Sustainability and social value is at the heart of our business. Since 1852 we have been passionate about leaving the right sort of social, environmental and economic legacy.

In September 2020, we launched our new sustainability strategy, ‘Now or Never’, with a series of ambitious targets to achieve by 2030. The strategy and ambitions are themed to deliver Brilliant Buildings, to Build Lives and enable a Better Planet.

Brilliant Buildings

We are already at the forefront of delivering many highly sustainable buildings. Our approach has seen us create buildings that are well designed, of high quality, excellent value and built upon great customer relationships. The Brilliant Buildings theme builds upon our existing work and takes our approach to the next level through four ambitions:

• By the end of 2030 all our new buildings and major refurbishments will achieve net zero operational carbon.
• They will be future-climate ready and optimise the health and wellbeing of the people living and working in them.
• By the end of 2040 all our buildings and major refurbishments will be delivered with net zero embodied carbon.
• By the end of 2040 our supply chain will achieve net zero operational carbon.

Building Lives

Our overall aim is simply to support the people and businesses in our communities to thrive. Now or Never commits us to the following social value ambitions by 2030:

• We will deliver high-impact social value which we can demonstrate meets the needs of the local communities.
• How we do business will set the standard for social value in our sector – we will support other businesses to prosper while challenging ourselves to make social value a consideration in every decision we make.
• We will support people who face significant barriers to be in, or on the path to, good careers. 100 of these will be new careers within Willmott Dixon.
• To ensure our social value output touches the lives of as many people as possible, in October 2020 we are launching our digital work experience programme. It is the first of five National Building Lives Programmes that will enable to us to deliver our social value in a fully digital or traditional way. Find out more here.

Better Planet

Our overall aim for the Better Planet theme is for our projects to leave the environment in a better state than when we found it.

We will achieve this through the following key 2030 ambitions and targets:

• We will be a zero-carbon company without any offsetting.
• We will have no direct emissions from our day-to-day operations by eliminating fossil fuel use in our offices and on our sites, moving to a 100% electric fleet and continuing to only procure certified natural renewable energy.
• We will generate zero avoidable waste.
• We will halve the volume of water we use during construction.
• We will deliver environmental net gain on our projects.
• We will have planted 100,000 trees, supporting our customers and their local communities to tackle climate change and create green spaces for people and nature.