Environmental, Social and Governance at Hargreaves Services PLC
ESG at Hargreaves continues to develop and advance strategically, operationally, and culturally at all levels of the organisation. The Board acknowledges the role of ESG as a conduit to business growth, while also benefiting the environment, the community, and its stakeholders. Adopting a sustainability approach to business also reduces risk and promotes long-term client relationships by fostering ESG strategies that add value to services and benefit both parties.
The Group Recognises ESG as:
"A set of standards that measure the business’s impact on the environment and society, and how robust and accountable its governance is."
The Group maintains an informed position to ensure awareness of the market ESG drivers, demands, and the need to monitor, manage, and mitigate potential environmental impact resulting from business activities. Through its ESG strategy and activity, the Group aims to continually advance its sustainability performance, which it recognises as increasingly important for commercial, environmental, and ethical reasons.
Highlights from FY25
Targets achieved:
- The Group achieved PAS 2080 accreditation, demonstrating its commitment to carbon reduction in Earthworks operations.
- The Group achieved a Gold rating from the Supply Chain Sustainability School, advancing from a Silver rating.
- An in-house digital platform has been created and designed specifically for measuring and reporting against external environmental and social frameworks
Other Highlights
- Key milestones set out for 2025 in the Group’s first Net Zero Plan have been achieved. The Plan has been reviewed and republished.
- The Group has developed its environmental data management to enable real-time monitoring and reporting, aiding with metric and target-setting against the Net Zero Plan.
- Over 165000 trees have been planted on land owned by the Group, amounting to the equivalent of over 1.7million kg of carbon per year.
- The Group’s CSR fund has provided over £51k for circa 100 beneficiaries, ranging from grassroots sports to employee-based charity fundraisers.
The ESG Working Group
The ESG Working Group, now in its 4th year, has benefited from the addition of a newly appointed Head of ESG & Marketing. The Group has been extended for increased company representation, and the meeting cadence has been increased to monthly to further momentum. Key areas of focus include Net Zero Plan progress, carbon reporting, sustainability-related compliance and risks, social value impact, and industry best practice.
The ESG Working Group reports quarterly to the Board and is now also featured as a standing agenda item in all Board meetings, giving it more prominence and maintaining awareness. It recommends proposals to the Board for actions, targets and metrics to be adopted to illustrate the Group’s response to climate change, including reporting in compliance with statutory obligations. This internal governance and regular communication work to keep all informed and promote engagement with core ESG activity at the highest levels in the organisation.
ESG Working Group Philosophy
All operations and core Group functions are represented in the ESG Working Group. The shared view and approach for all stakeholders in the Group is to adopt Group ESG standards and practices. The ESG Working Group convenes to provide senior expertise, share learnings across the business, and collaborate to identify optimal solutions to the emerging challenges and opportunities that the businesses face and foresee.
Recognising the broad remit of ESG, the Group has introduced the framework below to bring added structure and focus to the company’s ESG effort. This serves as a reference point for planning, highlighting core work streams, and aligning work programmes and priorities.
Environmental
Sustainability Framework & Standards
The Group acknowledges and supports international sustainability frameworks, including the 17 United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (“UNSDGs), where applicable in the business, and identifies with the below nine goals:
- Good Health and Wellbeing
- Quality Education
- Gender Equality
- Affordable and Clean Energy
- Decent Work and Economic Growth
- Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure
- Reduced Inequalities
- Sustainable Cities and Communities
- Climate Action
The Group adheres to the UK Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR), which draws on global best practice and international leading standards. This includes the former ‘Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures’ (TCFD), which has transitioned to the ‘International Sustainability Standards Board’ (ISSB) and the issuing of the ‘International Financial Reporting Standards’ (IFRS) Sustainability Disclosure Standards S1 and S2.
Environmental Reporting
The ESG Group continues to advance the business’s data collation, monitoring, reporting, and analysis to facilitate operational ESG insights, goal setting, and reporting for internal requirements and external legal frameworks. This includes reviewing emissions data sources for accuracy, standardising emissions metrics across businesses, collating additional data for greater analysis, and further development of real-time reporting.
