Member Article

CALA Commits To The Future With New Sustainability Strategy

CALA Group has launched a Sustainability Strategy which will see each of its regional teams play a major role in a more environmentally responsible future – with the North Home Counties team backing the plans.

Reinforcing CALA’s long-standing commitment to sustainability, the strategy will provide a new focus to help the business achieve its targets of building homes that are operationally net zero carbon from 2030, and reaching net zero greenhouse gas emissions in line with the Scottish Government’s 2045 target and ahead of UK Government’s 2050 target.

The team - based in Welwyn Garden City – which currently has eight live developments across the Northern Home Counties – has been central to the strategy alongside their colleagues from across the UK, driving forward a number of innovations, trials, and ideas to reduce CALA’s environmental impact now and in the future.

A North Home Counties ‘Green Team’ has been established along with nine others from each of CALA’s offices, to brainstorm, research and implement initiatives which will help bring about positive change in the region, from energy saving and recycling measures within offices, to employee wellbeing and meaningful community support initiatives. In total, more than 90 employees across the CALA businesses are actively involved in helping to achieve its sustainability objectives.

The North Home Counties team will introduce the first electric vehicle to the housebuilder’s fleet in the Summer, in a move which will see greener transport rolled out across the entire business in the coming months and years. They have installed electrical vehicle (EV) charging points on new sites, with office EV points to be installed later this year. They are also already carrying out vital waste benchmarking work at their live developments. As part of this, they have appointed ‘Waste Champions’ at each development to focus on waste reduction.

Duncan Jackson, Managing Director of CALA Homes North Home Counties, said: “Sustainability has been high on the agenda here at CALA for some time, however with the launch of our new strategy, everyone across the business can now play their part in driving forward the changes needed to create a more environmentally responsible future.

“We’re very proud to play our part here in the North Home Counties division, whether it’s coming up with new ways of saving energy in our offices, taking part in technology trials on our developments, or feeding into working groups with other CALA regions.

“Collectively we’ll be looking at tangible ways we can decarbonise our operations, in specific areas such as zero carbon homes, office environment, site environments, procurement and transportation - producing a roadmap of targets, measures and areas of interest to pursue as priorities.”

The roadmap includes research on and testing of various technological innovations, including the investigation of measures such as infrared heat mats and panels, battery and thermal storage technology, hydrogen and electric boilers, mechanical ventilation systems and new concepts around biodiversity.

The business will also look at the basics of how it operates – from how it engages with suppliers and subcontractors, to how colleagues travel and offices are run, and the ways CALA interacts with communities and wider infrastructure.

Duncan Jackson continues: “A key part of the Sustainability Strategy is to embed sustainability into the CALA culture, so it’s really important that the team across the business helps drive it. We want CALA to be a place to be proud of, for our customers, our contractors and our colleagues.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by CALA Homes .