Biodiversity, water and environment

Restoring our environment and bringing nature into communities is a key part of Now or Never. Our aim is for all our projects to leave the natural environment in a measurably better state than before construction. It’s all part of our commitment to do the right thing to support the natural environment and counteract the impact of construction.

Biodiversity net gain

From November 2023, applicants for planning permission must show how they will achieve minimum 10% biodiversity net gain on or around the site for a period of at least 30 years. Protections in the Environment Act 2021 require developers to measure losses and gains for flora and fauna to ensure local wildlife is better off at the end of the project than at the beginning.

Across our projects, we go above and beyond to leave the natural environment in a better condition than when we arrived. In advance of the new legislation, we have been carrying out biodiversity net gain pilot studies on 20 sites with the aim of maximising the benefits on the site. The experience we have gained can help our customers to optimise their plans to help biodiversity improvements. We have also started trials on 12 sites to measure the impact of these schemes on other environmental benefits such as improving air quality.

Our project at Dorset County Hospital to build a 654-space multi-storey car park featured a two-metre-wide 'wildlife corridor' around the perimeter (below). We planted native hedgerows and wildflowers to create a buffer zone between vehicles and wildlife, and installed bird boxes, hedgehog nesting boxes and insect friendly foliage all around the site. The project achieved an overall biodiversity net gain of 11.5%.

The transformation of a former school into office space for Brighton & Hove children's services brought sweeping biodiversity enhancements and created a new green space on site (below). Bordered by over 200 newly planted trees, we added a pond, sensory garden, bat and bird boxes, hedgehog houses, bug hotels and bee bricks to encourage insects and pollinators, and a native wildflower bed to stimulate wildlife and biodiversity. The addition of the pond, grassland and scrub led to a biodiversity net gain of more than a third compared to habitats in the area before the work began.

Tree Planting

In 2022, we planted 15,738 trees, putting us well on track to meet our Now or Never ambition to plant 100,000 trees by 2030. Where possible we also work with local charities and organisations to get the whole community involved in tree planting around or in the vicinity of our projects.

For example, our partnership with the National Trust, saw Willmott Dixon people plant more than 10,000 trees in Wicken Fen Nature Reserve, in Cambridgeshire, 1,838 trees at Wallington, Northumberland, and a further 1,200 in Coopers Hill, Egham, as part of the Frank Towell Court project, in the London Borough of Hounslow.

This supports our customers and their local communities by creating green spaces for people and nature, and also helps to tackle climate change.

Water

Now or Never commits us to halving the volume of water we use on our projects by 2030, from a baseline of 2018. We measure and report the water used on our sites every month which helps us identify anomalies and opportunity for improvement.

We are not yet achieving the water reductions required to meet our target. This will be an area of focus for 2023 to 2025.

Water Use