Barratt Developments PLC Strengthens Performance Across Key Sustainability Priorities

For three years in a row, Action Sustainability has supported Barratt in calculating the carbon impact from its supply chain. To do this we:

• Undertook a bottom-up assessment and calculation of the emissions from the activities of their top suppliers and subcontractors, using the GHG Protocol Scope 3 Standard.
• Collected activity data, assessed it and calculated the impacts, providing support to the supply chain where needed;
• Reviewed and summarised supplier’s activities and forward plans to reduce their own GHG emissions.

This project identified the sources that contributed substantially to Barratt’s supply chain emissions and highlighted courses of action to improve the accuracy of data and the engagement process with suppliers and subcontractors, all of which supports their science-based target and commitment to more quantity-based reporting.

Action Sustainability supported Barratt to review and improve its approach to addressing modern slavery through four discrete tasks:

• An evaluation of current activity on modern slavery, including public statements, resulting in key recommendations of additional best practice that Barratt could adopt to further mitigate risk ;
• An evaluation of material spend in relation to the risk of modern slavery and exploitation, with subsequent advice to procurement teams on actions to address these risks in the procurement process;
• A review of current human rights policy in industry alongside horizon scanning information relating to the development and implementation of human rights due diligence activity;
• Development of an e-learning module on modern slavery and human rights for internal use.

Hydrotreated Vegetable Oil (HVO) is seen by many as a useful transition fuel as we move away from diesel fossil fuels. Barratt engaged with Action Sustainability to assess the sustainability credentials and potential risks of HVO.

We undertook desktop research using publicly available information, as well as interviews with key subject matter experts, to assess the carbon and air quality benefits of HVO compared with standard diesel. The research took into account ethical labour standards and knock-on effects in the supply chain and the resulting report concluding that risk could be mitigated if:

• HVO is manufactured from reused waste oils (UCO) rather than virgin biofuel stocks;
• that it doesn’t contain palm oil to avoid the risk of burden-shifting and land-use change impacts; and
• it has supply chain certification for source of the materials.

This work was more widely shared as a whitepaper on HVO available to the wider sector through the Supply Chain Sustainability School and was a precursor to a subsequent study that has recently been published.

Using publicly available information, Action Sustainability undertook a desk-based research exercise to understand and compare, at country and regional level, approaches to net zero carbon and decarbonisation.

The selection included Sweden, United Kingdom, Denmark, Germany, California, France, China and Australia. The exercise has enabled Barratt to understand the mechanisms for both a leading and lagging response to the climate crisis to inform their value chain actions to managing emissions.

Action Sustainability has undertaken data gathering and assessments for Barratt on a number of related waste and resource efficiency topics, including:

• Investigating the consumption of single-use plastics used across the business; their amount, location and strategies to eliminate them;
• Gathering and analysing waste data and volumes on construction sites and developing evidence-based strategies to reduce hotspots such as lightweight compatible waste;
• Collating waste and carbon statistics from other Housing Developers and Tier 1 Contractors in order to compare performance on carbon and waste and to develop a framework to monitor this performance on an ongoing basis.

These pieces of work, when taken together, show that Barratt  takes a holistic approach to sustainability, supported by Action Sustainability to undertake comprehensive research to reach robust conclusions.