Category Archive

The Useful Simple Trust is proud to share our 2024-25 Impact Report. This year we are focusing on the theme of ‘collaborative innovation’, showcasing how our work to unite diverse expertise and foster cross-industry partnerships is really delivering impact on the ground.

The built environment faces unprecedented challenges: achieving net-zero carbon emissions, adapting to climate change, addressing biodiversity loss, and meeting growing infrastructure demands within planetary boundaries. These systemic challenges cannot be solved in isolation. They require breadth of expertise, broad perspectives, and the collective drive to push for better outcomes.

Innovation through collaboration sits at the heart of everything we do. We believe progress happens faster when knowledge is shared, which is why we continue to invest in long-standing, cross-industry programmes that help drive transformation and practical education across the built environment. From pioneering industry-shifting innovation to advancing social value, our four collaborative innovation themes demonstrate how meaningful partnerships create solutions that ripple far beyond organisational boundaries.

This Report presents some of the achievements we are most proud to share with you, from our B Corp recertification with a 32% score improvement to the real-world impact of projects like the AVA Footbridge, our nature-based solutions at Langleybury Estate, and our continued commitment to education through programmes like Constructionarium and Climate Ed.

Read the Report here.

On Thursday 26 June, our team dedicated four hours to support High Trees at their Tulse Hill Adventure Playground – part of our annual Summer Social and ongoing commitment to community partnership.

High Trees has been established since 1998, addressing a reality we see all too often across London: young people in one of the world’s wealthiest cities still struggling to access opportunities that help them thrive. Their work spans adventure play, accredited adult education, employment support, and community programming across Lambeth.

Hands-on contribution

The adventure playground serves as a community project that requires ongoing maintenance to support the year-round programming families rely on.

By tackling practical improvements – such as refreshing paintwork across key buildings, clearing overgrown pathways to create more accessible play space, and organising storage systems – we directly enable High Trees to maintain the initiatives that create real impact in their community.

Why this matters

High Trees’ mission is straightforward: ‘helping people make meaningful changes to live happier, healthier, and more connected lives‘. The playground is an example of how sustained investment in public spaces creates lasting benefits – fostering early intervention, skill development, and connection to address challenges at their source.

Our Summer Social serves multiple purposes: it fulfills our annual commitment as a B Corp while strengthening collaboration across our diverse multidisciplinary teams. Most importantly, it demonstrates how we can support community development through direct contribution rather than just financial support.

Graham Weston, the Head of Community Action at High Trees, commented; “It was such a pleasure to host you at the Adventure Playground last week – your energy and teamwork made a real difference. The Playground is looking fantastic, thanks to your collective efforts. We really appreciate the time and care you put in to making an impact.”

A huge thank you to Graham and the entire High Trees team for accommodating us!

Learn more about the amazing work High Trees are doing on their website.

The Useful Simple Trust (UST) has reached a significant milestone in our climate action journey, advancing from Silver to Gold certification as a Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO). This achievement demonstrates our commitment to embedding climate-conscious practices across our family of brands and throughout our organisational culture.

Our carbon literacy journey

Climate action stands at the heart of our ‘Get Set Zero’ initiative and unites all the Trust brands in a shared purpose. While many of our team members already operate as leaders in carbon reduction within their respective fields, we recognised the value of formalising and expanding this expertise through the Carbon Literacy Project’s certification framework.

The CLO accreditation uses a tiered system – Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum – requiring increasingly robust commitments to climate action and low-carbon cultural transformation. Having achieved Silver certification last year, our progression to Gold reflects our organisational commitment to addressing the climate crisis.

Secured Gold status

Our certification journey involved several strategic initiatives:

• Specialised Carbon Literacy (CL) training to 55% of our workforce, using materials tailored to the specific needs of organisations transforming the built environment.
• Development of our first external-facing Carbon Action Plan (coming soon!), establishing a clear pathway to carbon neutrality that incorporates our employees action ideas generated during our CL training sessions.
• Appointed dedicated sustainability leadership and embedded carbon literacy throughout our updated People Strategy, ensuring climate consciousness is present at every stage of an employee’s journey with the Trust.
• Conducted a local needs assessment and initiated knowledge-sharing sessions with neighboring organisations in our Temple Chambers office building.

Impact beyond certification

This certification represents how CL has become intrinsic to our organisational identity. The 468 collective hours of learning across our team have translated into tangible changes in our operations, from updated procurement policies to refined recruitment practices.

