Sustainability

Sustainability is at the heart of everything we do. At Ashtead, we have always prioritised our people and their safety, while providing our customers with a reliable alternative to ownership, supporting the communities we serve across our store network, limiting the environmental impact of our operations and ensuring a strong governance framework. We are committed to delivering long-term sustainable success of the Group for the benefit of all our stakeholders. After the progress delivered through Sunbelt 3.0, our new strategic plan, Sunbelt 4.0, increases the focus on sustainability across the Group. 

Sustainability under Sunbelt 4.0 is about advancing our customer centric approach, while also strengthening our operational focus targeted to Sunbelt’s key impacts and opportunities. The best way to engage our people on the value of sustainability is by connecting it to the organisational principle of customer obsession. During 4.0, we will strengthen our sustainability focus across four core areas: 

• our operations: when it comes to our direct operational impacts, we will continue to focus on opportunities to reduce our direct carbon footprint (Scope 1 and 2) and our management of waste and water;
• our customers: rental is inherently a sustainable business model, but through providing the linkage between customers and original equipment manufacturers (’OEMs’), we can drive sustainable practices through the value chain. Specifically, by leveraging our platform, expert teams and unmatched partnerships with OEMs, we will help to accelerate the transition to lower carbon solutions;
• our people: health and safety remains our key priority, but our people strategy under Sunbelt 4.0 is centred around attracting, developing and retaining our team members while enhancing our inclusive culture. Our employee resource groups have progressed, fostering our inclusion and belonging activities across our operations; and
• communities: we strive to drive greater impact by investing more in our community and finding new ways to connect with our customers on shared values. In addition to existing signature charitable partnerships, we have announced our new partnership with the Leukaemia & Lymphoma Society. 

Material topics 

As part of our risk management process, we assess regularly the most material matters to the Group, including those related to sustainability, and assess their potential impact on our business and the generation of long-term value. 

We have segmented our material topics into our four key sustainability areas: our operations; our customers; our people; and our communities. 

How we monitor our work

A robust approach to corporate governance is the foundation for delivering our strategy and ensuring our growth is both responsible and sustainable. The tone from the top, risk management and transparency are all elements that are essential to our business performance and its sustainability. We understand that identifying metrics in measuring our performance is important and have a number that we monitor, including health and safety incident rates, employee engagement, staff turnover and carbon intensity.  

The Group’s Board of directors is responsible for monitoring the progress we make against our strategic sustainability objectives and the targets we have set. The Board is assisted in this function by the Group Risk Committee which is chaired by our chief financial officer.

Further details are provided within our Annual Report