Improving the environment and quality of life.
Totally committed
We've made five Total Commitments to our stakeholders: to protect and develop people, improve the environment, work with our supply chain and enhance communities.
Delivering on these Commitments is a strategic priority for us. We measure our performance using key performance indicators and challenging targets, so we can make sure we keep improving.
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Protecting people
Staying safe
2023 performance
0.24
lost time incident rate
2025 target
0.21
We want everyone who comes in contact with our work, on and off site, to go home safe and well. Our teams are always looking at new ways to protect occupational health and reduce the risk of accidents, by increasing safety awareness, promoting safe behaviours and ensuring our standards and procedures are consistently adhered to. Maintaining vigilance on our sites is particularly important as workloads increase and new employees and subcontractors join our projects.
Staying well
Our goal is to provide an environment where our people feel safe and supported and where physical and mental health are regarded with equal importance. We offer a benefits package that includes a digital GP service, employee assistance programme providing legal and counselling services which is also accessible by subcontractors, financial education, group income protection and private medical insurance.
All our divisions are involved in projects that require health and wellbeing to be integrated into a building's design and functionality.
Human rights
Our human rights policy states our commitment to the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights and the UN Declaration of Human Rights. The policy applies to the Group, our subsidiaries and the entities in which we hold a majority interest.
We have an independently run Raising Concerns facility to ensure that our employees and subcontractors are empowered to report any worries they may have.
Developing people
Training and careers
2023 performance
3.2
training days per employee per year
2025 target
5 days
Working on diversity
We are working hard to address issues of diversity and inclusion that exist across the sector. We do so in a number of ways – by providing flexible working patterns, actively seeking to recruit from a wide pool of candidates, encouraging children and young people to consider a career in construction through our involvement with schools and colleges, and offering a variety of apprenticeship and professional qualification sponsorship programmes.
We maintain partnerships with Women into Construction (WiC), Working Families/Working Mums, BPIC (Black Professionals in Construction) and BuildForce UK. These networks help us reach a wider audience on the benefits of a career in construction including those who may have a different perception of what it's like to work in our industry.
Developing skills
We invest in developing our people so that they can maximise their potential, feel fulfilled in their roles and progress their careers. In 2023 we moved our e-learning programmes to a more dynamic platform, significantly increasing the range of courses we can offer.
We provide work experience, training and apprenticeship opportunities for people local to our projects, and work with educational institutions to invest in training and work opportunities for young people.
Improving the environment
Leaders on climate change
2023 performance
45%
reduction in Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions from 2019 baseline
2025 target
30%
17%
reduction in operational Scope 3 carbon emissions from 2019 baseline
30%
£224m
supply chain (by spend) providing their own carbon data
£500m
27%
reduction in carbon emissions from the Group’s vehicle fleet from 2019 baseline
30%
Our goal is net zero carbon by 2045. It is more stringent than our previous goal of net zero by 2030 as it includes our wider Scope 3 emissions. These are emissions over which we do not have direct control, such as carbon embodied in materials and generated by operating buildings once we hand them over. We have introduced 2045 targets to reduce our Scopes 1, 2 and operational Scope 3 emissions by 90%, relying on just 10% of carbon offsetting, and wider Scope 3 by 60%. We have realigned all our targets, which are validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), to a 1.5°C scenario. We are on track to meet our 2030 targets of a 60% reduction in Scope 1, Scope 2 and operational Scope 3 emissions.
Over 90% of our emissions are generated by our projects and the majority of these emissions are wider Scope 3. Therefore the most effective way we can help tackle climate change is by supporting our clients in decarbonising their projects, which includes helping our supply chain reduce their own emissions. We consider climate resilience when procuring, designing and decommissioning, and will be able to achieve more as demand from our clients rises.
We have maintained a CDP A leadership score for our carbon reduction disclosures since 2020. In 2023, we won an award for Net Zero Innovation of the Year at the edie Awards for climate leadership. The award was for our 'Growing Natural Capital' project in the Dorn Valley Woodlands in partnership with the Blenheim Estate.
Our carbon reduction tool, CarboniCa, enables our project teams and our clients to visualise and monitor the whole-life carbon of a structure, from the materials used to build it through to the energy used to run it. An intelligent tool, CarboniCa can also suggest, at the design stage, where alternative, lower-carbon materials or construction methods could be used.
In 2023 CarboniCa was aligned with the BREEAM environmental rating system, enabling us to drive carbon reduction and complete BREEAM evaluations at the same time. Also in the year, we received a £1m innovation grant from the government to apply AI capabilities to CarboniCa which will speed up the whole-life carbon assessments of our projects.
As most of our carbon emissions are from our projects we need our supply chain's input to reduce them. This means working with them to collect better data on their emissions, make low-carbon materials more economical and readily available, design innovative solutions and support a circular economy by reusing materials and reducing waste.
In 2023 we joined a partnership with major contractors and suppliers to assist construction technology provider Causeway Technologies in its new project to develop an automated way of calculating embodied carbon using invoices. The software is being tested with 25,000 invoices provided by suppliers.
