Today it was announced that Redrow won gold for the third year in a row in the NextGeneration 2018 Benchmark, which assesses and ranks the UK’s 25 largest homebuilders on their sustainability performance.
Retaining its third place position, we received a sustainability score of 82%. Up by two percentage points on the year, our NextGeneration Benchmark score outperforms the current industry average of 37% and the NextGeneration member average of 75%.
The benchmark assesses homebuilders on a range of criteria, including the company’s strategy and reporting, future proofing, its design and placemaking strategies and minimum sustainability standards for homes.
Limiting the environmental impact of its developments by building responsibly and creating thriving and desirable places to live are key parts of our strategy. Since 1974, we have created over 2,300 hectares of publicly-accessible open space, the equivalent of 40 Hyde Parks, and contributed £2.7 billion into community infrastructure which includes green spaces and a variety of community amenities.
We also are currently partners with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, which has seen the introduction of a variety of pollinator-friendly measures, and has led to the implementation of hedgehog highway networks, bat bricks and bird boxes to encourage local wildlife. These examples form part of our evolving ‘net gain’ approach to biodiversity which seeks to retain, enhance and create new habitats to ensure measurable benefits for nature and people in the provision of new homes, amenities and green spaces. We will soon announce our latest partnership, where we will be developing a strategy to achieve this.
Robert Macdiarmid, Group Sustainability Director at Redrow, said: “We are proud to once again be named as one of the top three sustainable UK housebuilders in the NextGeneration Benchmark. Our sustainability objectives such as protecting and enhancing our natural and built environment, making effective use of land and helping to improve biodiversity are actually echoed in the government’s revised National Planning Policy Framework. With the guidance of our placemaking principles, we work hard to meet these aims at each of our developments, and create not just homes for people to live but thriving communities for people and the local wildlife to enjoy.”
We utilise our placemaking design principles to ensure social, environmental and economic aspects are incorporated into our developments. This includes communities, such as Ebbsfleet Green in Kent, where we our delivering up to 900 new homes, alongside a primary school, shops, a community centre, sports pitches, allotments and a pub and hotel, which have already opened their doors.
NextGeneration is the only sustainable housing benchmark used by the majority of the UK’s largest homebuilders. It is overseen by an executive committee made up of Homes England and the UK Green Building Council.
To download the full report, please visit: https://nextgeneration-initiative.co.uk/.
