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It names the Berkeley Group as the UK’s most sustainable home builder, with Crest Nicholson maintaining last year’s second position and Miller Homes retaining third position.

It takes over six months to complete and assesses those developers responsible for constructing over 50% of new homes in the UK each year with a combined construction value of £5 billion.

‘This year’s results demonstrate that an elite group of nine home builders are driving best practice in sustainability in the sector. This is the sixth year the benchmark has been undertaken and the improvement in performance from the first benchmark in 2006 is remarkable, with companies battling to outperform each other across 50 different categories and achieving an average improvement of around 10% since 2006,’ said Philip Hirst from NextGeneration.

‘At a time where government is reviewing much of the key legislation that governs sustainability in home building, NextGeneration members provide a beacon of how the private sector can collaborate to deliver sustainability performance beyond legislative requirements,’ he added.

They are assessed based on their own sustainability performance as a company, including governance and risk management and the amount of energy consumed in their offices and onsite, as well as the sustainability of the homes and communities they create.
 
Rob Perrins, managing director of Berkeley Group, said that the whole industry has come a long way in the last decade. ‘But now we need to take another massive leap forward. The government's recent climate risk report highlighted imminent dramatic changes in water supply and temperature,’ he pointed out.

‘In response, Berkeley is making climate change adaptation a fundamental part of how we design and build all our new developments. Alongside a major new commitment to social sustainability, this is the kind of action that will keep driving our performance and create great places for people to live,’ he added.

Stephen Stone, chief executive of Crest Nicholson, said that innovation and progress in the delivery of new and cost effective solutions for sustainable homes is essential for the industry. ‘We place significant emphasis on pioneering new approaches that will ensure low carbon communities become a mainstay for the future. The NextGeneration rankings demonstrate the extent to which every house builder is now rising to meet the challenge, and our consistently high ranking is a testament to the way in which sustainability has been embedded into every aspect of our business model,’ he explained.

‘For Crest Nicholson, sustainability has played a major role in delivering our strong underlying business fundamentals and the government’s commitment to sustainable housing policy plays to our strengths. 67% of the homes we delivered last year were to EcoHomes, Code for Sustainable Homes Level 3, or Level 4 standards and designing the homes of the future is an objective that underpins our entire delivery strategy,’ he added.

While Chris Endsor, chief executive of Miller Homes, said that the firm is continually looking for ways in which it can enhance sustainability further. ‘The NextGeneration benchmark not only validates the good work we are undertaking, but also allows us to identify how we can further develop and continue to grow this area of our business,’ he added.