A building’s carbon emissions are largely due to the energy used to heat, cool and run it. The Passivhaus design standard cuts down energy use through techniques such as superinsulation, airtightness, high-performance windows and mechanical ventilation. Our divisions are regularly involved in Passivhaus projects. For example, in 2023 Morgan Sindall Construction completed Hertfordshire's first carbon-neutral, Passivhaus primary and nursery school, while Muse Places continued work on 96 affordable Passivhaus homes in Salford and BakerHicks was appointed to develop a leisure centre in Scotland to Passivhaus standards.
We measure the biodiversity impacts of our projects and are targeting a net gain where we can, i.e., leaving biodiversity in a better state when we finish. Muse Places' Eden Building in Salford, whose facade is wrapped in one of Europe's largest living walls, is expected to increase biodiversity in the area by 2,000%.
We have planted nine woodlands on the Blenheim Estate in Oxfordshire with 28 varieties of trees and flower-rich grass, providing a habitat for birds, insects, animals and fungi. Early ecology surveys at the Estate have shown a more than 75% increase in biodiversity net gain.
We reduced our total waste by 30% in 2023 and diverted 94% from landfill. Our approach is to reduce, reuse and recycle. We work with our waste service providers to keep finding better ways of managing or reducing waste, take part in suppliers’ take-back schemes, and engage with our supply chain and other stakeholders on responsible ways to reuse items and materials that are no longer wanted. We are improving our data collection on waste so that we can take a more strategic approach in the way we reduce and recycle.
Our sustainable water policy commits to monitoring the amount of water we use, improving the efficiency of our water use and eliminating wastage. We use minimal water in our operations, help our clients use water more responsibly, ensure water discharges do not damage the environment, and install water-efficient technologies in buildings and homes.
Working together with our supply chain
2023 performance
68.8%
of total invoices paid within 30 days
2025 target
70%
We see our supply chain as partners who play a strategic role in our success. We are working to keep reducing our average days to pay invoices, in line with the Prompt Payment Code. The relationships we’ve developed with our supply chain help ensure we continue to receive the materials we need for our projects and the highest standards of workmanship.
We try to procure locally whenever we can to reduce our environmental impacts while creating opportunities for SMEs (small- and medium-sized enterprises). In 2023, 65% of our spend was with 10,190 SMEs.
Support networks
Our Morgan Sindall Supply Chain Family, set up 20 years ago, has over 400 members. Every two years we hold a large-scale networking event where members can meet and discuss new innovations, with each other, with contacts from across the Group, and with our clients.
We continue to support the Supply Chain Sustainability School which provides free training on energy management, waste, modern slavery, biodiversity, mental health and wellbeing, and other subjects. In 2023, 10,500 e-learning modules were completed by our supply chain members, and 1,910 suppliers attended training workshops. We were awarded Gold status by the School in recognition of our increasing involvement and active knowledge sharing.
Working together to make change
Our teams and our supply chain often collaborate on new ways of doing things that will help us achieve our responsible business objectives, such as improving safety or reducing carbon and waste. Recent initiatives include new safety evaluation software to identify where support and training is needed, new ways of collecting environmental product declarations to help improve our data on embodied carbon, and workshops with suppliers to discuss ways of reducing carbon and reusing items removed during refurbishments. We have been awarded Supplier Engagement leader status by CDP.
Enhancing communities
2023 performance
73p
of social value per £1 spent on 80 projects
2025 target
85p
per £1 spent
We want to leave a positive legacy by improving the built environment and creating social and economic value for the communities where we work. We work with our clients, partners and supply chain before the start of a project to find ways of doing this. We build affordable, energy-efficient housing. We offer the bulk of our subcontracts to local small and medium enterprises. We provide job and training opportunities for local people including those belonging to disadvantaged or underrepresented groups.
Some of our divisions have formed long-term relationships with schools and colleges to offer training, work experience and information about careers in construction. This initiative helps young people in their search for a career while also aiming to increase diversity and address skills shortages in the industry.
Measuring social value
We have been using three platforms to measure our social value. The first is our Social Value Bank which measures and tracks in monetary terms the value we add to local communities through our work. The tool applies best practice valuation methodology from the Treasury Green Book and OECD guidelines.
In addition, we use tools requested by our clients: the Social Value Portal, used by many public sector organisations, and HACT, an external verifier that uses the 'Wellbeing Valuation Approach'.
We have a real opportunity to help tackle climate change and create social value
The built environment is currently responsible for 25% of UK carbon emissions. We can help tackle climate change by reducing our emissions and waste, building energy-efficient buildings, and increasing biodiversity.
Read our Transition Plan towards net zero.
We create social value by regenerating the UK's towns and cities, developing and maintaining housing, improving transport and infrastructure, and building and fitting out schools, universities and offices that are healthy and inspiring to work in.
We provide training and work opportunities for people who live in the communities where we work, and engage with local schools and colleges to attract people from all backgrounds into a career in construction.
Sustainable development goals
We support the UN Sustainable Development Goals to ‘end poverty, protect the planet and ensure prosperity for all’. We consider these six goals to be those where we can have the biggest impact in line with our Total Commitments.
