Sustainability
Green Culture
As our “green culture” becomes established and embedded, we have embarked on our journey towards carbon neutrality and are committed to reducing our carbon emissions and implementing appropriate measures as an element of our overall carbon reduction strategy.
CARBON FOOTPRINT
Carbon Footprint & Carbon Reduction Plan
This year we have calculated our carbon footprint and the engagement with our staff has proved very useful in helping us to identify where we need to change our behaviour and how to do it.
This has helped us to prioritise the key areas we want to focus on for the next year, as outlined in the detailed action plan. We also recognise that many of the measures we plan to take to reduce our carbon footprint will also help us operate more efficiently, cut costs, and go some way to protecting us from inevitable future increases to fuel and energy costs.
Using the information gathered and working with our staff, we will be able to set challenging targets and report our progress on the journey to become a carbon neutral organisation.
Click to open our Policies (PDF)
THE ROSE FLEET
Our Fleet
We run a fleet of works vans, plant and company vehicles which represent the largest part of our company’s CO2 emissions.
Unusually for a construction company, we provide our own plant and machinery. The advantage of this is the control we can exercise over it in terms of maintenance, quality, availability and efficiency.
None of our fleet is older than five years, this means that we always have modern and efficient plant which is maintained in optimum condition by our team of mechanics.
Electric Vehicle Charge Point (EVCP)
We have installed EVCPs at our office and yard and plan to increase the provision over the next five years in line with the changes to our fleet.
Our Vehicle Policies
As set out in our CRP we are developing policies towards our fleet so that we can significantly reduce our emissions.
The policies will include aspects such as:
- Transition to biodiesel for the company plant
- Purchase of electric plant
- Swapping company vehicles
IN OUR HOMES
In Our Homes
We design our homes to be efficient in operation and to minimise our use of raw materials in constructing them to reduce our carbon footprint.
- We take a fabric first approach
- Design to reduce waste
- Build a thermally efficient envelope with low air permeability
- Use low surface temperature technology
- Install underfloor heating
- Create large areas of soft landscaping incorporating swales and SUDS which also increase biodiversity
- Recycle more than 96% of our waste
- Prewired for electric car chargers
- Fibre into the home with effectively no limit on up/down speed to allow even the most technical people the ability to work from home with all the health and sustainability benefits this offers
- Rainwater butts
Future Developments
Cement free concrete is currently being considered as a further way of reducing our carbon footprint and our Research and Development budget is being expanded to provide more resources to further consider and research more sustainable initiatives.
Thermal Efficiency
With the change to the building regulations, new registrations from June 2023 will need to show a 33% improvement in thermal efficiency (Part L) on the 2013 building regs.
We have decided to achieve this through improved insulation and fitting Air Source Heat Pumps, which also means the house will be ready for when no new gas boilers are allowed.
We are also working with housing associations to develop a house spec that achieves the Future Homes standard, which will require an improvement of 75-80% on Part L building regs 2013.
Environmental
Helping Nature Thrive
Building new homes doesn’t mean that nature takes a back seat. At Rose we understand our responsibility to support biodiversity and, wherever we can, we take care to encourage new and existing wildlife by retaining existing hedgerows and trees, and we join these up with gardens, verges, amenity green space and walkways.
The result is a network of green corridors weaving through the development and into the surrounding landscape, contributing to the wider ecological network.
We also provide a wide range of other measures that help nature flourish such as the inclusion of swift boxes, bat boxes, wildlife-friendly show gardens, permeable paving, green swales for drainage, lighting designed to avoid disturbing wildlife, and ecology corridors to help nature flourish.
This approach improves air quality, reduces surface water flooding, and makes our development a greener and more attractive place to live. Our residents have easy access to safe, beautiful, natural spaces for exercise, play and social interaction.
To assist nature within our developments, we provide our homeowners with a Wildlife Starter Pack to encourage them to create their own wildlife areas, whether the whole garden or just a small section.
We work alongside PACE Manningtree (Practical Actions for Climate and the Environment), a local community group exploring and carrying out activities in the Manningtree area to help tackle the climate crisis and support our environment. They have produced a helpful guide for our homeowners as to how to create a wildlife garden. They have also undertaken Wildlife Garden Masterclasses in our show house garden to show first-hand the basics of creating a wildlife-friendly garden.
We are also working with the team at Aquagrain, who have kindly provided samples of their remarkable, organic based, soil improver for our homeowners. Locally based in Needham Market, Suffolk, this amazing company has created a unique, biodegradable soil improver which can absorb up to 30 times its mass in water.
Aquagrain enables plants, flowers, fruits, and vegetables to grow with less maintenance because you won’t need to water them as often. It saves water, feeds your plants, and helps them grow stronger and live longer.
Tree Planting Log
Our tree planting log which captures the trees planted on our past, current, and planned planting for our future developments.
Roll over a tree to find out how many have been planted.
Case Studies
Sustainability Case Studies
Alongside our journey to reduce our carbon footprint we have helped our clients work towards their zero carbon aspirations.
In some cases, we have been involved from the very beginning, developing highly sustainable designs, and steering these plans through the planning process, we have overcome challenging and complicated renovations and have created wonderful new homes, built to conserve energy and meet our clients’ sustainable requirements.
Sustainability News
Cannock Mill Cohousing, Colchester
Green Fingers at Lawford Green!!!
Heating our homes sustainably
