Corporate report

The NDA group Sustainability Strategy 2022

Published 30 March 2022

Foreword

I'm delighted to introduce you to the NDA group's Sustainability Strategy, setting out our five-year path to becoming a leader in sustainability. This strategy flows from the NDA's mission to clean-up and decommission legacy nuclear sites, and reflects the NDA group's ambition to be recognised as a leader in transforming nuclear legacies into opportunities for local, regional and national sustainable development.

Our mission is complex, and the challenges it brings provides opportunities for us to act sustainably.

Sustainability is often used with the environment in mind, but sustainability also means protecting and enhancing the lives of people, creating sustainable local and regional economies, and creating an impact-conscious and future-focused mindset. In all our decisions and actions, we have a responsibility to think about the legacy we leave behind.

Acknowledging the progress made so far, our sustainability journey is one of continuous improvement and change. Success will come from adopting the ethos outlined in this strategy and working collectively to deliver positive outcomes for current and future generations.

David Peattie, Chief Executive Officer, NDA group

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Approach to strategy

Welcome to the NDA group's first Sustainability Strategy, driving and guiding our approach to sustainability. This strategy is driven by the NDA's purpose and is informed by and aligned to the NDA's Strategy 4 and the NDA group's sustainability policy. The strategy includes the fundamental elements of sustainability, and the changes, activities and interventions needed to deliver our sustainability outcomes. The strategy provides a snapshot of our approach at the time of publication and will evolve as our work progresses.

1.2 Context

The NDA's mission is to clean up the UK's earliest nuclear sites safely, securely and cost-effectively. We have a legal, moral, and ethical responsibility to deliver our mission sustainably with care for our people, communities, and the environment. With a significant proportion of our funding coming from UK Government, we also have a duty to use resources effectively and provide value for money for the taxpayer. Value however, is not just about time and cost savings and includes wider benefits.

Since the NDA was formed, global recognition of the importance of sustainability has grown significantly with the agenda on decarbonisation, clean growth,

social value and circular economy ever increasing. In the UK, the Government has committed to actions in response to this burning platform. Our Government sponsoring department, the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS), has a vision to build a stronger, fairer and greener future across the UK, fostering shared prosperity, growth and levelling up across the UK. Other wider commitments that impress the importance of our sustainability agenda include:

• Achieving net zero by 2050 in England and Wales and 2045 in Scotland
• Nuclear sector deal
• Ten Point Plan for Green Industrial Revolution
• Energy Act (2004)
• Adoption of the United Nations 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, including the
  • 17 Sustainable Development Goals

In response to its pressing importance, we have introduced sustainability as a new critical enabler to our mission in the latest iteration of the NDA Strategy, published in 2021. This strategy sets out at a high level how we intend to ensure that the outcomes we deliver and the way in which we deliver them are sustainable.

1.3 Our opportunity

We lead some of the most complex nuclear clean-up, decommissioning and waste management programmes in the world. Our operational context brings challenges and opportunity.

Our nationally important mission has sustainability at its core. The work we do to clean-up and decommission the UK's legacy sites spans more than 100 years which means it requires us to attract and retain talent for decades to come and work in partnership with a diverse range of stakeholders. As we strive to meet the significant expectations placed upon us, we have an opportunity to maximise the benefits that can come from delivering our mission sustainably. It requires us to adopt a strategic, all-encompassing and joined up approach, working towards a unified group-vision of sustainability.

As outlined in the NDA Strategy 4, important sustainability opportunities for the NDA group include:

• Decommissioning and remediating our nuclear sites effectively, efficiently and sustainably
• Eliminating waste and reducing our consumption of natural resources by design, through reusing, repairing, repurposing and recycling assets
• Decarbonising the NDA group's estate and supporting the UK Government's commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero in England and Wales by 2050 and in Scotland by 2045
• Embedding behaviours that promote sustainability within our workforce and supply chain
• Maintaining a suitable decommissioning and waste management capability
• Maximising the socio-economic benefits that can come from the mission, encouraging diverse and resilient economies and thriving, inclusive communities
• Working with our stakeholders to gain their trust and support for the next beneficial use of released land
• Enhancing biodiversity and environmental net gain

2.0 The NDA group's sustainability vision

NDA group vision

• Deliver our mission together safely, securely and more creatively, transparently and efficiently
• Create great places to work and taking pride in what we do
• Trusted to do more in the UK and globally

NDA group mission

• Deliver safe, secure, sustainable and publicly acceptable solutions to the challenge of nuclear clean-up and waste management

NDA Strategy 4 - Strategic objective for sustainability

• Ensure that our mission outcomes and the journey to deliver them are sustainable as reasonably as possible

NDA group's sustainability vision

To be recognised as a leader in transforming nuclear legacies into opportunities for local, regional and national sustainable development.

