Governance and Management
Governance of sustainability
Berkeley has a strong governance structure in place to manage the future direction of our Vision2020 strategy and its implementation within our business. We believe that leadership in sustainability must be driven not only by the highest levels of management but embedded in the day to day work of our staff and site operatives. Berkeley's governance structures for sustainability issues are set out below:
The Main plc Board
Ultimate responsibility for all matters relating to sustainability rests with the main board of The Berkeley Group Holdings plc. Updates are provided to the Board about the implementation of our strategy at every meeting, and there are opportunities for discussion and debate.
Sustainability/Health & Safety Committee
Our Board level Sustainability/Health & Safety Committee was set up in 2010 and is chaired by our non-executive director, John Armitt. This committee meets twice a year to agree the direction of Berkeley's sustainability/Health & Safety strategy (Vision2020). The committee ensures that the chosen direction for the sustainability and Health & Safety strategy is aligned with Berkeley's business objectives. It also agrees the measures used to assess Berkeley's overall performance.
Berkeley Group Sustainability and Health & Safety Working Groups
The Berkeley Group Sustainability and Health & Safety Working Groups are chaired by our Director in Charge of Sustainability, Karl Whiteman. The Sustainability Working Group meets three times a year and its primary role is to agree the detail of Berkeley's sustainability strategy. In doing so, the working group ensures that Berkeley's policies, Vision2020 commitments, ambitions and performance indicators are appropriate. The working group is also responsible for overseeing and ensuring implementation of the agreed strategies, including reviewing progress against Vision2020, performance against indicators and compliance with policies. The working group's membership consists of directors and senior managers from each of our operating divisions. The Health & Safety Working Group functions in the same manner.
Divisional Sustainability Working Groups
Each of our operating companies has nominated sustainability representatives who sit on Divisional Sustainability Working Groups. These working groups enable the Group's sustainability strategy to be disseminated and implemented within the divisions. They review and agree implementation strategies, monitor each division's sustainability performance and share best practice.
Sustainability Team
Our sustainability governance structure is supported by a small central sustainability team who assist in the delivery of our strategy across the Group. However, we believe that the key to running a sustainable business is to devolve responsibility and to that end, our ethos is that every one of our employees has responsibility for integrating sustainability into their own roles and working practices.
Sustainability Champions
On a day to day basis, all our offices have sustainability champions in place to coordinate and promote activities and answer any questions staff may have. The champions play a key role in ensuring employees understand any initiatives that are in place and how to efficiently use facilities provided in offices.
Project Meetings
At a project level, teams will meet to discuss sustainability issues at various points within the developments process. All projects are required to fill in Project Sustainability Capture Forms, which enable the Group to understand how sustainability issues are being managed at a project level.
Information about Corporate Governance in general can be found here.
Management systems and procedures
Berkeley operates a devolved management structure. Each division is encouraged to develop its own implementation programme that builds upon its existing management systems and reflects its own organisational culture.
All of the Divisions have reviewed their management systems against the ISO14001 standard, and all are working to ensure consistency with this standard. Furthermore all divisions refer to a health and safety management system which is aligned with OHSAS 18001.
Berkeley's Divisions have processes to manage sustainability at various stages of the construction and development process. At operating company and divisional level, Board meeting agendas are structured around the key risks facing the Group at each stage in the business cycle. These include sales/demand risk, production risk, land and planning risk as well as site specific operational risks. At all of these stages, we have a variety of systems in place to address the associated sustainability risks, these include:
- Strategic Risk Registers for each project that include sustainability risks, and where possible quantify the financial implications of these
- Management systems, which have processes to manage sustainability risks during the acquisition, design, construction, and sales processes. For example, a Land Acquisition Sustainability Risk Assessment Checklist is completed prior to land purchase
Some of these processes are audited externally, for example all construction sites participate in the Considerate Constructors Scheme.
