In May 2021, Countryside launched a new sustainability approach to focus its efforts and resources on the most pressing social and environmental issues. 27 quantitative targets have been set, including science-based carbon targets that have been verified by the international Science-Based Targets Initiative.

The company has also committed to supporting and driving action across 12 of the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). A critical element to achieving this ambition was having accurate, clear, and useable data from its construction projects, factories, and offices.

Countryside’s rapid growth created challenges with data capture and management. It now has multiple offices and manufacturing facilities spread across the UK, as well as hundreds of construction projects. This meant it needed to establish a unified and consistent approach to collecting data on carbon, energy and water usage, and waste output.

Manual spreadsheet data management was sufficient when the company was smaller. But Countryside’s growth made this increasingly complex and time-consuming, and threatened to overwhelm these manual processes.

Countryside partnered with SmartWaste to unify its reporting approach and improve the capture and reporting of waste, water and energy data. This was designed to meet its reporting goals across scopes 1 and 2, and now working towards scope 3. SmartWaste was key to improving the speed, accuracy and consistency of data and the quality of information.

By implementing SmartWaste, Countryside has been able to measure performance accurately and consistently. This has supported the company in meeting its ambitious environmental and sustainability goals, while undergoing rapid growth.

Countryside also implemented the SmartWaste Application Programming Interface (API) for its waste management contractors (WMCs).

Countryside has been able to deliver on its scope 1 and scope 2 carbon reporting obligations. SmartWaste has also helped Countryside to improve on its sustainability and environmental measures, including the following:

• Scope 1 total CO2e per 100m2 built at 1.12

• Scope 2 total CO2e per 100m2 built at 0.29

• Total water in (m3) per 100m2 built at 3.18 (down from 4.00 in 2019)

For Countryside, the benefits of using SmartWaste include:

• Improved the speed and accuracy of data

• Automated capture of waste transport data

• Measure performance accurately and consistently

Countryside is developing its scope 3 reporting requirements and working with SmartWaste to implement data capture functionality for its supply chain. It’s also considering reporting of non-financial indicators, such as quantifying the number of electric vehicles charging points on a development project; the use of sustainable technologies; and the extent of open, public green spaces.

SmartWaste is also helping Countryside achieve its ambitious commitment to the future, to build responsibly and efficiently. Countryside is aiming to reduce construction waste intensity by 20% by 2025 and maintain at least 98% of waste diverted from landfill by 2025.