Data reports are also shared with nominated ‘Net Zero Subgroups’ to equip colleagues working in an operational capacity to monitor, track, and help identify ways to improve carbon emissions. This exercise also serves to disseminate information across the business and raise awareness.
The Group has invested in the development of a specially designed data gathering and reporting tool, which continues to be advanced and is already proving to streamline data processes and reporting, digitising previously manual tasks and enabling the early stages of a data bank.
Climate-Related Risk Assessments
Hargreaves Services plc and the businesses within the Group face numerous climate-related risks. Such business risks are referred to as ‘potential financial and operational disruptions a company may face due to climate change’.
All the operational areas in the Group maintain a business-specific climate-related risk assessment, which was reviewed and renewed in May 2025. The climate-related risk assessment identifies risks that are broadly categorised into physical and transitional risks. It includes an overview of potential mitigations and reductions for each inherent risk. This includes highlighting protocols, processes, and compliance for management, working practices, health and safety, and business continuity, to minimise business disruption and ensure the safety and wellbeing of employees. All assessments are reviewed biannually as deemed necessary.
The Group also maintains and regularly reviews its insurance cover for comprehensiveness and holds financial reserves for business security.
Net Zero Plan
The Group published its first Net Zero Plan in May 2024, with a target of being net zero by 2050. This included roadmaps for Corporate Emissions, Plant Emissions, Vehicle Emissions and Maintenance, Construction & Infrastructure Emissions as well as an 8-point plan with key milestones to achieve.
The plan was critically reviewed at least annually by the ESG Working Group, which confirmed the Group has met its core objectives for 2024 and those in 2025 to date and is on course to achieve its near-term targets, noting the earthmoving business achieved a 20% decrease in plant carbon emissions per machine hour.
An updated version of the Plan was agreed and has been added to the company website; no changes have been made to the core timelines and objectives.
Industry Benchmarking
The Group is a member of the ‘Supply Chain Sustainability School’ (SCSS) – an industry-recognized platform that promotes a collaborative sector-wide approach to developing sustainability competence in supply chains. Through the SCSS, the Group conducts periodic sustainability assessments that identify areas for development while also providing high-quality training content.
The Group also subscribes to ‘Ecovadis’ - a globally recognised assessment platform that rates businesses’ sustainability based on environmental impact, labour, and human rights standards, ethics, and procurement practices. This platform also serves to provide an independent assessment of the Group’s sustainability performance and maturity and is another useful data and training source.
Environmental Standards
The Group maintains ISO9001, ISO14001, ISO45001, and ISO270001, demonstrating both the business’s commitment to excellence and its quality standards.
The Group has also achieved and retained the Carbon Management in Infrastructure and Built Environment PAS2080 accreditation following an external audit by BSI earlier this year. The certification is a standard for managing whole-life carbon across the lifecycle of buildings and infrastructure and aims to commit suppliers to decarbonising the built environment and effective carbon management.
Sustainability Initiatives
The Group has continued to build on previous years’ sustainability initiatives, while also extending the ‘in-scope’ activities to broaden its impact. During FY25, the Group has improved its sustainability practices in core operations, including environmental management, energy and carbon, procurement, waste recycling, people-related policies, training and skills, and social value to improve business practices.
Sustainability initiatives have resulted from a combination of ESG Working Group activities, Net Zero Plan milestones and targets, and improvements in service delivery to meet and exceed client and market expectations.
There are some market-leading sustainability practices underway across the Group, which influence industry standards and further reduce the environmental impact of their operations.
Land
Hargreaves Land has continued to develop its renewable energy schemes, which now feature on numerous sites and. To date, 21 wind turbines have been installed on the 2,000-hectare development by Brockwell Energy at East Ayrshire. Once operational, the wind turbines will generate enough green energy to power the equivalent of 168,000 homes each year. In addition, over the project’s lifetime, it is estimated that the windfarm will generate £65 million in community benefit funds.
The second phase of the development, dubbed ‘Europe’s largest battery storage project’, is underway in South Lanarkshire in conjunction with a leading energy company. Plans for the facility include up to 1 GW of energy storage. Blindwells, the Group’s flagship residential site near Edinburgh, has continued to progress to provide muchneeded housing for the local population. New land contracts will see a further 100 new homes being built, with almost half to be allocated to affordable rented housing built on one plot. Through a separate contract, on an 11-acre site, there will be a further 174 energy-efficient homes built, with 52 dedicated to affordable housing.
