Our Material Issues
Sustainability requires the management of the complex interplay of economic, social and environmental issues associated with our core business activity. We seek a balance between these components of sustainability, in the belief that our business objectives and our sustainability strategy should be closely aligned and complement each other.
During 2010/11, we took the opportunity to update our materiality review in order to identify the significant environmental, economic and social impacts of our business and to ensure that we continue to prioritise the management and reporting of these impacts. Our previous materiality review was conducted in 2008 but, given the pace at which the sustainability agenda is moving, we decided that it would be appropriate to update this work for 2010/11. The 2010/11 materiality review has been used to inform the content of our sustainability report and website, as well as the annual review of our Vision2020 strategy.
The updated materiality review was completed by undertaking materiality tests in line with Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines:
- Risks and Opportunities: reviewed the likely impact of key sustainability risks and opportunities on the business by undertaking an assessment of the likelihood and financial impacts of each risk and opportunity. These were then scored to determine their significance to the business. For more information on the key opportunities and risks facing the business, click here.
- Policy: determined the extent to which The Berkeley Group policies are being managed through Vision2020 and reported on using financial and non-financial indicators.
- Peer Review: identified those issues which peers in the housebuilding and construction sector are expected to manage and report on. The NextGeneration benchmark criteria and the GRI Construction and Real Estate Sector Supplements were assessed to determine which issues were significant and how they were managed through Vision2020.
- Stakeholder Concerns: conducted a survey to establish the issues which our stakeholders deemed material and whether Berkeley was adequately addressing and reporting on these issues. The survey was sent to employees, contractors, suppliers, residential social landlords, industry bodies, local authorities and Government bodies. A full range of our stakeholders can be found here.
- Regulatory Review: assessed which current and future regulatory and non-regulatory issues are material to the business. This test was completed by reviewing the issues which were discussed at the Sustainability Working Groups to determine current and future risks and how well Berkeley are managing these.
Each test highlighted a number of material issues. These were categorised and their significance was ranked according to the frequency with which they occurred during the tests. Each issue was then aligned with one or more Vision2020 action area.
The results of the materiality review demonstrate the significance of each material issue to Berkeley and which Vision2020 action area they fall into.The results, in particular the feedback from the stakeholder survey, have also influenced a number of updates to our Vision2020 commitments and ambitions that we have made this year.
Key conclusions from the materiality review
- Environmental performance standards, waste and energy were the three issues that occurred the most frequently during the five materiality tests.
- Vision2020 already embeds the majority of its key materiality issues and the strategy has been aligned with the outcomes of the materiality review, for example, by increasing the commitments to post-occupancy monitoring.
- Sustainability indicators and financial indicators should be reported alongside each other.
- There are a number of additional pieces of data that need to be measured in order to be able to report against the GRI Construction and Real Estate Sector Supplement in 2012.
