Ghislaine Halpenny, Director of ESG and Corporate Affairs, Regal London
What is your role at Regal London, and what does it involve?
I'm the Director of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) and Corporate Affairs, so I look after all our sustainability efforts. That includes our internal diversity policies, Net Zero, social value, and biodiversity.
I’m one of eight board members and report directly to the CEO (Chief Executive Officer). So ESG is something we talk about at board level regularly.
When did Regal London start focusing on sustainability, ESG and the social value agenda?
We were founded 25 years ago by Paul Eden and Simon De Friend. It was much smaller when founded, but has grown organically over the last two decades. Of course, there’s always been a focus on charity, particularly charities supporting young people, but that’s broadened and formalised in recent years.
There are various driving factors to our social value and ESG commitments, but fundamentally it’s the right thing to do.
Can you tell me about Transforming London, Regal London’s sustainability program?
Transforming London is our sustainability program launched a couple of years ago; the fundamental premise behind it is that we want to make sure that we leave areas better than when we arrived.
So, whether socially, environmentally, or economically. We know that we’ll leave the area more beautiful, but we want to ensure that we hit all those touchpoints. So, our sustainability program has four limbs. The first is transitioning to net zero; we’ve ambitiously set a target of 2030.
The built environment sector is responsible for 40% of the world’s carbon emissions. So, we’re up there with the big offenders, and quite frankly, the solutions are not yet obvious, but we make sure that we build it in at an early stage within our process.
The second part of our sustainability strategy is around technology. One of the reasons behind this is that rather than waiting for the world to tell us what to do, we invested in Modulous, a PropTech business that simplifies the process.
And then the last two limbs are biodiversity and social value. Our social value primarily focuses on our training academies and then, in addition to that, partnerships on a case-by-case basis. We have partnerships with schools and with local businesses to try and make sure that we can support our neighbours, as well as all our stakeholders. We make sure that we can meet and work with as many as possible.
Can you tell us about your partnership with Building Heroes?
Building Heroes is a charity that trains ex-military in construction skills. Which is close to our hearts, having an in-house construction business. So, there are three reasons why we started this initiative.
We feel it’s imperative to bring social value to everything we do; it’s not simply about creating beautiful places but also about making sure that people benefit too.
We know that hoardings go up around a building site in many cases, and people don’t necessarily know what goes on behind that door. So, by opening our sites, letting people come in, and encouraging people who might not otherwise set foot on a building site; we are breaking down those barriers about what construction is.
We have a construction skills crisis that’s only going to deepen. With Brexit we saw an exodus of people from these shores. We also have an ageing construction workforce who don’t necessarily want to continue doing manual work. So, there is an urgent need for new talent in construction. By working with ex-military, we can give them construction skills and help them find work.
We have construction skills academies on site. The first is at Watford, with another opening in Brent just after Christmas. We train around 70 to 80 learners on-site every year. They undergo an intensive five-week training course, which is the equivalent of a year’s training. They leave the course with experience in five different trades, a CSCS (Construction Safety Certification Scheme) card, and a health and safety qualification.
We’ve seen real success since we launched in April 2022. We’re running a hit rate of 100%; those who have attended a Training Academy and wanted a job within the construction sector now have them.
We’re proud that we are the only organisation in London who has this relationship with Building Heroes.
Photo by: Clem Onojeghuo on Unsplash
You have an in-house construction team. So, what does that mean? Are you subcontracting all the physical on-site works, and do you request social value commitments from your subcontractors?
We have an in-house construction team responsible for all our design, procurement, and delivery. However, we have subcontractors who sit underneath that. We also have a presence on-site through our in-house team, so we have a controlled overview of what’s happening, particularly around design and quality.
Our approach to social value commitments is looked at site-by-site. So, there may be some sites where we include a requirement for apprentices and a certain proportion of local labour. We always encourage our subcontractors to recruit locally, which is undoubtedly essential to the local boroughs within which we work.
We encourage our subcontractors to come and visit our Training Academies and to come and meet our learners.
So, what’s the best part about your job?
The easy answer in a word is the people.
This industry is all about people and changing lives. It’s about making a practical difference, a tangible difference. So, the best bit about my job is seeing that difference.
What’s the hardest thing about doing what you do?
I spin many plates, whether corporate comms at one end or net zero at the other. There’s an awful lot of things that I look after. So, the most challenging thing about what I do is finding the time for all that and then still managing to somehow go home at the end of the day and find time for all the other bits and pieces. But I wouldn’t change any of it.
“This industry is all about people and changing lives. It’s about making a practical difference, a tangible difference. So, the best bit about my job is seeing that difference. ”
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