Environmental Contractor of the Year: Winner

Winner: Willmott Dixon

Willmott Dixon’s commitment to the environment through what it says is a “purpose beyond profit” made it a unanimous choice for Environmental Contractor of the Year with our judges.

Judges hailed the contractor for its “unbelievably comprehensive” presentation on an environmental ethos that was “embedded within the entire organisation”.

The measures it outlined were impressive and touched every part of the business, from researching its own reputation internally, to rewarding employees for their personal commitment and reducing carbon emissions.

“Willmott Dixon demonstrated outstanding commitment at every level, showing that environmental performance and sustainability was embedded within the entire organisation”

Judges' comment

Its ethos extended to an interest in setting new standards on projects, tackling the UK’s first Passivhaus secondary school in Sutton in 2018 and completing the University of Birmingham’s Green Heart – a 12-acre biodiversity-enhancing parkland with rain gardens as part of the sustainable drainage system, and energy-generating paving which converts the movements of students into energy so that they can charge their phones on nearby benches.

As well as setting and surpassing targets to reduce its carbon footprint (it has hit a 61 per cent reduction since 2010 against a 50 per cent target), Willmott Dixon has also reduced its waste by 56 per cent on a 2012 baseline against a 60 per cent target by 2020.

The contractor asked its staff what being a sustainable business meant to them and 87 per cent said they fully understood why it was a business priority, while 80 per cent said it was important to work for a business committed to sustainability.

The business paid out £35,000 in bonuses for employees who chose to use low-emission cars in 2018 and was one of just seven companies to achieve the Carbon Trust’s level two supply chain standard last year.

By the end of the year, all of the contractor’s construction sites and offices were powered by 100 per cent renewable energy sources. As almost half of its emissions came from sites, the firm set about targeting carbon reduction on site, where it has 10-point sustainability plans for each of its projects.

Judges hailed the company’s commitment to biodiversity, for which Willmott Dixon has an action plan for all of its construction sites, as well as its wider industry engagement, with staff sitting on the boards of organisations including the UK Green Building Council, Aldersgate Group, BSRIA, BRE Trust and Supply Chain Sustainability School.

They said: “Willmott Dixon demonstrated outstanding commitment at every level, showing that environmental performance and sustainability were embedded within the entire organisation.”

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