STEWART Milne Homes has been ranked as one of the top SME private developers in the 2023 NextGeneration annual report.
The housebuilder has continued to improve its sustainability credentials by moving four places up the rankings of a national sustainability league to 15th place.
This year’s Next Generation assessment noted that the firm’s strengths include health and safety, environmental site management, ecology, community, customer engagement, and future-proofing.
Stewart Dalgarno, director of innovation and sustainability at Stewart Milne Homes, said, “We’re particularly proud that we’ve managed to maintain our focus on sustainability and deliver major improvements in a year where well documented headwinds have impacted on both the housing market and the wider economy. The 2023 NextGeneration ranking is recognition of our achievements and an extremely positive step on our sustainability journey.”
Commenting on the progress made by Stewart Milne Homes, Iona Deacon, associate at EMEA sustainability consultancy, JLL, added, “It has been a pleasure to work with Stewart Milne Homes since they became Benchmark Members in 2022, and to see the substantial progress made, with them almost doubling their score this year. The NextGeneration Benchmark assessment is a comprehensive analysis of homebuilder sustainability performance across 120 sub-criteria, and to improve their performance homebuilders such as Stewart Milne Homes address a broad array of sustainability issues both at a corporate level and also for the homes they build.”
In 2023, Stewart Milne Homes overhauled its websites, sharing and promoting sustainability information, updated its EV car policy, undertook energy audits of all its sites and offices, launched its sustainable procurement policy, and introduced biodiversity net gain and nature-friendly initiatives on new sites.
The housebuilder also developed a sustainability dashboard to measure success, completed consumer research into energy and carbon benefits of new homes, and started construction on its first fossil fuel-free all electric homes, with high performance building fabric design, ASHP & PV low carbon renewable technologies.
“The improvements we have made clearly demonstrate our continued commitment to becoming a net zero carbon business, delivering sustainable communities and net zero carbon homes by 2045,” Stewart Dalgarno added. “Looking ahead, collaboration will be key to the transition to net zero. Stewart Milne Homes are playing the lead role, working with other developers, HFS and Scottish Government, shaping and presenting the Scottish housebuilding industry response to the future Passive Equivalent Standard in Scotland, in the transition to net zero homes.”
The business is also behind the Home to Grid Innovation Project, developing the first net zero carbon development with a community smart grid and battery storage in Scotland. This approach will remove fossil fuels from homes and generate and store renewable green energy.
The ‘NextGeneration Benchmark’ is the annual sustainability standard of the 25 largest homebuilders in the UK, plus any other voluntary participants, with companies assessed on sustainability information against over 60 public criteria, covering the Environmental Social and Governance (ESG) spectrum.
