Background

Henry Brother’s CORE success story has been seven years in-the-making, with the single largest investment in its CR journey being the roll-out of Sustain IQ, an innovative web-based measurement and reporting app which enables personnel to record CR activities in real-time, allowing Henry Brothers to easily track company, regional and project performance. Sustain-IQ serves as a tool by which the business can deliver monthly CR reports and infographics for clients to track and evidence project CR performance.

What Henry Brothers did

For all projects, Henry Bros appoints a CR & Sustainability Champion to work alongside customers to collaboratively develop a joint strategy which aligns with both the client objectives and the wider Henry Brothers’ targets, to deliver mutually beneficial outcomes.

Suppliers are required to meet a number of best practice environmental standards set out in the ‘Supply Chain Sustainability Requirements: Minimum Standards Guidance at Procurement’ document, to deliver a more collaborative, sustainably focused manner of working to reduce Scope 3 GHG emissions.

Commitment to sustainability and ensuring that Henry Bros’s Net Zero Carbon Strategy is promoted and effectively implemented across the business comes from senior leadership level.

Carbon Literacy Training was rolled out to the entire Henry Bros workforce and the business conducted a Life Cycle Analysis that will enable it to influence future clients.

During the pandemic, Henry Bros developed a Nature Park virtual presentation to deliver to local schools, providing interactive biodiversity-focused learning, whilst also ensuring the company’s Biodiversity Charter and overall CORE KPIs were achieved.

An Educational partnership with Queens University is now in its 6th year, where Henry Bros has provided long-term employment for students to conduct quality research projects that have a business focus. The 2021 study was ‘A Comparative Investigation of Carbon Offsetting Strategies for Residual CO2e Emission Reductions’, providing Henry Bros with invaluable data for carbon reduction within the business and on its Net Zero Carbon journey.

Occupational Health Services are delivered by a Not-For-Profit health and wellbeing provider whose mission is to help Henry Bros care for its employees, support career aspirations, and support local communities.

Impacts and Outcomes

• Enhanced Reputation – 1 day per week for the past 3 years has committed to responsible leadership by a growing team of ambassadors
• Collaboration has been crucial to company learning and responsible business development and facilitated the ability to partner on key projects
• Repeat Business as result of commitment to and delivery of social value in the post construction phase
• 10% increase in market share in the educational sector in the past three years
• 50% increase in turnover in the past three years
• Recognised for excellence in people development – 2019 CEF & 2020 Belfast Telegraph Business Award Winners
• Increased Staff Engagement demonstrated via the 2021 Survey
• Long-term partnerships developed, such as those with Rainey and Abaana, to help provide quality education in alignment with SDG 4. A 5-year partnership and funding commitment for Co-Operation Ireland Future Leaders Programme provides a unique opportunity to put 500 young people from challenging backgrounds in some of the most deprived communities through leadership development training
• Achieved a 34% reduction in GHG emissions since 2015 following implementation of the Sustainability Agenda
• Carbon Literacy Training is expected to achieve 5-15% carbon-reduction per person

The Judges said

This company demonstrates strong environmental and sustainability elements across the organisation and its strategy is very thorough and visionary. The company clearly demonstrated how it is using its business to inspire younger people into the construction sector. By participating in appropriate forums across Northern Ireland and beyond, Henry Bros works to inspire and challenge the sector.

Henry Brothers works hard to engage its sub-contractors, not only asking them to meet standards, but also to encourage them to take responsible business actions beyond legal requirements. They are doing far more than is reasonably expected of them.

Henry Brothers understands that responsible business is a journey over a long time and is taking this journey seriously to morph and change to meet the needs of their people, the planet and the places in which they operate.