Over 174,000 trees have now been planted on Hargreaves-owned land, and an additional 3,000 trees have been planted at the Westfield development this year alone, amounting to over 1.7m kg of Carbon per year.
There are currently three operational windfarms on Hargreaves’ owned land, and access is facilitated to a further five windfarms located on third-party land.
The land team working with the Environmental Services team has remediated a further 50ha of land in the Ayrshire region, returning once barren landscapes to places where biodiversity can be restored and forestry can resume. This brings the total land restored to over 290 ha since the programme started in 2015.
We continue to lead the way in sustainable earthmoving. Our fleet is the only one in the UK to contain two electric excavators, as we continue to work closely with our partners to deliver innovative low-carbon solutions to UK infrastructure.
The Group has also committed to supporting the ‘5 Client Carbon Commitments’, an initiative by the Construction Leadership Council (CLC), which aims to provide a common language and ways of working between clients and core supply chain businesses and to reduce carbon in projects and practice.
Services
In conjunction with Durham County Council, we have launched a new lower-carbon bulk waste management service, following the introduction of Iveco Bio-CNG vehicles, a new ‘greener’ Bio-CNG (Compressed Natural Gas) fuelled option.
Recycling & Reuse Consumption use Following successful trials, it is estimated that the new Iveco Bio-CNG vehicles, now operational, will reduce carbon emissions per vehicle by approximately 80% annually, and reduce Nitrogen Oxide (Nox) emissions substantially, compared to diesel equivalents, providing a greener waste transport service. This marks the first Bio-CNG operational contract and will serve as an example for future operations. Hydrogenated Vegetable Oil (HVO)-fuelled vehicles are also provided as an option for clients and have been for many years. This service is further supplemented by a new telematics system, which improves operational efficiency of the fleet.
More than 80% of materials collected and transferred by the fleet go on to be used for circulator practices as part of production/ recycling/upcycling processes.
The Group increased the amount of social value activity in the last year, including community and employment initiatives. We have also been recognised for our health and safety practices and scooped an award at the Suez Sustainable Supplier Awards. The ‘People Safety Award’, which recognises the effectiveness of technologies used to highlight the dangers of blind spot areas.
The business has also enhanced its materials testing services, including the testing of byproduct ash to ensure suitable specification and integrity for use in construction. The Group’s waste handling service continues to grow and, in turn, increases its positive contribution to the environment by diverting considerable amounts of various wastes that would otherwise go to landfill, and instead locating alternative repurposing/upcycling projects that can benefit.
The aggregates team has introduced recycled materials for sale, including sands, single-size aggregates, recycled glass sand, and topsoil.
Hargreaves’ role in supporting a circular UK economy is increasing. The services we provide can all enable ‘waste’ or ‘byproduct’ materials to be collated, transferred, and recycled or reused by other businesses.
No significant environmental incidents were reported in the year within the Group.
Sustainability Initiatives
Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR)
The Group's Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3 emission data is set out in the table below:
| Tonnes of CO2e - 2025 | Tonnes of CO2e - 2024 | |
| Scope 1 and 2 Global GHG Emissions | ||
| Combustion of Fuels in Operations and Services Provided | 23,435 | 21,856 |
| Electricity, Steam, Heat and Cooling for Own Use | 170 | 194 |
| Total Footprint | 23,605 | 22,050 |
| Emissions Reported Above Per Employee | 16.1 | 15.7 |
| Scope 3 | ||
| Business Travel (Air, Rail and Vehicles) | 599 | 455 |
| Electricity - Transmission Distribution | 15 | 17 |
| Total Annual Gross Emissions | 24,219 | 22,512 |
| Green Electricity Tariffs | 145 | 173 |
| Trees Planted | 1745 | 1715 |
| Total Annual Net Emissions | 22,329 | 20,624 |
| Transport CO2e per Mile | 0.71 | 0.71 |
| BEL Co2e Per Machine Hour | 47.34 | 59.80 |
Summary
The table above shows an increase in Scope 1 emissions, which reflects an increase in business activity, particularly the earthworks operations at Sizewell C Nuclear Power Station as work on the project has ramped up. This is largely due to an increase in plant usage, which has affected the emissions per employee metric.
