We are committed to enhancing the environmental performance of our business, reducing energy, water and waste in our homes, on our sites and in our offices. Our goal is to minimise the impacts on the environment from our activities, ensuring we run our business in the most sustainable way possible.
The building and construction industry currently accounts for 39% of global carbon emissions – changes we make will have a pivotal impact and could represent the tipping point between success or failure. Story Homes conducts an annual CO2 footprint report, with clear targets for reducing carbon emissions and energy usage across the business.
Over 95% of waste materials from our sites are recycled and diverted from landfill, with each site having colour-codes skips for different recyclable materials – including plasterboard, wood and lightweight materials. We continuously try to improve our recycling processes and we have developed a waste management guide which has been rolled out across all sites to ensure our staff and subcontractors understand our sustainability aims.
A Section 106 is a legal agreement between a developer and a local authority, and we include these agreements within our planning applications to mitigate the impact of our developments on local infrastructure. The S106 payments represent significant investment in local infrastructure as proven necessary to help make our developments sustainable. The homes that we build are part of wider communities, so helping to improve facilities within the local area is very important to us.
We work with The Rebuild Site who take surplus materials from our construction sites in Cumbria and put them to good use. The organisation reclaims ‘nearly new’ materials that are currently being recycled, and reuses them as much as possible, creating value in what is often treated as waste. The surplus materials go to community groups and charities to help with their building, gardening, crafting and repair projects and surplus materials are sold to trades and members of the public at reduced prices.
