We were asked to help Barratt Developments forge a closer alignment between its strategic and sustainability priorities – essential in a challenging sector that has an estimated annual UK housing shortage of 250,000 homes, an ongoing skills shortage, and a drive towards zero-carbon dwellings.
We began by benchmarking Barratt against other businesses inside and outside its sector to build the evidence case, and by conducting a ‘materiality review’. This identified the 12 principal issues that shaped Barratt’s sustainability footprint and which mattered most to its stakeholders.
These drivers – underpinned with a powerful sustainability narrative – provide the ongoing structural backbone for Barratt’s Sustainability Reports, which we also designed and produced.
Our work has helped Barratt Developments embrace a more strategic approach to sustainability and bring to life its own story, in a way that engages all of its stakeholders by focusing on the values and priorities that truly matter and which drive action. The programme helped Barratt achieve a 5% boost in the FTSE4GOOD index, and win a Gold Award for sustainability performance from NextGeneration.