We go for the gold for the fourth year in a row in NextGeneration industry benchmark

2^nd January 2020

We have been awarded a gold level status in this year’s NextGeneration Benchmark, retaining third place for the fourth year in a row.

The NextGeneration Benchmark assesses and ranks the sustainability performance of the UK’s 25 largest housebuilders. This year’s results were announced at the launch on 3rd December at an event which brought together developers and investors from across the sector. Despite new, tougher criteria and weightings introduced this year, we achieved a sustainability score of 76%, which is significantly above the industry average that sits at 32%.

This success follows us receiving the 2019 NextGeneration Innovation Award in June, which is awarded to a homebuilder that has demonstrated initiatives that go far beyond the criteria used for the benchmark. We were recognised for our commitment to supporting healthy communities by developing a unique social value calculator.

Limiting the environmental impact of our developments by building responsibly and creating thriving and desirable places to live are key parts of our strategy, and through the use of our design principles, we ensure social, environmental and economic aspects are incorporated into the communities we deliver. From guaranteeing that 99.9% of our timber was responsibly secured to ensuring 97.7% of our waste was diverted from landfill in 2019, we have continued to fulfil our company ethos of building responsibly.

We have also teamed up with The Wildlife Trusts to develop a robust group-wide wildlife strategy for all of our sites, and we are also partners with the Bumblebee Conservation Trust, which has seen us introduce of a variety of pollinator-friendly measures, resulting in the implementation of hedgehog highway networks, bat bricks and bird boxes to encourage local wildlife.

Nicola Johansen,our group sustainability manager, commented: “We are thrilled to have maintained our gold status in the NextGeneration 2019 Benchmark for the fourth year in a row. At Redrow, our ethos is based on creating thriving communities by building responsibly and valuing people, and we do so by utilising our placemaking design principles which ensure social, environmental and economic aspects are incorporated into all our developments.

“For us, it’s important that a sense of sustainable community, culture and wellbeing grows from a very early point, and endures all the way through the build phases and beyond, and the NextGeneration benchmark is a vital tool that helps us make sure we are continuously improving in the right areas.”

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/.