Our CL initiative has strengthened our internal capabilities, enabling us to address complex challenges in climate resilience and develop net-zero strategies with greater confidence and expertise. By embedding this knowledge within our professional development processes, we ensure its lasting impact.

Collaborative climate action

As we continue our journey, our focus extends beyond internal practices to external collaboration and knowledge-sharing. Looking to the future, we aim to implement this by:

• Expanding advocacy through our professional networks.
• Partnering with organisations seeking to commence their own CL journey.
• Continuing engagement with our community through planned learning sessions in 2025.

This achievement reinforces our mission to balance purpose with profit while establishing benchmarks for sustainable and responsible business practices. As we progress toward Platinum certification, we remain committed to sharing our experience and supporting others in their climate action endeavors.

Learn more about how you can become a Carbon Literate Organisation here.

We are delighted to announce that our parent Group, the Useful Simple Trust, has achieved the Investors in People Gold accreditation.

Investors in People (IiP) is an international organisation that encourages businesses to value their people above all else. The ‘We Invest in People’ accreditation is for organisations which can show they’re actively making their workplaces better for their employees.

What makes us stand out from the rest?

We cultivate a healthy, safe, inclusive, and respectful workplace that prioritises engagement and developing our people. At the Trust we listen and learn, demonstrate care, respect, and enable people to feel empowered and a valued member of our teams. This respect for difference in people, skills, knowledge, experiences, and backgrounds is proven to drive growth, excellence, and innovation.

What does this mean for our staff and customers?

The Trust, and all it’s Group companies, are committed to providing opportunities to develop our people and grow their careers.

By focusing on our people, we can hear from our team members and learn from what they tell us. Our diverse and inclusive teams benefit our people, our clients, and our communities, bringing rich experience, driving our purpose, and enabling greater engagement and productivity.

Following our Silver certification in 2020, we are incredibly grateful to our beneficiaries for their commitment, loyalty, participation, and support during this journey.

Useful Simple Trust has today announced that it has been accredited as a Silver Carbon Literate Organisation (CLO), highlighting the organisation’s dedication towards tackling climate change, reducing its organisational carbon emissions, and its commitment to working towards a lower-carbon future.

Carbon Literacy is defined as, “An awareness of the carbon dioxide costs and impacts of everyday activities, and the ability and motivation to reduce emissions, on an individual, community and organisational basis,” and revolves around a day’s worth of learning and action on climate change.

Climate action is an area that unites all Useful Simple Trust brands and is at the heart of our ‘Get Set Zero’ strand. Therefore, in 2021, carbon literacy was identified as a key skills area that all employees needed to maintain to excel in their respective roles. This is further to the Trust achieving its purpose-led mission to trailblaze within the built environment.

A CLO is an organisation that has been accredited by The Carbon Literacy Project as being ‘culturally Carbon Literate’; maintaining a substantial proportion of its workforce as Carbon Literate and demonstrating its Carbon Literacy through its organisational behaviour. CLO accreditation is a tiered system with Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum levels, requiring increasing levels of commitment to action on climate change and creating a low-carbon culture.

To become accredited as a Silver Carbon Literate Organisation, the Trust trained 44% of staff from across our four brands, with the remainder set to participate in Cohort 2 in early 2024. Using bespoke Carbon Literacy training materials, we co-created our organisational carbon action plan and routemap to net zero, which we are now implementing, as part of our commitment to decarbonising our business activities.

Carrie Behar, Head of Sustainability at Useful Simple Trust, commented: “We recognise that our greatest asset is our people. By investing in Carbon Literacy training and accreditation, we are empowering them to further our mission to be a force for good in the sustainable and regenerative transformation of the built environment.”

We are working with our sister brands at the Useful Simple Trust to reduce carbon emisisons by the work we do; reusing existing materials, refurbishing where possible, and working towards race to Net Zero principles.

The twin crises of climate breakdown and biodiversity loss are the most serious issue of our time. Buildings and construction play a major part, accounting for nearly 40% of energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions whilst also having a significant impact on our natural habitats.

For everyone working in the construction industry, meeting the needs of our society without breaching the earth’s ecological boundaries will demand a paradigm shift in our behaviour. Together with our clients, we will need to commission and design buildings, cities and infrastructures as indivisible components of a larger, constantly regenerating and self-sustaining system.

The research and technology exist for us to begin that transformation now, but what has been lacking is collective will. Recognising this, we are committing to strengthen our working practices to create architecture and urbanism that has a more positive impact on the world around us.