Building materials supplier Aggregate Industries has published a company-wide nature strategy, pledging to invest £24m in nature restoration projects over the next five years as it works towards an aim of becoming a "nature positive" business by 2030.
In the strategy unveiled last week, the company acknowledged its business operations have the potential to "significantly affect nature", and said it understood it had a "responsibility and critical role" in delivering a nature positive future.
In addition to a promise to invest millions in nature restoration and biodiversity projects, Aggregate Industries said it will also adopt the recommendations of the Science Based Target Network's Framework for Nature, which sets out how businesses should interact with nature, as well as the Global Goal for Nature, which sets out how organisations can contribute towards nature positivity by 2030.
As part of the plan, Aggregate Industries has pledged to measure the biodiversity value of all of its active aggregate sites by surveying habitats and species, and subsequently implement plans to reduce future negative impacts, restore nature and habitats, and advocate nature positivity.
Moreover, the company said it will ensure that it has biodiversity plans at all of its active UK quarry sites and introduce dedicated plans for nature across all 200 of its sites, while also expanding on an existing programme which has already seen the company plant 105,000 trees as part of a new 64-hectare woodland at its Glensanda quarry in western Scotland.
"It's been widely documented that we are currently in a nature crisis," said Anna Baker, sustainability director at Aggregate Industries UK. "As our primary business model relies on the extraction of natural resources, we know that we need to play our part in contributing to a nature positive future which is why I am so pleased to launch our nature stratgey."
Elsewhere in its nature strategy, Aggregate Industries set out a number of actions to be completed by 2026, including increasing its use of construction demolition materials to three million tonnes per year; reducing its freshwater withdrawal intensity in the production of cement by 30 per cent, and readymix concrete by 3.9 per cent; and establish a Biodiversity Indicator Reporting System (BIRS) and biodiversity baseline roadmap.
It also revealed plans to create a new 'AIUK Wildlife Fund', produce a heatmap to better understand the suppliers which have the greatest potential nature impact, and undertake nature impact assessments on the procurement of five high nature impact products.
As the nature and climate crisis are intrinsically linked, nature-based solutions will play a "vital" role in reducing the impact of climate change, the company said.
Baker said the new strategy "provides clear commitments to ensure we reduce future negative impacts, restore nature and habitats and advocate for nature throughout our entire value chain". "We recognise that during this time we'll be learning, growing and sharing our experiences to deliver the nature-based solutions needed to become Nature Positive by 2030," she added.
The construction supplier's nature strategy announcement comes in the same week as research from construction data firm NBS reported a rise in net zero construction projects, with around seven in 10 building projects found to have sustainability targets.
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