Total carbon net emissions have increased by 8.3% since the year ended on 31st May 2024 compared with a revenue increase of 25.2%. The emissions are not offset as the Group does not undertake carbon offsetting in conjunction with third parties. Any carbon offsetting reported is as a result of the Group’s own business activity or that resulting from trees planted on company-owned land
Methodology
The Group takes an operational approach to reporting following ISO1406:1. Calculations of fuel CO2 conversions are based on the UK Government’s Conversion Factors.
Scope 1 emissions are based on the total number of litres of fuel used in operations during the financial year, which are then converted using an appropriate factor.
Scope 2 emissions are based on the total kWh of electricity and gas used at the Group’s owned premises, converted using an appropriate factor.
Scope 3 emissions are based on the total litres of fuel purchased for business travel as well as an estimate of emissions for business flights and the impact of the transmission and distribution of the Group’s electricity usage.
As the Group predominantly provides services, the ‘emissions per employee’ calculation is used as it is the most meaningful intensity ratio.
The Board considers the disclosures above meet the requirements of the Companies Act 2006 sections 414CA and 414CB (2A) with the exclusion of paragraphs 414CB (2A) (e), (f), (g), and (h) as the Board considered there to be no such material risks.
Carbon Innovation: 8-Point Plan
In addition to the commitments made in the Group's Net Zero Plan roadmaps, the Carbon Innovation Plan is to be delivered.
- Plant 1.8 million trees by 2035
- Enable the installation of renewable energy schemes on our land, including wind, battery storage and minewater heating
- Support the National Highways/LTC Sustainable Earthworks programme
- Support the development European Standards for Sustainable Earthworks
- Provide clients with low carbon solutions and improve whole life cycle
- BREEAM assessments will be completed where we undertake direct developments of commercial units
- Deliver energy and environmental impact awareness training for staff
- Implement plans for Waste Management/Energy Management and Sustainability Sourcing
Social
Employee Wellbeing
The Group operates a range of initiatives to support wellbeing for employees, including flexible working, remote working, and an ‘Employee Assistance Programme’ (EAP) which provides confidential mental, physical, legal and financial support free of charge.
Mental Health First Aiders are accessible to all employees, providing one-to-one confidential support and signposting for further specialist support. The industrial services business launched a “Winter Wellbeing Pack” offering free advice, help, and support for employees through the winter months.
Health & Safety
The utmost importance is placed on health and safety across the business. Over the last year, we have continued to build on our zero-tolerance approach to safety incidents including the recruitment of additional health and safety personnel to audit procedures to ensure high standards are maintained, hosting a twice-annual dedicated health and safety conference to raise awareness, educate, and further improve practices, and increasing the number of mental health first aiders. Several health and safety-related awards and nominations have also been received across the Group.
Social Value
Over 500 hours have been dedicated to social value activity in the earthmoving business alone, with other activity taking place across the Group. This includes outreach wellbeing workshops to hundreds of professionals, career events, community events, educational projects, and more.
Social value is an increasing area of activity for the Group and 2026 will see this positive impact increase.
Over £51,000 from the Group’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) fund was donated in 2024-2025 to benefit over 100 worthy causes ranging from grassroots sports clubs to community projects.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
The chart below shows the mean difference (average) hourly rate between men and women. Within the Hargreaves Group, the main areas of employment are in the logistics, earthmoving, and infrastructure services businesses, this work includes material handling and maintenance.
The majority of roles within the above sectors are direct workers, i.e., labourers, drivers, and machine operators, and include shift work with irregular working patterns. The median gender pay gap was 8.7% (2024: 16.9%). The hourly rates are higher for males, and the median bonus average is higher for females. The percentage of females receiving a bonus at 49% (2024: 58%) is also greater than the percentage of males receiving a bonus at 30% (2024: 42%).
The causes of the gender pay gap are varied. The sectors the Group operates in tend to result in more males applying for positions than females, due to the nature of the work. However, the Group is actively seeking to support women into roles they may not typically consider. This includes campaigning for women to join the earthmoving business where a wide range of roles are on offer, including drivers, engineers and administrative roles.
