Our purpose to create sustainable infrastructure and safe transport through innovation guides our strategic and tactical decisions, ensuring that improving sustainability is woven into our daily working lives.
Our Board responsibility for our overall ESG strategy and the ESG Committee is responsible for translating this strategy into focused initiatives, near and medium-term targets and actions. We determined our ESG focus areas by taking a materiality-based approach to ESG. The first step was to commission an independent materiality study, which involved a selection of senior managers identifying from a longlist of possible subject areas, 15 specific ESG topics that the Group should consider. We then approached 38 stakeholders from across our supply chain. We consulted a diverse range of our employees, major customers and suppliers, a major bank, and several significant investors. We then ensured that each stakeholder group’s key thoughts were recognised by carrying forward their top three areas of interest into our analysis. The next step involved comparing our stakeholders’ input to the relevant Sustainability Accounting Standards Board ('SASB') materiality maps. In Hill & Smith’s case, the two that are most relevant are Engineering & Construction services and Road transportation.
Dimension | Category | SASB matrix | H&S materiality study | ESG Focus | |
Engineering & Construction | Road Transport | ||||
Environment | Ecological Impacts | . | |||
Waste and hazardous materials management | |||||
Waste and wastewater management | |||||
Air quality | . | ||||
Energy Management | . | . | |||
GHG Emissions | . | . | |||
Social Capital | Selling practices and product labelling | ||||
Customer welfare | |||||
Product quality and safety | . | ||||
Access and affordability | |||||
Data security | |||||
Customer privacy | |||||
Human rights and community relations | |||||
Human Capital | Employee engagement, diversity and inclusion | . | . | ||
Talent development/employment practices | . | . | |||
Employee health and safety | . | . | . | . | |
Labour practices | |||||
Business model and innovation | Physical impacts on climate change | . | |||
Sustainable products | . | ||||
Materials sourcing and efficiency | |||||
Supply chain management | |||||
Business model resilience | |||||
Product design and lifecycle management | . | ||||
Leadership and governance | Systemic risk management | ||||
Critical incident risk management | . | ||||
Management of the legal and regulatory environment | |||||
Competitive behaviour | |||||
Business ethics | . | . | . |
We determined our ESG focus areas by taking a materiality-based approach to ESG.
This two-stage materiality process identified the following seven sustainability priorities for Hill & Smith:
01
Greenhouse Gas ('GHG') emissions and energy management
02
Sustainable products - infrastructure
UN SDGs
02
Sustainable products - safe transport
03
Health & safety
04
Talent and engagement
05
Inclusion and diversity
UN SDGs
06
Climate risks
07
Ethical conduct
UN SDGs