Anchor Sustainability Report 2022-2023

Ecology C20 - Increasing green space and promoting biodiversity

C20-21

Anchor recognises the importance of green space to the wellbeing of our residents, whether that is from spending time gardening, exercising, sitting outside or looking out at green space. We also recognise green space and biodiversity as key contributors to cleaner air, flood attenuation and cooling during extreme weather. All our new build developments incorporate green space to

Green fact Just two hours a week spent in nature has shown to have significant health benefits.

encourage residents to use and enjoy the open space. The brief for the landscaped areas surrounding the locations include a requirement to increase biodiversity and we welcome the introduction of the new planning requirements to increase biodiversity by at least 10% on new development sites. In managing our locations, we are an active custodian of the green spaces and natural habitats we look after, and support and encourage residents to engage with the natural environment through gardening and wellbeing activities. We have started work on developing biodiversity toolkits to support location-level education and action on biodiversity. The next step is to undertake a SHIFT assessment, which is an independent assessment of where we currently stand and what actions will be needed to reach robust environmental targets. C21 -Strategy for managing and reducing pollutants As part of the implementation of our new sustainability strategy, we are developing a robust set of employers’ requirements to detail our expectations around pollutants as well as conducting our second SHIFT assessment to identify targets and actions to support environmental protection. In development, the management and reduction of pollutants is managed by our development contractors, including requirements imposed during the planning process and meeting our employers’ requirements and design standards. In selecting contractors, we take into account their environmental policies.

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