Group Ethnicity Split
- White British - 70%
- Asian - 21%
- Black African - 3%
- Not Disclosed - 2%
- White African - 2%
- Indian - 1%
- Black British - 0%
- Mixed Race - 0%
Group Gender Split
- Female - 12%
- Male - 88%
The group workforce was increased in 24/25 in core areas, including ESG, health and safety, recruitment, as well as operational roles in engineering, and plant operatives to enhance service performance. Updated family-friendly right policies have been implemented to include neonatal and carers to support employees.
Apprenticeships and graduate placements are in place to provide career pathways to young people. Ongoing training is provided to all employees in the Group.
Governance
Code of Practice
Hargreaves continues to build upon its high standards of corporate governance and follows the Quoted Companies Alliance Corporate Governance Code 2018 (‘QCA Code), complying with the ten principles set out.
The earthmoving business has achieved the PAS2080 accreditation, which aims to ensure business operations are sustainability-focused and have demonstrable carbon reduction initiatives.
The Group maintains high standards of operations and holds ISO9001, ISO14001, ISO45001, and ISO 270001 accreditations.
The ISO accreditations are internationally recognised and ensure that services are safe, reliable, and of a high standard.
The logistics business holds the FORS accreditation, which aims to raise the quality within the fleet operations in relation to best practice, efficiency, and environmental protection.
Further information on corporate governance, including the role of the Main Board, Audit and Risk Committee and Nomination Committee are set out in this Annual Report.
NFSIS Report
| NFSIS Recommended Disclosure | Actions Taken |
| Governance | |
| Describe the Board’s oversight of climate-related risks and opportunities |
|
| Describe management’s role in assessing and managing climate-related risks and opportunities |
|
| Strategy | |
| Describe the climate related risks and opportunities the organisation has identified over the short, medium and long term. | The recently published Net Zero Plan sets out many near-term and longer-term opportunities for the reduction of carbon in our operations. This includes:
|
| Describe the impact of climate-related risks and opportunities on the organisations business, strategy, and financial planning |
|
| Describe the resilience of the organisation’s strategy, taking into consideration different climate-related scenarios. |
|
| Risk Management | |
| Describe the organisation’s process for identifying and assessing climate-related risks | The risk assessment process for climate-related risks forms part of the risk assessment process of all Group risks. The details are set out within the Risk Management Report. |
| Describe the organisation’s process for managing climate-related risks. | The risk management process for climate-related risks forms part of the risk assessment process of all Group risks. The details are set out within the Risk Management Report. |
| Describe how processes for identifying, assessing and managing climate-related risks are integrated into the organisation’s overall risk management. | The risk assessment process for climate-related risks forms part of the risk assessment process of all Group risks. The details are set out within the Risk Management Report. |
| Metrics and Targets | |
| Disclose the metrics used by the organisation to assess climate-related risks and opportunities | The Scope 1 and 2 carbon emissions, as measured by the SECR framework, represent the key metrics by which the Group measures its performance against carbon-related risks and opportunities. Details of scope 1 and 2 emissions can be found in the ESG Report. |
| Disclose Scope 1, Scope 2, and, if appropriate, Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions |
|
| Describe the targets used by the organisation to manage climate-related risks and opportunities, and performance against targets. | The scope 1 and 2 emissions, as measured through the SECR framework, are regularly monitored through the ESG Group. |
Focus for 2026
ESG continues to develop at Hargreaves. The Group aims to identify new ways to add value to services provided to clients through increasingly sustainability-focused operations that benefit all stakeholders.
In the year ahead, this will include identifying ways to improve the Group’s ESG credentials from a more holistic perspective, developing the delivery of social value initiatives, exploring technologies to improve efficiencies, and implementing more initiatives to reduce the Group’s carbon footprint.
The below targets have also been set for the year ahead:
- Develop a consistent data dashboard for all internal ESG data using Hargreaves' in-house digital reporting platform
- Increase the Group's Ecovadis score by 20% to support winning new work
- Implement and launch a volunteering scheme for the UK Group