The NextGeneration Launch Event took place on December 7th to announce this year’s benchmark results. The event was hosted both in person at JLL’s Central London office and streamed online. JLL’s EMEA Head of Sustainability Consultancy, Paul Stepan hosted the event, guiding discussions on this year’s theme, which emphasises that despite economic headwinds, sustainability remains a priority within the homebuilding industry.
Professor Richard Fitton delivered an insightful keynote speech focusing on his predictions for the future of sustainable homebuilding and his work as director for Barratt’s test house project at Energy House 2.0. This ground-breaking project is a collaboration between Barratt Developments, Saint-Gobain, and the University of Salford, aimed at delivering a blueprint for building connected homes of the future, that achieve a 100% reduction in carbon using solar PV and air source heat pumps (ASHPs).The test house was built inside the world leading Energy House 2.0 facility at the University of Salford, where the climate-controlled chamber can simulate extreme weather conditions to replicate the climate in 95% of the earth’s environments. Following the keynote speech, the highly anticipated 2023 Benchmark results were announced, and awards were presented to this year’s top-performing homebuilders.
The event concluded with a panel discussion featuring esteemed industry leaders. In addition to Professor Richard Fitton, the panel included Claire Racine, EMEA Head of ESG Strategy at JLL; Ayo Allu, Director of Design, Technical, and Innovation at Clarion Housing; Caroline Booth, Sustainability Coordinator at Barratt Developments; and Martin Kelly, Director for Construction Management and Remediation at Telford Homes. The panel engaged in insightful conversations centered around the recent sustainability progress made by the homebuilders, as well as the forthcoming challenges that are expected to accompany progress into the future.
NextGeneration 2023 Sustainability Benchmark Results
Telford Homes is the top-ranked homebuilder of the NextGeneration Benchmark for the fourth year in a row, demonstrating its unwavering commitment to improving the sustainability of its homes and operations. Barratt Developments displayed another year of strong performance, retaining its second-place position through publicly available information alone which garnered the company the NextGeneration Crystal Award for highest phase 1 score. Meanwhile, Taylor Wimpey and Latimer came joint third with a score of 71, with increases of 12 and 11 points respectively. Rounding out the top five are Hill and London Square, who are both privately owned and are joint 5th place, with a score of 69, making them the two highest scoring privately owned homebuilders in the UK. The Benchmark was excited to welcome two new members this year – Vistry Group and Strata Homes – demonstrating an expanding commitment to sustainability reporting within the sector.
John O’Dwyer, Head of Sustainability at Telford Homes said: “With the tragedy of global conflict and the resulting socioeconomic and inflationary pressures that we are all still adjusting to, it is important that the sector maintains focus on decarbonising built assets in line with climate science. At Telford Homes, we are committed to accomplishing our 2030 net zero roadmap ambitions and continue to refine our Building a Living Legacy sustainability strategy to address evolving policy and societal challenges. We see the NextGeneration Sustainability Benchmark as a key component in driving industry standards and are delighted that our efforts continue to be recognised.”
The launch event also marked the release of the 2023 NextGeneration report, now available to download from the Reports section of the NextGeneration website. In line with the event, the focus of this year’s report is centred around homebuilders improving their sustainability performance despite economic headwinds. The report includes the Benchmarking results for the year, Benchmark highlights and spotlight sections on Energy and Carbon, Procurement and Community and Customer Engagement.
If you have any further questions about NextGeneration, or would like more information on Membership, please reach out to Daniel.Jones@jll.com.