Our approach

At Shaftesbury Capital we are committed to investing for the long term. We take a responsible and forward-looking approach, operating in an environmentally sustainable manner and supporting our local communities. Our goal is to become a Net Zero Carbon business by 2030 through an efficient “retrofit first” re-use and management of buildings. Re-using and enhancing existing buildings, rather than demolition and redevelopment, recognises that our buildings are long term carbon stores. Our sustainable approach increases energy efficiency whilst avoiding carbon emissions and use of materials associated with new construction.

Our focus area

Our ESC Strategy, developed in 2020 underpins our approach to sustainability, reflecting the issues that are most material to our business and our stakeholders. We have identified the UN Sustainable Development Goals (“SDGs”) that are most applicable to our business and mapped these against our strategy. In 2023 we focused our sustainability activity on delivery of our strategic goals as set out below (page references relate to our 2023 Annual Report):

Embedding sustainability in our business and supply chains

Sustainability is at the heart of our values, and we are committed to delivering the change that is required to achieve our sustainability aspirations.  The Board has oversight of ESC, with Ian Hawksworth as Chief Executive, having overall responsibility. This includes consideration of climate related risks and opportunities and implementation of the Group’s sustainability strategy and Net Zero Carbon pathway. Day-to-day oversight is undertaken by members of the Executive Committee and the senior management team, with regular reporting to the Board.

We encourage our employees to participate in our sustainability activities across the business, including support of our community programmes.

We recognise that much of our impact is through our supply chain. We work with partners that reflect our own values on sustainability and expect them to follow our policies and other requirements. Our sustainability policies on environment, people and community are available here. Where historical sustainability commitments differed between Capco and Shaftesbury these are being aligned. The historical commitments, policies and requirements for constituent parts of the merged company will remain in force until this process is complete. A library of our historical commitments and policies can be found here.

Reporting our progress

Shaftesbury Capital is committed to transparency in its sustainability reporting. As separate companies we have reported in line with EPRA and set out our respective climate risks and opportunities in accordance with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). 

In 2024 we published our first combined TCFD report which can be found here. We will also publish our combined Sustainability Data Report by the end of April 2024. 

We have historically participated in external sustainability indices and benchmarks that help us monitor our performance and identify opportunities for improvement. We will continue to actively disclose our performance and engage with the main sustainability benchmarks as the business moves forward. Our industry benchmarks can be viewed here.