain, since 2009. This measures the gases that our company’s homebuilding activities produce that contribute to global warming. We report our footprint through the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project), which is an organisation that records and reports company climate-change information. We are a ‘full participant’ in the CRC (Carbon Reduction Commitment) Energy Efficiency Scheme. Under this scheme, which is compulsory for UK companies that use more than a certain amount of electricity, we must declare the carbon emissions we produce through our direct energy use. We must then buy ‘credits’ to offset these emissions. We are currently working with the Carbon Trust to develop a more detailed strategy to manage our carbon emissions and are committed to measuring, monitoring and reporting each year on our performance.

Embodied Energy

We assess the energy used in building our homes, and publish this every year within the report of our full carbon footprint (the amount of carbon dioxide equivalents we have produced). We can now use this information to help make decisions on our procurement and construction processes to reduce both energy use and costs. We have an ethical sourcing policy and all our materials are assessed against the Green Building Guide produced by BRE.

Our Homes

We have reduced the energy demand of our homes. Experience has taught us that the best way to achieve this is by improving the quality of the building fabric, its insulation and its airtightness. We then consider installing simple technologies such as sustainable heating systems based on flue-gas heat recovery and waste-water heat recovery. We only fit more complex technologies, including photovoltaic panels, heat pumps, combined heat and power systems and biomass heating systems, when they are needed. This approach to environmental sustainability requirements keeps the future maintenance and costs for homeowners to a minimum and means that there will be consistent energy bill savings.

• Regeneration

Before building on previously developed sites (brownfield land), we clear up waste, clean chemical pollution from soil and groundwater, and remove asbestos from buildings no longer in use. We often use physical, chemical, biological and thermal environmental technologies and treatments to tackle any remaining pollution and to make sites safe for their new use. All the improvement and clean-up work we carry out is approved by the appropriate local and national government organisations.

In the last few years we have built over 60% of our homes on brownfield land. We transform empty, derelict or contaminated areas of land that could encourage antisocial behaviour into desirable places to live, and we improve the local environment for the benefit of the wider community.

We are committed to maintaining high standards in relation to the environmental management of sites. We aim to keep any harmful effects that our activities may have on local environments and communities to a minimum, and to make a positive contribution to the areas we build in.

Our health, safety and environment procedures include an environmental management system and a commitment to continually improving. For all sites, we complete a Site Specific Environmental Action Plan, which is then carried out by our site management teams. We aim to protect plants and wildlife and, where possible, improve the ecological value of the sites we develop.

Using materials efficiently and keeping waste to a minimum makes good environmental and business sense. Our Waste and Resources Strategy and Action Plan sets out our approach to this. We think of all the materials we produce during the homebuilding process to be resources, including demolition materials, soil and anything left over by the construction of the homes. We only think of them as waste once we have properly considered their value and decided they have no use, using the principles of reduce, reuse and recycle.

Working with our suppliers, our approach is to focus on keeping waste to a minimum through the design of the products used when building the homes, separating and recovering as much material from the site as possible, carefully considering excess materials, and keeping the amount of materials that are sent to landfill to a minimum. We measure, monitor and report on our progress, and are committed to continually improving our performance.