We are committed to improving the environments that we live and work in, whether natural or built.
Our Investors in the Environment award demonstrates our continuing pledge to a greener way of working but we are also focussed on ensuring our developments are sustainable and consider their impact on the local environment.
Over the past 2 years we have been working closely with local Councils to deliver energy efficiencies under the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme (PSDS). More than £30m of funded projects have been completed or in progress, delivered in partnership with Leisure Energy and the UK Leisure Framework. You can read more about these schemes here.
More recently our attention has turned to biodiversity and the requirement that under the Environment Act 2021 all planning permissions granted in England, with a few exemptions, will have to deliver 10% biodiversity net gain (BNG) from November 2023. The Planning Advisory Service from the LGA has produced a number of useful resources for local authorities moving towards this target – access them here.
So, what is BNG? Biodiversity net gain is an approach to development, and/or land management, that aims to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than it was beforehand. Biodiversity net gain delivers measurable improvements for biodiversity by creating or enhancing habitats in association with development. Biodiversity net gain can be achieved on-site, off-site or through a combination of on-site and off-site measures.
A number of our projects are already committed to biodiversity net gain and we’ll be sharing more on those projects as they progress.