The NDA group's sustainability definition

Create value through nuclear decommissioning - at pace, affordably, with participation and creatively

• At pace: keep safety and security paramount, optimise progress in decommissioning
• Affordably: consider the long-term value for money alongside short-term financing, optimising investment decisions
• With participation: seek and support the opinions, plans and aspirations of our workforce, community and stakeholders
• Creatively: clean-up our legacy nuclear sites, enhancing the environment and achieving net carbon zero

3.0 Transforming legacies

The NDA inherited an exceptionally complex decommissioning mission when it was created in 2005, with the management of the environmental, socio-economic and cultural legacies being equally as challenging.

These challenges are reflected in our approach to sustainability, which is centred around four legacies:

• Decommissioning
• Environmental
• Socio-economic
• Cultural

3.1 The NDA group's sustainability legacies and outcomes

3.1.1 Decommissioning

To transform our decommissioning legacy, we will aim to:

• Deliver our mission safely, securely, protecting people and the environment
• Be outcomes-based, high performing and innovative
• Balance pace and priority of activities to provide lifetime value for money and achieve intergenerational equity
• Be guided by sustainability criteria embedded in delivery and outcomes

3.1.2 Environmental

To transform our environmental legacy, we will aim to:

• Protect, remediate and enhance the environment
• Be recognised by our stakeholders for our environmental performance
• Achieve net zero

3.1.3 Socio-economic

To transform our socio-economic legacy, we will aim to:

• Empower our people and communities to create sustainable local and regional economies
• Think internationally and act locally on nuclear skills, developing the capabilities of the UK skills base to facilitate decommissioning and the wider nuclear sector
• Be a positive contributor to the national and international trade agenda

3.1.4 Cultural

To transform our cultural legacy, we will aim to:

• Engage openly, transparently and authentically
• Work together to establish respectful and inclusive working environments so our people can perform at their best
• Create an impact conscious and future focused mindset
• Be trusted to deliver in a safe, responsible and timely manner

The UN Sustainable Development Goals

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a collection of 17 interlinked goals designed to act as a blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future. The goals were set in 2015 by the United Nations General Assembly, including the UK Government, which has embedded the goals into each government department.

We're committed to delivering our mission in line with the SDGs and our legacy outcomes have been created to help us to achieve them.

4.0 Leadership and governance

Delivering sustainably requires integration, collaboration, agility, trust and transparency. Enduring change requires interventions at all levels in the system. To embed and integrate our sustainability outcomes, behaviours and practices, the strategy must operate at multiple levels and target key areas of opportunities across the NDA group. The collaborative development of the vision and policy across the NDA group puts us on the right path towards success.

A governance structure that reaches all levels within the NDA group is fundamental to achieving the vision. The creation of an NDA Board Sustainability and Governance Committee and engagement with the Group Leadership Team (GLT) will provide the highest levels of leadership to expedite and enable progress.

Other cross-groups will also be essential in driving change:

• NDA group Sustainability Steering Group
• NDA group Sustainability Working Group
• NDA group Sustainability Next Generation Working Group
• NDA Sustainability Group
• Operating Business Sustainability Groups

4.1 Values and behaviours

Across our sustainability groups and networks, our ambition is to work as one diverse, integrated high performing sustainability team. We'll embrace change, enterprise-wide transformation and positive disruption. Bravery, trust, curiosity and respectful collective accountability in partnership are amongst our core attributes. We will challenge barriers, establish new practices, transfer knowledge and evidence collaborative behaviours to drive sustainability improvement.

4.2 Stakeholder Engagement

Engaging effectively with our stakeholders and regulators will help to provide a continual review of our sustainability approach to ensure it reflects good practice and is on track to support shared value.

Through engagement we will seek to:

• Become a leader in transforming nuclear legacies into opportunities for local, regional and national sustainable development
• Raise awareness of the importance of sustainability across the NDA group
• Influence and be influenced by the next generation
• Mature relationships within NDA group across sustainability
• Develop and enhance our external relationship to achieve shared value in the area of sustainability
• Enhance the reputation of the NDA group as a positive contributor to sustainable development

We'll progress towards our objectives in a phased approach, intended to bring our stakeholders on our journey of transformation.

For further information and correspondence please email the NDA Sustainability Team.