Beyond ESG
2021 marked 20 years since Reef Group was established. Over the last 20 years our team have delivered a £4billion UK regeneration portfolio across multiple sectors with sustainable values embedded at the core of every project. Throughout this work a consistent dedication to improving communities, collaborating with local stakeholders, and delivering spaces that promote wellbeing, health, and innovation, has seen Reef Group’s collaborative approach deliver meaningful economic and social value across all the communities in which we work.
Through this approach all our schemes are crafted to enhance communities and environments bringing quality to people’s lives, now and in the future, which in turn enhances asset value. Always agile, our team is a unique mix of commercial experts and in-house design studio UrbanR who are uniquely placed to drive best in class outcomes across all aspects of sustainability.
As a team Reef are passionate about people, looking after each other and creating a diverse and inclusive environment where all can flourish and achieve. Our responsible business practices ensure the health and wellbeing of all employees is of paramount importance allowing us to achieve more together as a healthy and happy team.
Reef have worked hard to push our established practices further to ensure we are achieving success across all aspects of our work exceeding our environmental, social and governance commitments. Over the last year we are particularly proud of:
1.
Operating as a Carbon
Negative team
Through focusing on reducing emissions throughout our daily activities and offsetting all emissions where generation is unavoidable.
2.
Developing the Reef ESG Project Policy Matrix
Which creates a clear record of all project decisions against key sustainability criteria setting minimum accreditation targets across all projects including targeting minimum BREEAM Excellent and establishing a pathway to eliminating all Zero Fossil Fuel use across all projects by 2035. Each Project Matrix must be presented to the Reef board quarterly to ensure targets are met.
3.
Investing in Research
& Development
To ensure our practices are always the most sustainable possible. This year Reef have pushed the boundaries of design and innovation in the pursuit of lower carbon solutions within the construction industry. UrbanR’s sustainable design steering group meet monthly to share ideas and drive best practice to ensure our projects are as efficient and low-carbon as possible.
4.
Social Policy
Achievements
Across several of our projects, but most notably in Gloucester where we have contractually obliged the contractor to create a physical and virtual learning hub on site. This will ensure that the job opportunities created are truly accessible to all the residents of the city. The learning hub is intended to remain in place beyond the duration of the construction project, working with occupiers of the new offices acting as a broker between businesses seeking new talent and local learning providers.
The committee will ensure that we hold ourselves accountable for achieving far beyond our current environmental, social and governance commitments, driving best practice across all projects through investment in people, technology, innovation, and knowledge sharing. Our committee’s key targets for 2022 are:
1.
Ensuring the team continues to operate in a Carbon Negative capacity whilst reducing the requirements for offsets.
2.
Continue to be a leader in the development and construction of energy efficient, low carbon buildings through reducing, calculating, and setting every project’s environmental impact with a target of Net Carbon Zero Carbon impact across all projects by 2030.
3.
Ensuring we continue to engage positively with the communities we work within, driving positive outcomes for all stakeholders and measuring our impact by ensuring a Social Economic appraisal is carried out across every project to drive best value for the communities in which we work.
4.
Ensuring all projects have a clear pathway to Zero Carbon operation including development of Green Leases & Reef Pathway to Net Carbon Zero operation handbook to be handed to all tenants prior to occupation.
5.
Ensure a Post Occupancy Evaluation is carried out for every project to ensure active performance modelling across all projects.
6.
Driving excellence in design for wellbeing including incorporating additional amenities in all buildings and monitoring indoor air quality to promote healthier environments for all our buildings users.
7.
Continuing to pioneer the reduction of waste in construction through innovation and promoting the responsible use of resources across all projects.
Reef are committed to being leaders in the design, development and operation of energy–efficient, low carbon footprint buildings of the future that engage with and improve the community in which they are located. Over the next 12 months the team will continue to commit to excellence in all aspects of design, construction and delivery to ensure we meet and exceed our key targets for the year ahead.