sustainability

Championing sustainability in local communities

From collaborations with local businesses to sessions with students from local schools, we're engaging the communities around our developments to support sustainability initiatives in the areas we build.

Creating a buzz around bees

We’ve introduced beehives across many of our developments to help reverse the declining trend in the UK’s bee population. We’ve worked with residents and community groups to educate them about bees and their importance to the environment. We’ve even asked them to name the hives for us!

Getting creative with birdbox painting

We’ve installed over 1,900 bird boxes on our new developments since 2021. To help engage the younger generation on how we can help enhance habitats for local wildlife, we’ve launched creative birdbox decorating competitions with school children around the UK. We’ve seen some fantastic designs!

Helping hedgehogs

As part of our partnership with Hedgehog Street, we have committed to incorporating hedgehog highways on our developments. These small holes in the bottom of garden fences help hedgehogs pass through on their way to find shelter, food, and mates - and we’ve installed these at 279 of our developments since 2021. Posters designed by local community groups and schools are on display at some sites, helping to raise further awareness of how we can all help to protect these mammals.

School events with Buglife

We also want to help improve the habitat for pollinating insects, and our partnership with national insect charity Buglife is one of the ways we are doing just that. Part of our work with Buglife is to visit local schools to talk to pupils about the importance of their work and to encourage them to make their own gardens more pollinator friendly.

Reducing waste with Community Wood Recycling

Minimising waste is a priority for us and that’s why initiatives like our collaboration with Community Wood Recycling are so important. We teamed up with them to create a bird box and bug hotel from surplus timber from some of our developments in the South Midlands. The bird box and bug hotel now take pride of place at our Barnfield Place development.

Partnering with Reconomy

Our work with circular economy specialists, Reconomy, combines sustainable construction with education. Our most recent collaboration with them involved students from Shrewsbury based Severndale Specialist Academy who turned recycled pallets into bird boxes. Not only did the students learn valuable practical skills, but they also visited our Lily Hay development to see the bird boxes installed.