National Portrait Gallery takes steps towards decarbonisation with Salix Low Carbon Skills Fund
The results are in! How we ranked in the Most Sustainable Workplace Index
Contributor
Jack Hayhurst
MSc
Sustainability Consultant
Max Fordham is in the built environment’s top three most sustainable workplaces, according to new research. We took part in a research project by the Most Sustainable Workplace Index (MSWI) and UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) to explore barriers to engaging employees in sustainability within the built environment.
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The project assessed our commitment to sustainability against 17 built environment organisations from a range of sectors. Max Fordham achieved a rating of 72 – significantly outperforming the ‘all-sector’ benchmark and higher than the average of UKGBC participants. It involved a company-wide survey covering three main pillars: autonomy, competence and relatedness, as shown below in the MSWI Framework.
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Survey results
Max Fordham has a 42% survey response rate, which was determined to be a moderate rate.
Three benchmarks were used for reference in the results:
- All Sector Benchmark
- Engineering Benchmark
- UKGBC Benchmark
Overall, we scored higher than the average of UKGBC participants across the three pillars of autonomy, competence and relatedness. For relatedness in particular, the score is close to the top UKGBC score, demonstrating a sense of meaningful connection and belonging with others. These results earned us third spot in the MSWI Leaders Table, with a score of 72.
Key findings from the study showed Max Fordham staff to be highly motivated in terms of sustainability with 97% of the respondents saying that sustainability is important to them. As a result, Max Fordham achieved a high rating of 72 for motivation! This significantly outperforms the all-sector benchmark and is higher than the average of UKGBC participants.
However, 72% said that sustainability is very important to them and indicated that they want more opportunities to implement. This indicates an opportunity to capitalise on ‘latent motivation’. Interestingly, motivation increases linearly with seniority at Max Fordham with graduates the least motivated, demonstrating a need to provide more motivation for junior staff.
We are proud to have achieved an impressive MSWI score and third place in the leaderboard, earning a high ranking among our peers in the industry. The survey results highlight that our team is motivated and driven to perform at their best. Whilst we celebrate this achievement, there’s also an exciting opportunity to build on it, improve further, and maximize our sustainable impact through clear actions. Let’s keep striving for a sustainable future together!
