Sustainability is about securing long-term success – not just for our investors, but also for our customers, our employees, and the communities within which we work. This means continually improving our environmental, social and economic performance over time.
In doing so, as well as the many positive impacts of our business, we also have to consider potential negative aspects. This requires us to understand how the goods we buy are produced by our supply chain, how our raw materials are sourced, our products manufactured and transported, how products are used by our customers, how they perform when in use and what happens to them when they are no longer required. Only by adopting this whole life-cycle approach can we continually improve whole-life sustainability, rethink our business processes, products and services, and develop innovative ideas that allow our customers to create more sustainable buildings and infrastructure.
To do this we have developed a sustainability strategy based around four strategic themes: People, Planet, Performance and Solutions. Against each of these themes we have identified key priority areas of focus and, set ambitious commitments, alongside specific milestone targets and detailed performance targets.
Our Executive Committee is responsible for setting and delivering our sustainability strategy. We regularly measure, review and report progress in a clear and transparent way and work with our External Sustainability Panel which acts as a ‘critical friend’ to challenge and monitor our actions and decisions.
Read more - Message from External Sustainability Panel
Our approach to sustainability is aligned and embedded into our business strategy and culture which we call ‘The Tarmac Way’ and is integral to achieving our purpose of ‘Building our Future’.
During 2020, we will also be working on a ‘new’ ten-year sustainability strategy, confirming our priority areas of focus and establishing new commitments for the next ten years and beyond.
Our key priorities have been identified through a materiality analysis aligned with the Global Reporting Initiative’s G4 Sustainability Reporting Guidelines. This has helped us to identify and report on the most relevant sustainability issues for our business, our customers and our many stakeholders.
After gathering input from key decision-makers in the business, external experts, customers and other industry stakeholders, we have mapped out each issue on a materiality matrix to highlight its significance. The key priorities identified by this process form the basis of our sustainability strategy.
