Our 2021/2022 Sustainability Report

From our initial design principals right the way through to our work in our communities, sustainability sits at the heart of the Northstone team and the homes we create.

This is guided by our commitment to the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), a set of targets to encourage sustainable development across the world. In our first year, we measured ourselves against the four most relevant of these SDGs:

• 1. Responsible Consumption and Production: building sustainability into our homes, from the resources we use to our business practices
• 2. Sustainable Cities and Communities: ensuring that our local communities and ecosystems can thrive and develop sustainably long into the future
• 3. Decent Work and Economic Growth: promoting inclusive and sustainable economic growth in a local area, aiming to provide work and opportunities throughout the community
• 4. Life on Land: protecting, restoring, and promoting the sustainable use of land-based ecosystems

In our first annual Sustainability Report, we reflect on the steps we’ve taken, to not just meet but exceed our environmental targets. Here’s what Berni Barley, our Senior Development Manager and all round Sustainability Champion, had to say about the work the team are doing to build sustainability into all we do.

What does sustainability mean to Northstone?

For us, sustainability is about more than energy efficiency. It’s about making sure we have a positive impact on the planet and the communities we’re a part of for future generations.

The effects of climate change are increasingly apparent. That’s why we’re committed to setting a higher standard in everything we do. From our supply chains and the homes we build, to how we work with our local communities, as well as challenging the wider homebuilding sector to do more - everything we do is to create a better planet.

What are some of the initiatives highlighted in the Sustainability Report that you’re particularly proud of?

Last year, we launched a Waste Capture Scheme at our Silkash community in Westhoughton. Through this, we measure every piece of waste produced while building a single house, so we can learn how to reduce waste for future builds.

Based on our initial findings, we’ve been able to measure the waste produced at Silkash and ensure 99% of it was diverted away from landfill, through our partnership with Kenny Waste Management.

We were also able to see that one of our main waste streams was timber, at nearly 24%. As such, we recently partnered with Tyldesley Distribution Service (TDS) to collect broken timber pallets, which are then repaired and recycled for sale to other TDS customers, prolonging the life of the timber and significantly reducing our annual timber waste across all sites.

We’re also making sure our entire team understands the impact of our waste capture efforts. We are creating additional signage, communicating our local partnerships, such as TDS, as well as providing educational tours for the team to understand where our waste is diverted to, to make sure our team can implement these initiatives with passion and purpose.

As part of our commitment to the Life on Land SDG, we develop bespoke Ecological Design Codes for each community, meaning that every neighbourhood has a unique plan for protecting the wildlife that lives there. This design code can include bat boxes, bird boxes, and hedgehog friendly fences, depending on the wildlife.

All of this was celebrated recently as our Silkash community won the ‘Sustainability Impact’ award at Cowgills’ North West Homebuilder Awards 2022. It’s testament to the hard work and creativity of the team to go above and beyond, and we were thrilled to be recognised among our peers.

How does the Sustainability Plan benefit Northstone residents?

Encouraging our residents to understand and appreciate the natural world around them is key. At Silkash, which is next to a local nature reserve, we considered how we could make this space more accessible and created new connections and access routes so our residents could easily reach the nature on their doorstep.

What is Northstone doing to help the wider community?

Beyond our homes, we promote inclusive and sustainable economic growth throughout our communities.

Over the past year, we have worked with St Peter’s Catholic High School in Wigan, Barrowford Primary School, The Sixth Form Bolton and St Bartholomew’s CE Primary School in Westhoughton. Through these partnerships, we have educated over 100 children from our local areas, on the different career options and key employability skills they might need in the future. By educating and upskilling the wider community, we’re focused on building a thriving local economy, that serves its residents now and for the long term.

Through our network of suppliers and contractors, we also run upskilling programmes and offer apprenticeship opportunities to address the skills shortage within the construction industry. Since our first community launched in 2020, we have supported four apprentices across Silkash and Keld, exceeding our five-year target of one new apprenticeship placement per year.

What have been your personal highlights in achieving sustainable goals?

We’re always working to create truly diverse communities. At our Silkash neighbourhood we’re already taking steps to achieve this. We are working on a house type called ‘Jacob’s Place’, an adaptation of our twelve77, with extra space on the ground floor to accommodate a bedroom and bathroom, specifically designed for families with dependent relatives. We are hoping to roll out this project across all of our communities.

Jacob’s Place is the first in a number of diverse house types to help us become a truly inclusive developer. Two more homes are due to launch in the next 12 months and further designs are already in the pipeline.

So, where to next?

Our Sustainability Report highlights that we are well on track to achieve all nine of our one-year targets by the end of June 2022, and we’re already well on the way towards our ambitious five-year targets.

But we know that being truly sustainable is not an overnight job. This is the beginning of our journey to reach Net Zero and we’ll be pushing ourselves further each year to implement more meaningful targets, which enhance the communities we’re a part of and continue to go above and beyond to create real change.