In assessing what is material to us we need to understand how far our responsibilities extend across our core activities, products and services. For us, there are two broad areas we need to consider; licence to operate and identifying and meeting the expectations of a wide range of stakeholders.
Our licence to operate sets many of our boundaries and the rules we have to follow as a business. For example, this applies to business conduct, waste management and gaining planning consent, amongst others. In identifying our stakeholders the key groups considered were customers, suppliers, non-government organisations, government offices, local community, employees and industry bodies.
We identify these stakeholders by asking three key questions:
- Is the stakeholder critical to the business?
- Is the stakeholder negatively affected by our business?
- Is the stakeholder of strategic importance to our business?
Materiality and stakeholder engagement
In 2009, we commissioned The Environment Council (TEC), a leading charity dedicated to sustainable development, to help implement a thorough and transparent approach to stakeholder engagement for our reporting process. View The Environment Council's report
Stakeholder engagement for Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) based reporting, is undertaken in two phases:
Phase I – Review and analysis of needs against GRI requirements. Having reviewed and analysed previous stakeholder engagement for GRI reporting, The Environment Council made a series of observations and recommendations to us about how the company might report its approach to materiality and stakeholder inclusiveness for its reports.
Phase II – Working with stakeholders to identify and prioritise material issues. One of the recommendations was for us to report on the work carried out with stakeholders as part of its operations and to connect with stakeholders in the preparation of its reports. To accomplish this when preparing the 2009 report, we brought together stakeholders at a workshop held at the 2012 Olympics Site – one of our major contracts. Another event took place in January 2011 at Marston House, our office in Somerset, in preparation for the 2010 report. For each event approximately 185 stakeholders were invited to the workshop with some 40 senior level stakeholders attending. Both events were independently facilitated.
Sustainability workshop attendees
Employees from across the company were asked to identify stakeholders with whom they regularly engaged as part of their day-to-day work. Stakeholders taking part in workshops fall into the groups outlined below.
| Academic Institutions |
Loughborough University, Sustainability Research Institute |
| Communites |
Cumbria residents |
| Consultancies |
Stephens Scown, Construction Industry Research and Information Association, Hammerson plc |
| Contractors |
FP McCanns, Nuttalls |
| Customers |
B&Q, Travis Perkins, Buildbase, Keir Construction |
| Employees |
Aggregate Industries |
| Government and agencies |
Carbon Trust, DEFRA, British Geological Survey |
| Industry groups |
Britsh Precast, Mineral Products Association, The Concrete Centre, BRE Global, Industrial Trust |
| Non-governmental agencies |
London Wildlife Trust, National Biodiversity Network, RSPB, National Stone Centre, WWT, Buglife, BSI |
| Suppliers |
Lyreco, Petroplus Bitumen, Shell Gas Direct, Network Rail, World Fuel Services, RWE npower, O2, HaslimannTaylor PR, Beninghoven, Avery, Robinson & Associates Ltd, Arco, Larch Pallets, Finning Construction Equipment, Nynas |
The stated goals of these workshops are to enable our closest stakeholders to hear about progress on sustainability and engagement, and to offer their thoughts on where they believe the company should focus its strategy and activities. During the process, stakeholders have commented on our activities, shared their experiences as stakeholders and offered their perspectives on where they would like us to focus our strategy and what they would like to see in future sustainability reports.
We have taken steps to address the top material issues by adding content to this website and through the 2009 sustainability report. The 2010 report, when published, will also seek to address the points and suggestions made at the January 2011 event.
Download the report from the event held in April 2010.
Download the report from the event held in January 2011 .