United Capital is used to working at a pace that would have some people flagging well before the finish line. In fact, our company values, which we’ve rolled out to everyone group-wide this year, underline that point very well: we talk about always acting in a way that’s Relentless, Ambitious, Committed, and Entrepreneurial.

Because of those values, we’re constantly pushing each other to think bigger, act more decisively, learn the tough lessons, and invent new ways of tackling challenges. It’s those values which saw us acquire a number of companies in 2021, and to coin the term ‘fastquisition’ when we completed multiple acquisitions in one week earlier this year.

With climate change now dominating the conversation and the consciousness around the world, we’ve now pivoted to make decarbonisation the centre of our group mission and strategy. Because we’re committed to working at pace, we’ve placed ourselves at the heart of a key deliverable for the building services industry: decarbonising the existing built infrastructure.

Sustainability as strategy

Our group companies have always operated at the forefront of renewable technologies, winning contracts for large scale solar PV array installs, switching customers from gas central heating to clean air source heat pumps, electric vehicle charging point installations, and wall insulation works.

Now as a group we’re doubling down on our climate change commitments, by making it our central mission to decarbonise the existing built environment in the UK. By combining the sustainability work we do for our customers with a programme of eco-initiatives to reduce the environmental impact of our own buildings and operations to net-zero by 2025, we have set an ambitious target of our estate being carbon-negative by 2030.

Investing in the delivery of clean, green buildings

Decarbonisation is a giant global puzzle, and nobody has all of the pieces yet, nor any sense of what the final picture will look like. Focusing on decarbonising the existing built environment, both for our customers and in our own estate, is how we are solving our own corner of the puzzle. We’re a few steps ahead already: our group-wide workforce has a full order book of renewables contracts to take us through 2022 and beyond, and is strong and agile enough to pivot to whichever solutions come next. We’re investing more in delivering clean, green buildings than any other group in the building services sector, and we’re ready for the developments in decarbonisation that are coming in 2022.