Materiality
MATERIALITY
The creation of our first materiality assessment for Big Yellow Store operations was conducted in 2007 with a refresh performed in 2011. Our most material environmental impacts are the combined impacts of heating, cooling, lighting, use of lifts, and our security systems in our stores and head office.
We have been in a long and sustained period of acquisition and expansion, which made it necessary and right to focus on environmental stewardship. Our CSR reports till 2017 reflected this during that period.
As a developer and operator of self storage facilities, the nature of our business has not changed and we can confirm that the most material environmental impacts remain largely the same.
We have therefore determined to broaden our scope and assess sustainability materiality against core aspects of Big Yellow’s business strategy, namely:
• Market leading services & strong brand
• Excellent customer service
• Great culture & high employee engagement – training & skills
• Create sustainable returns for shareholders
• Cost control & efficiency
• Long term growth
We identify what matters most by consulting with experts and peers across the sustainability field, engaging with stakeholders, monitoring external trends, assessing risks, benchmarking performance and working with people across our business as well our partners’ businesses such as suppliers and charity partners.
The result of which is our newly-launched sustainability strategy, which now recognises a broader core stakeholder group, consisting of our customers, employees, suppliers, communities and the environment.
Environmental Material Issues (in order of significance)
| Aspect | Definition |
|---|---|
| Energy use | The efficiency of energy use within Big Yellow’s stores (including energy used by our customers in our stores and flexi offices) |
| Energy use and emissions to air | Through customer and employee transport for example |
| Raw material and resource use | The depletion of natural resources and contribution to solid waste if not recycled, from our packaging materials for example |
| Disposal to land | Disposal to municipal landfill and disposal to recycling sites including special or hazardous waste |
| Aspect | Definition |
|---|---|
| Taxes | The applicability of taxes dependent on reducing emissions or energy use, such as the Carbon Reduction Commitment for example |
| Regulations | The applicability of regulations and their impact on operations at Big Yellow, such as specific reporting requirements |
| Fiscal incentives | The applicability and continued availability of market instruments to encourage sustainable business cases for example FITs for onsite renewables installations |
| Biodiversity | Diversity of plant and animal species across Big Yellow stores |
| Adaptation (to Climate Change) | Big Yellow’s ability to adapt to current and future climate changes and associated issues, including flooding, changing temperature and weather patterns and climate change regulations |