41061 Unite AR22 HI-RES WEB-READY - Flipbook - Page 56
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THE UNITE GROUP PLC | Annual Report and Financial Statements 2022
SUSTAINABILITY AND NON-FINANCIAL REPORTING continued
PLACES continued
Greener, sustainable
buildings
We’re designing, constructing and managing our
buildings to be sustainable, support nature, and
provide a healthy, inspiring environment for those
who work or live there.
We have targeted BREEAM Excellent for all new buildings
since 2017 as well as an EPC A rating to help ensure they
achieve the levels of performance we demand across areas
including energy efficiency, material selection, biodiversity,
health and wellbeing, and safety.
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Campbell House, our latest BREEAM Excellent, EPC
A-rated development in our home city of Bristol, includes
over 400 student bedrooms in a new purpose-built block,
as well as the sensitive redevelopment of the original
Bristol Royal Infirmary building dating from the 1730s to
accommodate 431 students. The development makes
use of air source heat pumps for domestic hot water,
networked smart-controllers on all heating, and on-site
solar panels to achieve levels of energy performance we
need to support our environmental targets. See case
study on page 57 for more details.
2022 also saw major refurbishment of two large sites
in Manchester, New Medlock Way and Parkway Gate,
which included over £3 million of energy efficiency
improvements to building fabric and services, including
new insulation and glazing, air-source heat pump, solar
panels and building control improvements.
Responsible use
of resources
We’re reducing resource consumption and waste,
working with suppliers to improve circularity,
and helping students and staff adopt life-long
sustainable behaviours.
We’re working hard to cut water use, reduce waste and
improve recycling across our estate, and to engage with
our supply chain to quantify and decrease the impact of
products and services we consume. In 2022, we retendered
our waste and recycling contracts, ensuring that our new
suppliers would be able to support our transition to a more
circular supply chain.
Playing an active role
in local communities
We want to ensure that our activity brings real benefits
to local communities, undertaking detailed community
engagement as part of any new development.
We’ve collaborated with local youth intervention charity
Streets of Growth at our new Hayloft Point development
in central London, providing them with their first ever
permanent and dedicated space on a peppercorn rent.
Here, they can deliver a real positive impact for marginalised
young people in Tower Hamlets and the Isle of Dogs through
their street intervention model. Built on the former site of
The Boar’s Head, a sixteenth century playhouse, the space
includes a fully equipped theatre space which Streets of
Growth use for workshops and an ongoing partnership with
The British Bangladeshi Fashion Council.
Our Positive Impact scheme has been developed in
conjunction with the NUS and provides a framework to
help employees support their communities and adopt
sustainable behaviours, including recycling and donations
to charity. 2022 was a milestone year, with 100% of our
properties achieving bronze awards, and teams across the
business working towards silver and gold awards by setting
up long-term projects and collaborations within their local
community to deliver real social or environmental benefit.
WE CONTINUED OUR PARTNERSHIP
WITH THE BRITISH HEART
FOUNDATION THROUGHOUT 2022
Total raised in donations in 2022:
£213,162
Total bags donated in 2022: 15,108
Our commitment to invest 1% of profit (on an Adjusted
Earnings basis) in social initiatives represents a target of
£1.6 million for 2022 so we are pleased to have invested
a total of over £2.0 million during 2022 in this area.
This includes our contribution to the Unite Foundation,
investment in the Leapskills programme, and the value of
spaces we provide in our buildings such as Hayloft Point.
Through various initiatives including our ongoing partnership
with the British Heart Foundation and the provision of
rooms in Central London free of charge to IntoUniversity
for their summer schools, in-kind donations have totalled
over £260,000. We are working with leading social impact
organisation B4SI to better understand the impact of our
investment in this activity, so that we can target effort where
it delivers the greatest societal benefit and quantify the
impact achieved.
