41061 Unite AR22 HI-RES WEB-READY - Flipbook - Page 58
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THE UNITE GROUP PLC | Annual Report and Financial Statements 2022
SUSTAINABILITY AND NON-FINANCIAL REPORTING continued
OUR APPROACH
Our goal is to lead on sustainability and raise standards in the living sector. Our governance and processes ensure that
working responsibly and sustainably isn’t optional, that we always operate with integrity and transparency. More details can
also be found in the Sustainability Committee Report (page 125), and wider Governance Section of this report (page 88).
Transparency and disclosure
Operating with integrity
We’re committed to transparency when it comes to our
sustainability targets, performance reporting and disclosure.
We strive to always do the right thing, operate with
integrity and expect high standards from our employees
and suppliers.
We have worked hard to ensure that we are addressing our
most significant environmental and social risks and issues,
and targeting the areas that can deliver the greatest positive
impact. This includes aligning where possible with established
third-party frameworks or recognised commitments that
help ensure we are setting suitably ambitious targets and
have credible plans in place to achieve them, whether it is
alignment with the UN SDGs, climate targets in line with the
SBTi and CRREM, our commitment to the Real Living Wage, or
the use of BREEAM for new developments. Similarly, we’re
committed to disclosure of our approach and progress in line
with recognised standards and frameworks, and so in 2022
continued to disclose to the Global Real Estate Sustainability
Benchmark (GRESB) (www.gresb.com) and CDP (www.cdp.
net), retaining our four-star GRESB rating and achieving a
B rating under CDP. We also disclose in line with the EPRA
sBPR and TCFD guidelines. Looking forward to 2023, we
anticipate that the UK Government’s proposed Sustainability
Disclosure Requirements will bring further clarity and
consistency. Note that as we operate only in the UK we
are not subject to the requirements of the EU SFDR. We
publish details of executive remuneration (page 131) and
pay gap reporting (search for “Unite Integrated Solutions”
at https://gender-pay-gap.service.gov.uk).
Our Code of Conduct and Modern Slavery Statement,
together with other key governance policies on our website,
set out how we expect our employees and suppliers to
behave. We work closely with our supply chain partners to
ensure we are properly managing environmental and social
risks and have developed a new suppliers code of conduct
which all supplies will need to commit to and follow from
2023 onwards (see unitegroup.com/sustainability/policiesdocumentation for more details).
Since 2021, our Executive team’s remuneration has been
linked to our environmental and social performance targets
and, in 2022, we introduced sustainability targets for a
portion of the bonus scheme for all employees, linked to
our Positive Impact awards.
The Group is a Real Estate Investment Trust or REIT and as
such is exempt from tax on its property business. Further
details are included in the Tax and REIT status note on
page 197.
The table below sets out some key performance indicators that linked to our 2022 sustainability targets.
Performance
KPI
2020
2021
2022
2021–22 change
Total social investment
£1.8 million
£1.8 million
£2.0 million
10% increase
Positive impact awards
Programme
suspended due
to pandemic
Programme
suspended due
to pandemic
100% bronze
Programme
relaunched
21,086.0
13,178.0
12,957.7
1.7% decrease
Scope 1+2 (market based) absolute emissions
(tonnesCO2e/yr)
Average energy intensity (kWh/m2 /year)
106.7
A–B
EPC ratings by floor area
GRESB rating
Water consumption per m2 floor area (m3/bed)
% of electricity from renewable sources
Investment in energy efficiency
35.1%
115.6
1.9% increase
D–G
A–B
C
D–G
A–B
C
D–G
22.1% 42.8%
35.1%
21.8%
43.1%
61.2%
19.3%
19.5%
23.6% increase
in A–C rated
floor area
C
113.4
81****
85****
84****
1 point drop
36.6
40.1
45.5
13.4% increase
74.0%
99.9%
99.9%
no change
£13 million
£10 million
increase
–
£3 million
