Environment

We are committed to becoming an environmentally sustainable and socially responsible organisation that creates world leading clinical Healthcare Spaces with minimal impact on the environment.

Our aims

1. Our business practices are ever evolving; our environmental road map commits us to being carbon neutral for 1 and 2 emissions by the end of 2023 and becoming carbon net zero by 2035.

2. We constantly strive to offer products and services that help our clients achieve their own environment targets. Our Healthcare Spaces will be carbon neutral on a day-to-day running basis by 2025.

• Having a clear, long term strategic plan with science based targets to ensure we achieve our long-term aims and deliver our annual tactical activity
• Yearly publication of a carbon reduction plan
• Annual measurement of our carbon footprint
• Deliver a net zero building modular portfolio by 2024  
• Ensuring we have a sustainable supply chain, using materials and designs capable of extending the lifespan of our buildings
• Maximising the level of re-use/repurposing or recycling for future projects
• Increasing the use of renewable energy sources across our premises until we are wholly powered by renewables in 2025
• Transitioning to an electric-powered fleet by 2025, phasing out fossil fuel vehicles
• Reducing supply chain emissions by 80%
• Ongoing investment in carbon removal projects that sequester carbon from the atmosphere to remove 500t of CO2 per annum
• Ensuring our supply chain has practices in place to reduce their environmental impact, including choice of materials 
• No waste delivered to landfill

View our journey to Carbon Net Zero roadmap

• Healthcare Spaces manufactured within our own factory-controlled environments
• 80% factory completion levels minimise on-site activities
• Introduction of a carbon neutral modular buildings into our portfolio of services 
• All buildings to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ levels as standard
• Delivery of energy efficient buildings that do not compromise safety, practical or functional requirements 
• Use of modern technologies to capture and utilise renewable energy sources to control operating environments
• Steel framed, concrete sub-floor sub-structure modules manufactured in a carbon neutral factory

Through their adaptable and sustainable design modular and mobile healthcare facilities play a vital role in advancing the circular economy while offering environmental and sustainable benefits. The use of modular components allows for easy disassembly, relocation, and reconfiguration, enabling healthcare services to be efficiently delivered where needed. 

This flexibility not only reduces construction and operational costs but also decreases the environmental footprint associated with traditional fixed healthcare structures. Moreover, modular facilities promote the repurposing and recycling of materials, contributing to the circular economy by extending their lifespan and reducing the demand for new resources. 

We use our corporate reach to benefit the environment, communities and provide safe, high quality Healthcare Spaces. 

Our focus is on:

• Achieving ISO14001 and 45001 standards
• Working with wildlife conservation trusts to improve the quality of UK rivers and canals 
• Offering employees paid volunteering work with the Ark Business Conservation team
• Improving life chances for young people with access to work within healthcare and healthcare engineering. Targeted apprenticeships and mentorships make up 10% of our workforce
• Training 10% of our workforce to become Mental Health First Aiders
• Supporting first nation causes in Australia via paid volunteering opportunities
• Improving workplace environments
• Supporting healthcare organisations and private healthcare sector to help patients return to work or their caring responsibilities
• Creating a sense of shared responsibility and accountability across our business through training and development, communication routes and systems
• Securing B Corp Accreditation by 2025 to reflect our commitment to meet high standards of social and environmental performance, transparency, and accountability. 

View our corporate social responsibility journey roadmap

We ensure our contractors satisfy the highest operating standards of health and safety, as well as complying with the relevant statutory and regularity requirements such as the Equality Act, and Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking Act. 

We are committed to fair payment practices as outlined in the guidance from the former Office of Government Commerce and the principles of the Construction 2025: 

• Transparency in payment procedures 
• Confirmation of payments against milestones 
• Any amounts that are held on retention with time-period and reason. 

We are an accredited member of the Considerate Contractors Scheme and operate through a supply chain of valued partners. 

Our rigorous governance policies support safety and compliance. The safety of patients, our clients and our staff are at the centre of everything we do. Our governance system has been designed to be robust and deliver continuous improvement.

Our active integrated governance policy is designed to support the delivery of a safe and compliant service. We audit this policy and monitor its outcomes at every level of our organisation. On the rare occasions when things didn’t go to plan, we put them right and utilise the learnings to improve our future services.

A stringent quality process is in place to identify and address any clinical issues and address all risks. This includes both internal and external audit processes to monitor and check the services provided.