Our Sustainability Commitments – 16 March 2021

Our Sustainability Commitments – 16 March 2021

“Operating sustainably means acting in line with our values. We are creating a business which will shape a positive future for generations to come.”

Richard Smith, CEO Unite Students

A commitment to “doing what’s right” is part of who we are at Unite Students. Over the years we’ve worked hard to reduce our environmental impact, support the wellbeing of our student customers, and promote access to higher education through the Unite Foundation.

However even before 2020 brought us the COVID-19 pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement brought racism into sharp focus, it was clear to us that we needed to do more on environmental and social issues.

In late 2019, against a backdrop of mass climate protests and rising awareness of an environmental crisis, we set out to develop a new, ambitious and comprehensive sustainability strategy, building on what we had achieved already to address the most materially significant environmental, social and governance challenges we face. 

Throughout 2020 and since the start of 2021, we have been working hard on this – engaging with key stakeholders, understanding the risks and opportunities, and working out how we can do more to create a positive impact.  

WHY SUSTAINABILITY MATTERS

We operate sustainably because it reflects our values, is the right thing to do but also because it makes good business sense. Students are concerned about a wide range of topics related to both climate change and how to make the world a fairer place, while sustainability issues are of increasing interest to investors, universities and other stakeholders.

Many recognise that an organisation’s ability to effectively manage risks and opportunities in these areas plays a key role in their long-term success.

OUR NEW SUSTAINABILITY COMMITMENTS

Having listened to our stakeholders we have developed five overarching sustainability commitments, defining our new levels of ambition and showing how we’ll work to make a real difference:  

1. Targeting net-zero carbon operations and construction from 2030 – we will reduce carbon emissions from new and existing buildings in line with climate science, ahead of the timescale set out in the Paris Climate Agreement to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. We will do this following the net zero carbon hierarchy, with a strong focus on reducing energy consumption through improving our buildings, while also strengthening the way we buy renewable energy and investing in certified carbon offsets for any residual emissions.

2. Creating resilient, resource-efficient assets and operations – we will reduce the environmental impact of our new and existing buildings by improving energy and water efficiency, and also help our students to adopt lasting sustainable living habits.

3. Enhancing the health and wellbeing of our employees and students – driving real improvements in physical and mental health and wellbeing based on an understanding of their needs, through improvements to our service model, physical assets and employee support programmes.

4. Providing opportunities for all backed by new diversity targets – including students, employees and in the communities where we work, where all can succeed, whatever their background, gender or ethnicity.

5. Leading the student housing sector – we will work to raise standards across the student housing sector and deliver value to our customers and investors.

TRANSPARENCY

We will be announcing latest details of exactly what these commitments mean, including targets, timescales and plans in our 2020 annual report, and are committed to sharing information on our progress and performance through regular and transparent reporting.

During 2020 we formally signed up as a supporter of the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) and will be publishing more details of our plan for full adoption in 2021, including our net zero carbon pathway.

We already disclose details of our sustainability performance via leading benchmarks including the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB), CDP and the EPRA sBPR, and have achieved steady year-on-year improvements culminating in a four-star GRESB rating in 2020 and a score of 81/100, well above the overall average score of 70.

You can download this brochure here