Our zero-carbon ambition
Launched in 2020, Now or Never encapsulates our sense of urgency around climate change, committing us to decarbonise our operations by 2030. Our aim is to reduce emissions from our own operations to zero so that we will no longer need to offset our carbon footprint and to help our supply chain partners to reach net zero carbon in operation by 2040.
We publish our Carbon Reduction Plan in line with PPN 06/21 as part of this Now or Never review after it has been independently audited by Bureau Veritas. To find out more about our declarations under the Government's Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) regulations and our full carbon footprint data visit the 'Carbon Footprint' section.
Climate Leadership
In 2024, Willmott Dixon was recognised by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) as a global leader on climate change and transparent carbon reporting, receiving an A score for climate. We were among the 2% of companies who reported their data to make the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) ‘A List’, recognising our global leadership on climate action and carbon transparency.
We also retained ‘Champion level’ status for our compliance with the Carbon Reduction Code for the Built Environment.
Reducing carbon from our sites
We continue to apply best practice standards for reducing carbon emissions on our construction sites.
We have focused our efforts on reducing carbon from our site operations, making good progress against our target of 2,077tCO2e or a 69% reduction in absolute emissions by the end of 2025.
In 2024, we reduced absolute emissions by 57%, compared to our 2018 baseline, which is a 17% reduction since 2023. Carbon intensity is also down 51% since 2018 and 16% since 2023 and long-term carbon intensity is 84% lower than our 2010 benchmark figure.
Sustainable fuel use
We continued to mandate the use of hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) across all sites, which accounted for 70% of fuel used in 2024. Overall, our total fuel use across all sites was 46% lower.
With energy prices remaining high, we focused on ensuring our site setup guidance was implemented to reduce energy usage on our projects and in our site cabins. In 2024, 75% of our office and site electricity was renewable and we have identified a series of interventions to improve this in 2025.
To reduce carbon emissions from our transport related activities, we have continued to promote and encourage agile working, homeworking and sustainable transport to reduce mileage and support our peoples transition to low-carbon vehicles.
Salary sacrifice car scheme
In 2024, we reduced business-wide mileage by 39% (since 2018), a 3% reduction since 2023. As of December 2024, 19% of our people were driving an electric or plug-in-hybrid vehicle with over 2.3 million miles driven in electric vehicles. This saved the business almost £70k in business and commute mileage reimbursement. We continue to support our low-carbon salary sacrifice scheme to incentivise uptake of electric vehicles, and support drivers with cost of the installation of home charging units.
To support our people in making the switch, we have ensured that offices, where feasible, have charge points, as well as continuing to install charge points on our sites where required.
Green electricity
When we are in control of the energy supplied to our sites and offices, we procure 100% renewable electricity contracts, as opposed to the default out-of-contract tariffs, which use a mix of fuels and significantly increase carbon emissions. Our consultant, Planet First, which is also a social enterprise, helps us procure fixed natural renewable tariffs. We estimate using this approach in 2024 has saved over £460,000 in electricity costs and 1.35m kgCO2e.
Bureau Veritas UK
We commission Bureau Veritas UK to verify our sustainability performance against our Key Performance Indicators.
Read our Bureau Veritas statement on our 2024 performance here.
Carbon Offsetting
Until we have reduced our carbon emissions to zero, we continue to offset our unavoidable operational emissions. We have offset our operational emissions annually since 2012. To offset our 2023 emissions, we invested in the Gold Standard Zambia Western Province Safe Water Project. We only invest in high quality, independently verified offsetting projects.