Berkeley Group has been awarded a place on CDP's prestigious Climate Change 'A List', which recognises global companies "leading the way to a more sustainable future".
The ‘A’ leadership rating for climate transparency and performance is the highest score possible and held by just a small number of companies around the world.
Berkeley is the only UK homebuilder to receive the ‘A’ leadership rating; the highest score possible. This year just 1.5% of global companies were awarded ‘A’, out of just over 23,000 respondents.
Rob Perrins, Chief Executive, Berkeley Group said: "We are committed to tackling climate change and creating low carbon neighbourhoods in the heart of our towns and cities. We believe that urban regeneration has a vital role to play in reaching net zero and creating a sustainable and productive economy. We’re delighted that our climate action programme has achieved this level of recognition.”
Sherry Madera, CEO of CDP, said: "Earning a place on the A List is about more than the score. It’s an indication of high quality, complete data that equips companies with a holistic view of their environmental impact, serves as a baseline for transition plans and – crucially – enables them to follow through on their ambitions."
Berkeley is taking an active role in tackling the global climate emergency. In 2023 the company achieved its 1.5 degree aligned science-based target (SBT) for direct business activities (scopes 1 and 2), having reduced emissions by 76% since 2019. This decrease was driven by replacing 95% of directly purchased diesel fuel with low carbon biodiesel.
Reduction targets are also in place for embodied carbon within the supply chain and in-use emissions created by Berkeley’s homes. These targets align with the global movement to limit global warming and have been validated by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi).
Key features of Berkeley’s climate action programme include:
- Over 20 lifecycle assessments have been completed on new developments with quantitative embodied carbon targets for projects.
- Requirement for all new homes (excluding refurbishments) to meet a minimum Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of B.
- Pioneering Green Finance Framework linked to the performance of our homes.
- Energy efficiency standards for site set up and operation and investment in measures to deliver reductions.
- 100% renewable electricity purchased for sites, offices and UK sales suites since May 2017.
- Voluntary offsetting emissions from sites, offices, sales suites and business travel on an annual basis since May 2017, making our day-to-day business activities 'carbon neutral'.
Read more about how Berkeley is taking action on climate action here.