5 June 2023

TELFORD HOMES PLACES NEW FOCUS ON WHOLE LIFE CARBON IN PATH TO NET ZERO AS IT LAUNCHES ITS ANNUAL SUSTAINABILITY REPORT

Telford Homes, one of London’s leading residential and mixed-use developers, has launched its annual sustainability report. The developer is taking the opportunity to call for the sector to revitalise its efforts to better address whole life carbon in developments and operations.

In 2021, Telford Homes became one of the first developers to set out a clear roadmap to becoming a zero carbon developer by 2030, and in 2022 were ranked as the UK’s most sustainable homebuilder by NextGeneration for the third consecutive year.

The residential and mixed-use developer has confirmed in its latest sustainability report that it is on track to achieve some of its major targets including their 2023 requirement that new schemes have a 10% reduction in embodied carbon (754.2kgCO2e/m2) against its 2019 baseline, which in turn is in line with its ultimate target to be below 500kgCO2e/m2 by 2030 (minimum of 40% reduction).

Anne Kavanagh, CEO at Telford Homes, said: “A commitment to sustainability is essential for a well-functioning and healthy society. Given smart capital will increasingly focus on only sustainable assets, it is a business imperative too. We’re taking steps to address embodied carbon in our developments and believe that to truly make progress we need to move together with the industry to tackle challenges through accurately monitoring and forecasting data through whole life carbon assessments. We continue to collaborate with peers through the Future Homes Hub and support Part Z of the Future Homes Standard. We are eager and willing to work with our counterparts in developers and housebuilders across the UK, and urge everyone to share best practices so we can have an honest conversation about developments’ whole life carbon impact.”

Currently, there are no regulations within the sector to manage embodied carbon, with the focus solely on operational carbon. To tackle the challenge of reducing embodied carbon the developer carries out whole life carbon assessments on all of its new schemes; they also request that their supply chain provide Environmental Product Declarations to ensure they are selecting products with a lower carbon intensity. Telford Homes were also one of the first developers in 2021 to procure a license for an automated lifecycle assessment software that enables businesses to calculate and reduce the whole life carbon impact on their schemes.

This year’s sustainability report from Telford Homes covers the period between 01 January 2022 and 31 December 2022 and sets out where Telford Homes is on its pathway to net zero carbon emissions by 2030. Highlights from the report include:

  • The developer is achieving a 41% reduction in site CO2e intensity (compared to 23.6% in 2021)
  • 99% of waste is being diverted from landfill (99% in 2021)
  • 100% of new build schemes benefit from low-carbon or renewable technologies (100% in 2021)
  • Pivoting away from gas led infrastructure to the electrification of schemes
  • 10% reduction of embodied carbon against the 2019 baseline.

The report demonstrates where Telford Homes is on its journey to net zero, with upcoming milestones including its ambition to send zero waste to landfill from 2024, implementing the Future Homes Standard in 2025 alongside achieving a science-based carbon target the same year, before reaching net zero by 2030.

John O’Dwyer, Head of Sustainability at Telford Homes, said: “Our annual sustainability report sets out what we as a developer need to celebrate when it comes to our net zero journey, as well as what areas we still need to focus on. We’re making tangible progress in our journey to net zero and will continue working with investors, partners, customers, colleagues and those across the industry to create more sustainable communities.”

Telford Homes’ sustainability report covering 2022 can be read online here: https://www.telfordhomes-ir.london/SustainabilityReport2023/#page=1

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