Barratt achieves its highest CDP scores for sustainability

Barratt Developments plc has achieved its highest results across three disclosures for the 2020 CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project) benchmark. Barratt was also the only housebuilder this year to have improved its score from the previous year in all three disclosure categories.

This year it scored A- in the ‘Climate’ category, B for the ‘Forest’ category and B- for the ‘Water’ category, underlining its position as the country’s leading national sustainable housebuilder. Its move into the leadership level for climate disclosure this year comes off the back of Barratt announcing new science based targets for reducing carbon emissions (operational by 29% by 2025/indirect by 24% per m2 by 2030), ensuring 100% of its own electricity will be from renewables by 2025 and becoming a net zero greenhouse gas emissions business by 2040.

Barratt has also set itself a target of delivering 25% of its homes using Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) by 2025, particularly featuring timber frame, and last year acquired structural timber frame manufacturer Oregon Timber Frame Ltd to support that objective. In doing so, the business is responding to the opportunities that timber materials can provide for both productivity and environmental performance.

Together with demonstrating how the business enhances habitats and the natural environment, and improving risk and opportunity disclosure, this has driven its B score this year for the forest disclosure. This is also the first year that Barratt has voluntarily entered for water disclosure, so its score of B- is particularly positive.

Bukky Bird, group sustainability director at Barratt Developments, said: “CDP is one of the most comprehensive and widely used frameworks, relied on by many of our stakeholders and investors, so we are pleased to have scored highly this year. We are committed to continually aligning our performance against global priorities and this gives us a useful indicator. We recognise we have much more to do but the results show we are making great progress and we want this to continue.”

The CDP surveys are particularly useful tools in understanding the links between environmental risks, opportunities and the implications of them for business planning and financial performance.