Our sustainability strategy

Sustainability is about securing long-term success – not just for our business, but for our customers, our employees, and the communities within which we work. This means continually improving our environmental, social and economic performance over time.

To do this we need to consider the negative, as well as the many positive impacts of our business. This requires us to understand how the goods we buy are produced by our suppliers, our operations, how our raw materials and products are transported, how our products perform during the construction process and in use and what happens to them when they are no longer required. Only by adopting this whole life-cycle approach can we continually improve sustainability, continually rethink our business, products and services, and develop innovative ideas that allow our customers to create sustainable buildings and infrastructure.

To guide us in this task, we have a sustainability strategy based around four key themes: People, Planet, Performance and Solutions.

Our strategic themes

Our sustainability strategy is based around four key themes: People, Planet, Performance and Solutions, against each of which we have identified three key priorities. We report our progress against each of these four themes in detail within this report.

PEOPLE

Health and Safety, Our People, Community Involvement

PLANET

Climate Change, Environmental Stewardship, Resource Efficiency

PERFORMANCE

Economic Value, Governance and Ethics, Communication

SOLUTIONS

Sustainable Supply Chain, Innovation and Quality, Sustainable Contruction

Delivering the strategy

We have set ambitious commitments for each of these priorities underpinned by twelve milestone targets and forty four more detailed performance targets, progress against which we communicate both clearly and transparently. Our Executive Committee is responsible for the setting and delivery of our sustainability strategy. We regularly measure, review and audit progress and work with our External Sustainability Panel which acts as a ‘critical friend’ to challenge and monitor our actions and decisions. Read our message from our External Sustainabililty Panel

We have set ambitious commitments for each of these priorities underpinned by twelve milestone targets and forty four more detailed performance targets, progress against which we communicate both clearly and transparently. Our Executive Committee is responsible for the setting and delivery of our sustainability strategy. We regularly measure, review and audit progress and work with our External Sustainability Panel which acts as a ‘critical friend’ to challenge and monitor our actions and decisions. Read our message from our External Sustainabililty Panel

Materiality analysis

Our key priorities have been identified through a materiality analysis aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative’s G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. This has helped us to identify and report on the most relevant sustainability issues for our business, our customers and our many stakeholders.

After gathering input from key decision-makers in the business, external experts, customers and other industry stakeholders, we mapped out each issue on a materiality matrix to highlight its significance. The key priorities identified by this process form the basis of our sustainability strategy.

We plan to carry out another materiality review in 2017 to identify any possible changes in priorities.