EMCOR UK awarded Gold for sustainability in first SFMI assessment

EMCOR UK has received the Gold Award for its first assessment by the Sustainable Facilities Management Index (SFMI). The accreditation follows an extensive assessment that began in July 2023. The organisations’ performance was evaluated across 23 ESG criteria that align with major ESG frameworks and are also highly relevant to the facilities management industry. 

The SFMI gave EMCOR UK an overall score of 82%, qualifying for gold. This is the average of the scores it received for the three key areas of the report: governance, society, and the environment. 

The SFMI commended EMCOR UK’s well-structured internal approach towards its change activities. In terms of its governance scores, the effectiveness of its collaboration, social value, ED&I, and employee engagement programmes were highlighted as particular strengths. EMCOR UK performed above average in governance compared to other firms assessed by the SFMI.

EMCOR UK’s internal initiatives were identified as robust, and opportunities to close skills gaps with schemes like apprenticeships were praised, both of which contributed to its high social score. For its environment assessment, the major strength was in EMCOR UK’s progress on its decarbonisation programme and circular economy development.

The Gold Award reflects the organisations’ strong internal ESG delivery, but the SFMI also made suggestions that could further improve its score. These included the communication and roll out of ESG initiatives across client accounts and the wider supply chain network.

Another recommendation was to develop climate risk reporting in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and UK Sustainability Disclosure Standards (UKSDS) to meet customer and internal compliance requirements. These initiatives are currently being worked on, as is improved scope 3 emissions reporting.

Jonathan Gawthrop, executive director, risk & sustainability at EMCOR UK, said: “We are delighted to receive such a strong score from the SFMI as it gives us external verification that our ESG programme is on the right track. It’s particularly pleasing to see that we have performed above average in the governance and social areas. Of course, the recommendations for improvement are just as important and we’ll be taking all the SFMI’s feedback on board. We’ll be back next time hoping to show further progress and aiming for the Platinum Award.