Safestore is committed to ensuring our buildings are constructed responsibly and their ongoing operation has a minimal impact on local communities and the environment. This is how we believe our business can make a meaningful contribution towards achieving SDG 12 (Responsible consumption and production) and SDG 13 (Climate action).
Our construction team follows sustainable construction principles and, wherever practicable, we use materials that have recycled content or are from sustainable sources.
We monitor the amount of waste and energy usage on every site and introduce efficiencies identified to future building projects.
We design our stores to provide a safe, secure home for our customers’ possessions and we build them with consideration given to our people, our customers, our communities, our investors and the environment.
Standards in construction
Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology (“BREEAM”).
BREEAM certification is a local planning requirement for some of our new stores. The methodology assesses impact and opportunity for enhancing the environmental aspects of design and construction.
The certification includes a review of new store energy, sustainable building materials, water efficiency, waste recycling, and ecology. The review also includes social aspects of the building life including resource management, health, wellbeing, modes of transport, and pollution reduction.
One of our newest builds in Carshalton achieved a ‘Very Good’ rating which placed it in the second highest tier in the areas of land use and ecology, transport, waste, pollution, and energy efficiency.
Regardless of whether a site is BREEAM certified, we are committed to build to a minimum standard of BREEAM ‘Very Good’ on all of our new store developments.
Considerate Constructors Scheme
Construction sites, companies and suppliers voluntarily register with the Considerate Constructors Scheme (“CCS”) scheme and agree to abide by the Code of Considerate Practice, designed to encourage best practice beyond statutory requirements.
The scheme’s purview is any area of construction activity that may have a direct or indirect impact on the image of the industry as a whole. The main areas of concern fall into three categories: the general public, the workforce, and the environment.
We register all of our new store developments with the CCS setting a target score of 36 points for both the shell construction and fitting out of the facility with our construction management partners.
Our 2019/20 new stores scored very highly – with Bedford shortlisted for a CCS award and Carshalton winning a ‘Bronze Considerate Constructors Scheme 2020 National Site Award’. This fantastic achievement highlights the exceptional effort and commitment that our construction team made in raising standards of our new store developments.
Our four registered sites this year produced an average CCS score across the board of 40.25 points.
Safestore standards
We have a long-standing commitment to providing both a long term sustainable investment and a pleasant and safe environment for our customers and colleagues.
Our stores are built or converted to achieve similarly high standards; however, the configuration of an individual store may vary.
Safestore commitments from 2019/20 onwards are:
Best practice – internal/
external expectation |
Safestore commitment |
Applicability |
| BREEAM |
Equivalent to “Very Good” |
Across all new build stores |
| BREEAM |
Very Good/Excellent |
Where part of local planning |
| SUDS |
Included |
Across all new build stores |
| Solar PV |
Roof-mounted PV |
Where part of local planning |
| CCS |
Score 36 or higher |
All new stores |
| Ecology |
Protect existing and improve biodiversity |
Across all new build stores |
| Energy |
Efficient LED lighting with built in motion sensors |
Across all existing and new stores |
| Security |
Operate safe and secure facility |
Across all existing and new stores |
| EPC |
Rated C or higher |
Across all new stores |
Construction material: recycled content
Typically, the construction of one of our stores may include the following:
| Building material |
% of build cost |
% recycled content |
| Steel (main frame) |
4 – 5% |
Minimum 56% |
| Concrete |
3 – 4% |
29% – 37% |
| Cladding (walls and roof) |
7 – 9% |
3% but Kingspan target improvement using recycled bottles by 2030 |
| Particle board (mezzanine floors) |
2% |
85% |
| Brick and block walls |
3 – 5% |
9% – 55% |
| Glazing |
2% |
Glass 25%, aluminium frames 60% |
| Hardcore (piling mat) |
1% |
100% |
Waste and recycling - construction
We carefully monitor our new store construction waste and ensure we separate waste for recycling where possible.
We are currently diverting 97% of all of our construction waste away from landfill, an improvement of 2% from 2016. We aim to increase this to 99% by 2025.
Across our new store projects this year, we recycled or recovered 99% of all soft and hard plastics. We continue to work with our suppliers to minimise plastic packaging arriving on site. We remain committed to ensuring that all plastics are sent for recycling.
We are still working on reducing the use of single non-recyclable plastics at our construction sites in the form of material packaging. We continue to work with our partners and suppliers to cut usage by 50% next year, rising to 75% in 2021/22 and a total ban in 2022/23.
Health and safety
Our health and safety record is excellent. We register all of our new store schemes with the CCS and we are constantly challenging our teams to exceed minimum standards. Safestore has a robust health and safety policy and we have very low incident levels compared with our peers. This year, the number of reportable incidents on our construction sites was zero.
Consultation process
We build our stores with our key stakeholders in mind. As part of the town planning process, we consult widely amongst the community and those most likely to be affected by any development.
Covid-19
During the Covid-19 lockdown period, we closed our active construction sites in Bedford and Sheffield. Following a period of six weeks and having conducted risk assessments with our partners, we were able to safely reopen Covid-secure sites with strict measures in place.
These included:
- social distancing across the site to reduce the number of people working in any one area
- mandatory face coverings where social distancing was not possible
- additional hand washing and sanitising facilities across the site
- limiting of people in communal areas
- additional signage across the site including entrance and exit procedures
- distanced parking and unloading of material
- video conference site meetings
With these measures in place, we successfully completed the construction of the stores and both opened in June 2020.