Strategy

Our new sustainability strategy is a comprehensive approach to environmental stewardship and social responsibility, with a particular emphasis on carbon reduction and energy efficiency across our portfolio.  This update is a comprehensive approach to environmental stewardship and social responsibility, with a particular emphasis on carbon reduction and energy efficiency across our portfolio.

We have set out our ambitious targets and strategic initiatives for the coming years, designed to minimise our environmental footprint and maximise our social impact, whilst creating long-term value for stakeholders.

 

This year we have expanded the parameters of our strategy to cover all parts of ESG we have covered this in sections titled Environmental Responsibility, Social Value and Transparent Governance. Having completed a Double Materiality Assessment in 2024 we now have material issues to focus on, as identified by our stakeholders. Click here for more information about our Double Materiality Assessment process.

Having identified material topics, we have then created a strategy around the ESG elements of those topics, incorporating our Science Based Targets ("SBTs"). These are stretching targets showing our commitment to operating a sustainable responsible business that has as small an impact as possible as our environment.

Stakeholders

 

Big Yellow’s commitments to meet the needs of our five key stakeholder groups: Customers, Employees, Communities, Suppliers and the Environment are set out in the subsections below. The full document on our 'Meeting the needs of our Stakeholders' can be assessed here.

In the below sections we refer to our ESG report and our Annual report, which offer more detail. 

Customers

We are always looking for innovative ways to help make our customers’ lives that bit easier.  We place emphasis on our customers’ wellbeing by looking after them when they move in or out, making them cups of tea or helping to sort out logistics.

To our business customers and National Customers, we are trusted business partners and offer services in addition to storage that enables our customers – many of whom are start ups – to flourish. Read about some of our Online Sellers and business customers in our business pages.

Our approach

• Creating safe, friendly and welcoming environments for the people who work and store in our stores.
  • ESG Report for Customer and Visitor Health & Safety
  • Annual Report for Customer Service performance, Security of our stores and the financial stability of our organisation
• Partnering with customers on supporting worthy causes through The Big Yellow Foundation
  • ESG Report for our broader Community engagement programmes, charitable activities and The Big Yellow Foundation
• Delivering efficient and well-built stores, providing the security and safety our customers require
  • Access our latest ESG Report for our Environmental programmes
  • Access our latest Annual Report for Customer Service performance, Security of our stores and the financial stability of our organisation

Employees

Our people are at the heart of Big Yellow’s business, bringing our values to life through the service they provide and through the energy and passion that drives us.

We want to be the best at what we do, in the most sustainable way possible – our people are a corner stone of delivering our commitments on a daily basis.

Our approach

• We want to create safe and healthy spaces for our employees to work in. Our Annual Report outlines our Staff Health & Safety Data

• We commit to investing in training and development of our people and promoting from within. Our latest ESG Report contains our staff training data

• We believe our employees share our values and commitment to charitable causes and we want to engage and motivate them through the Big Yellow Foundation and other charitable initiatives. Our Annual Report elaborates on The Big Yellow Foundation and how our employees are getting involved

• Work for us! If you are a people person and interested in working for Big Yellow, browse our job vacancies.

• Take a look at our Gender Pay Gap update in our Diversity and Inclusivity Report.

Suppliers

We understand how important our suppliers are to the effectiveness and overall success of our business, so we pride ourselves in building long-term, trusted relationships with our supplier and supply chain partners.

We specifically

• Commit to prompt payment to our small suppliers and we have signed up to the Prompt Payment Code
• Collaborate with our suppliers to deliver better outcomes for everyone. Read about the Considerate Constructor Scheme.
• Work with our supply chain to meet Big Yellow’s CSR standards. Our latest ESG Report outlines our single-use plastic initiative

Payment Practices

Our suppliers deliver vital products and services to our business and we are committed to paying them promptly. Especially our smaller suppliers rely on speedy invoice settlement, so in 2017, we signed up to the Prompt Payment Code (PPC), joining a host of other companies who are committed to trading ethically and setting standards within their supply chain.

We know there is always room for improvement, so we are actively working on reducing the time it takes from getting the invoices to us to settling them. We are also investigating options for automation to improve speed of processing.

We also look to define and publish payment performance measures in the near future.

Joint Initiatives

We rely on our suppliers to bring their expertise and insights to our business and have reached out to them this year for help with addressing single-use plastics. Together with our suppliers, we have identified preferable alternatives to ca 1,600kg worth of single-use plastic packaging (for our covers, padlocks and other products sold in Box Shop) and we are jointly working to replace these with new solutions.

Keep an eye on our ESG Reports to hear about our journey to a single-use plastic free product range.

Supply Chain Risks - UK Modern Slavery Act

In 2016, prompted by the UK Modern Slavery Act legislation, we contacted ca 80 key construction and facility management suppliers to obtain assurance that they had taken the necessary steps to comply with the Act. We were pleased with the responses; we found that our suppliers were committed to adhering to the principles of the Act.

Although reassured by the strong responses of our suppliers, we are currently conducting a broader, companywide review of suppliers, with the aim of:

• Understanding our wider supply chain better – investigating ‘Tier 2’ suppliers
• Re-examining potential risk areas to our business

We have a Whistleblowing Policy in place to assist us in managing this.

We are continuiously engaging with our supply chain to ensure high standards and keep our modern slavery risk as low as possible . If you have any specific questions, please contact CSR@bigyellow.co.uk.

