Our journey

Where we've taken insight and inspiration along the way

Our response meets industry requirements

We understand and acknowledge the various industry requirements around carbon emissions in the built environment.

Our approach is simple, it encompasses all these requirements in a way that can distilled down at a project level to meet your unique objectives and ensure your project is compliant.

We’ve been on the journey for a long time and we’re in it for the long haul. But 2021, represented a turning point.

As a business we launched CarboniCa, our innovative carbon reduction tool following three years of development and a rigorous pilot project. The digital tool means that we have been able to turn data-backed insight into effective methods to decarbonise assets quickly and efficiently.To date, our teams including our supply chain have measured a 38,097 tonne reduction (July 2024) in carbon from our projects.

Our target is to achieve 50,000 tonnes by the end of 2025.

Our journey (click to view this full screen)

	2020	2021	2022	2023	2024 (target)
CarboniCa utilisation (cumulative projects)	0	6	106	144	200
Carbon savings evidenced (cumulative tonnes)	0	1,409	14,031	24,968	37,484
Construction waste (tonnes per £100k)	2.23	1.6	1.79	1.61	1.13
Our own carbon footprint (tonnes)	5,137	4,167	3,526	3,650	3,525

We will consistently challenge ourselves and our stakeholders to responsibly deliver low carbon, resource efficient and nature rich assets over their entire lifecycle, becoming the low carbon contractor of choice.

Our Responsible Business commitment to ‘Improving the Environment’

As part of our Responsible Business strategy, we’ve challenged ourselves again with a new and ambitious set of KPI’s, as we continue to work towards our Net Zero by 2030 goal.We’ve been delighted with the level of collaboration from our teams, supply chain, stakeholders and customers and it's this way of working that supports us to all achieve our sustainability goals and remove carbon from the built environment.Read more about our Responsible Business strategy

Morgan Sindall Group has invested in three legacy projects to restore and preserve biodiversity and natural beauty.

Purposefully selecting projects in the UK, at a greater cost, that are in the areas our employees or stakeholders who work with any of the Group companies, live or enjoy with their friends and families.

Blenheim EstateCreating nine new woodlands (270,000 trees/28 varieties) as part of the estate. The oaks planted have been harvested from the existing estates 3,000 year old trees.

Lakenheath & RSBP partnershipThe partnership will allow the RSPB to purchase 54 hectares of land, next to their Lakenheath Fen reserve and convert them into rich peat, biodiverse wetland.

Great North BogThe project will locate, develop, and restore 300 hectares of severely damaged blanket bog in the North Pennines AONB, UNESCO Global Geopark, the Yorkshire Dales National Park.In 2021, we began a four-year programme of research which investigated what could happen if carbon and other drivers were put at the heart of design, instead of capital expenditure.The Sustainability Twins R&D programme responds positively to the climate and biodiversity emergencies and demonstrates that almost cost-neutral low carbon and regenerative construction can be achieved.

“Our twins R&D programme very much focuses on the behaviours required by stakeholders to achieve success in our industry's endeavours to reduce carbon and work more sustainably. The key behaviours to success were; collaboration, integrity, tenacity and being outcome-focused.”

Tim Clement, director of social value & sustainability, Morgan Sindall Construction

In October 2021 we announced the findings of our 'Art of the Possible' R&D project, originally known as the Circular Twin.As part of this study different design team behaviours and early collaboration with the supply chain led to a new way of approaching the design and build process, resulting in significant whole life carbon savings.The headline saving of which was a 67% reduction in whole life carbon.

An approach backed by ground-breaking research

Methodology from the research has informed projects since, such as Buntingford First School

The results

72%: Reduction in upfront embodied carbon (48% reduction in lifecycle EC)

52%: Reduction in annual energy consumption

39%: Reduction in forest consumption (for products and 30-year UK offset)

c.7%: Increase in capital cost (c8% including UK offset)

c.15 years: CAPEX payback period

£150k: Additional savings across lifecycle for replacement parts

The key behaviours that underpinned the success of the Circular Twin research.

Merge responsibilities and disciplines to remove the fear of contractual consequences
Progress with purpose: agree and commit to being better, aim for an optimum standard and understand why it is important
Make the methodology about people not things
Each member should feel that this is the best team and project initiative that they have been involved in
Each member should act non-hierarchically but according to each’s professional gifting
Each member should think that no stone cannot be unturned
The team is collaborative
The team demonstrates tenacity
The team acts with integrity
The team is focused on the best net outcome for people and planet
Trust, acknowledge and respect others’ abilities, expertise and commitment

In 2023, after completing three ‘Circular Twins’, the idea evolved to investigate regenerative design was launched. The fourth study in this R&D programme was the Regenerative Twin.The nine-month study consisted of re-running the concept design phase of a Welsh school project constructed in 2021 to understand the social, environmental and economic impacts of favouring renewable materials.Through an interdisciplinary approach to early design based on the original Circular Twin concept, enriched with deep supply chain engagement, the study demonstrated that there is a correlation between the increased use of renewable materials and socio-economic benefits, and that far greater environmental gains are available than previously thought.