Hill Commits to COP26 With Ambitious ESG Strategy
To showcase our renewed commitment to support the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow this 31st Oct-12th Nov, the Hill Group has recently launched our ESG strategy, which focuses on three critical areas of Carbon, Biodiversity and Social Value which altogether will support our mission to reach net zero-carbon by 2030.
Carbon reduction is one of the foremost objectives discussed at the COP26 conference this week. Hill has already pledged to reach net-zero carbon in our Scope1 and 2 business operations by 2030 and net-zero operational carbon in the homes we build by 2030, 20 years ahead of the UK’s existing commitment. Net-zero will be achieved throughout the construction process and through the post-construction stage, where the new homes will be powered by an increasingly decarbonized electricity grid and on-site renewable energy sources.
Additionally, Hill will be seeking third-party assurance of our 2021 carbon footprint and 2021 sustainability data. We will then publish the company’s first stand-alone annual ESG Report in Spring 2022. This rigorous approach will enable us to identify where we have the most significant impacts and bring forward proposals to reduce our emissions to achieve an annual reduction target.
Hill is already modelling a range of house types and apartment layouts to interrogate CO2 reduction performance standards required for delivering future homes. We will phase out fossil fuels, whilst electricity will become the primary low-carbon energy source powering air source heat pumps at our future developments.
Biodiversity is another crucial area where Hill has set as a target to support the climate change agenda. The Group is committed to taking care of natural resources while reducing environmental impacts through targeting Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) across their portfolio of land to ensure that they leave a positive environmental legacy.
There is work to be done within the housebuilding industry to ensure we build to ‘Future Homes Standards’ whilst achieving net-zero carbon businesses by 2025. At Hill, we will continue to strive to ensure we minimise our impact on climate change with our future-proof ESG strategy, ongoing research, and our experience of creating sustainable, Passivhaus and low-carbon schemes, against a background of the continued decarbonisation of the electricity grid.