Community

Community is made up of all the people who work and store in our stores and everyone who lives around us.

We want to be a good neighbour, from construction to day to day running of our stores, positively contributing to the local economy and managing our environmental aspects in such a way as to minimise any negative impact and enhance positive ones.

Our approach reflects that we:

• Assess local needs through the statutory planning process
  • please see Sustainable Construction for further information, the Enhancing our Living and Working Space provides some examples
  • the ESG Report provides insights into BREEAM ratings for each store
• Ensure construction activities are executed respectfully and managed and assessed via the Considerate Constructors Scheme
  • we report our performance under the CCS scheme in our annual ESG Report
  • Support charities locally via our community investment and engagement programmes, including The Big Yellow Foundation  read more about our programmes and performance in our annual ESG Report
• Support the local economy by providing work to local people
  • beyond employment we directly create, our stores have a significant GVA of over £1billion.
  • The Big Yellow Foundation and work related activities

Local Charitable Activities

Our stores also house charitable organisations and other not for profits, such as local foodbanks, charity and local community groups.

We donate a significant amount of space to these organisations. Some require short-term space after a catastrophic events, others need longer-term solutions for their equipment or fundraising material. All our stores house some Not-for-Profit organisation and try to help providing there is space available. We know our store teams love to help, so we leave this at the discretion of the local Store Manager with help from our partnership manager and the CSR team – please read more about our community investment performance in our ESG Report.

The Big Yellow Foundation and Work Related Activities

We appreciate that there are individuals within our local communities who bring skills, a great attitude and commitment to any employer but are sadly often overlooked when it comes to employment. Sometimes, people are disabled by barriers in society, meaning it is difficult or impossible for these individuals to access roles that provide the stretch and fulfilment we all would like from our jobs.

Our six charity partners work hard to remove barriers and identify opportunities for these individuals, their clients. The Big Yellow Foundation and Big Yellow are actively working with several them to see how we can be part of the solution.

For any questions specifically in relation with The Big Yellow Foundation, please contact us foundation@bigyellow.co.uk. 

Environment

From sustainable construction and ridding our products from single-use plastic, to generating on site energy (for example through solar PV) we deliver savings, protect the value and attractiveness of our assets and enhance our customer and employer brand by demonstrating our commitment to solid environmental standards.

Our approach

• To design buildings and services to minimise our carbon footprint as far as practicable via a range of mechanisms, such as passive building designs. Get more information under Sustainable Construction
• To provide capital for sustainable construction and development where it is economically viable
  • We have made a range of commitments – please refer to the Sustainable Construction pages for more information
• To improve our operational efficiency and reduce our carbon impact
  • We have made significant investments in LED lighting and motion sensors – please see our ESG Report for specifics
• To constantly invest in solar to expand our estate coverage – please see our ESG Report for the most up to date performance
• To manage climate change risks, including protecting value of assets by reducing flood risk
  • Our Construction and Planning teams assess a range of climate-related risks pre-and during planning, for example planning – please see the Sustainable Construction pages for more information
  • We invest in our assets – reporting on our Green Asset portfolio as part of our CSR reporting. We include aspects such as Sustainable Urban Drainage Designs, green walls / roofs to mitigate potential climate related risks
• To prevent pollution and the waste of resources to protect our environment and our reputation
  • We are working on removing single-use plastics from our product rangers – please see the case study section for further information

We have also an opportunity to enhance and add value to the environment – this is partly through including enhanced green building features, such as living walls or green roofs as part of our Sustainable Construction approach, and partly through small, local initiatives of bird boxes or insect hotels.

Click here for our interactive Environmental Story. 

Task for on Climate-related financial disclosure (TCFD)

We have aligned ourselves to the Core Elements of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosure (TCFD). The Task Force structured its recommendations around four thematic areas that represent core elements of how organizations operate: governance, strategy, risk management, and metrics and targets.

We demonstrate strong governance as evidenced through the latest FTSE4Good score on Corporate Governance and GRESB Management scored at 87 out of 100.

We have refreshed our Sustainability strategy to ensure a more balanced approach to our key aspects and impact. Most notably, we have formulated our commitments to Community, Customers and Suppliers.

We have a very strong business risk management approach in place and report annual on key risks and our mitigation strategies – see our Annual Report and Accounts. We recognise that our forward looking, climate-related risks and

GRI and EPRA

We report our data using the  Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA) codes where applicable, please find out more under Performance Standards.

Materiality

As a developer and operator of self storage facilities since 1999, the nature of our business has not changed; since then we have been in a sustained period of acquisition and expansion, which made it necessary and right to deliver strong, environmental stewardship. 
At that time, the focus of our sustainability strategy was to assess and minimise the impact our operations have on the environment and other stakeholder groups. We developed an environmental, operational aspect and Impact register, which has held us in good stead. 
Now, with climate change a new reality, understanding how a changing environment impacts on our business has introduced additional aspects to materiality and long-term strategies.
Social topics too have risen in relevance and are of significant interest to several of our stakeholder groups. 

Long term, our care for our Environment and how we respond to changes driven by climate change are likely to remain ongoing, long-term material issues to our business. We see a strengthening of relevance both on social and environmental aspects, particularly as we explore opportunities to strengthen our customer and employer brand value.
Please click here for our Materiality Assessment.
 

Sustainability Strategy

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