WeMaintain receives coveted B Corp certification

The PropTech firm is one of only 800 companies in the UK to receive coveted ESG status.

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM, September 28, 2022 /EINPresswire.com/ -- As the UK moves closer to a stringent “Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard”, WeMaintain has received B Corp status in recognition of its high environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards. B Corp status is increasingly a must-have for those working in the property sector.

WeMaintain is a regulated maintenance company based in London, Paris and Singapore. It facilitates cost-efficient and environmentally conscious building maintenance by supporting engineers with proprietary technology such as IoT sensors, a client platform and a field application, and by increasing the efficiency and transparency available to building managers.

The certification follows their decision to enshrine ESG values in its purpose. It now has a separate working group for its ESG initiatives which includes founders, investors, staff and stakeholders who meet twice a year to foster company-wide ESG communications.

B Corp certification is designed to give consumers confidence due to its rigorous application process.

B Corp certification is given by B Lab, a global nonprofit, and addresses the company’s standards in five key areas: Governance, Workers, Community, Environment and Customers. WeMaintain’s B Corp score was 82.9, in line with its own high internal scores across diversity, satisfaction and environmental target metrics. The median score for most businesses who complete the assessment is currently 50.9.

Tom Harmsworth, UK Managing Director, said: “Only 5,000 companies worldwide including 800 in the UK have received this certification. We’re thrilled to be among them. It’s a recognition of our commitment to fair practice and sustainability as we continue to expand.

“Fairness, justice and a sustainable future are becoming globally-felt and conscious concerns; it is vital we agree on standards now for environmental, social and governance policy that can transcend individual industries and move us forward as a society. We are pleased to have a small role in shaping those expectations through our B Corp accreditation.”

The UK building industry will soon be subject to a stringent “Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard”, a cross-industry partnership with the aim of establishing shared asset performance standards. The Standard will cover new and existing buildings and allows building owners claiming net zero to demonstrate their adherence to science-based decarbonisation targets.

The EU also announced last year its “Fit for ‘55” package to reduce the zone’s emissions by 55% by 2030. This includes a recast of the EU’s 2018 Energy Efficiency Directive which set efficiency targets for 2030.

“This is especially important in our sector,” added Tom Harmsworth. “Buildings are responsible for 40% of total EU energy consumption and 36% of the EU’s total greenhouse gas emissions. Contributing to a more efficient and sustainable built environment is now a pillar of WeMaintain’s mission and will become all the more important in the midst of the energy crisis. The UK and EU saw which way the climate winds were blowing. They are taking the necessary steps, and so are we.”

The EU’s Energy Efficiency Directive means that 78% of new buildings will need to include some form of smart building technology over the next five years. 83% of older buildings are expected to require significant modernisation.

“Meeting these kinds of targets won’t be possible without innovation,” said Tom Harmsworth. “WeMaintain is at the forefront of proprietary IoT, which will have a huge role to play in reducing emissions. This is likely to prove crucial not just in making the green energy transition but in the midst of the energy crisis. The UK Government’s recently announced Energy Bill Relief Scheme (EBRS) will offer discounts to struggling businesses. But the tightrope of balancing existing ESG commitments with the pressures of rising energy costs requires a long-term solution to building optimisation.

“WeMaintain is in a unique position. Our customers often experience between an 11% to 25% reduction in total ownership costs – an invaluable saving in hard times. We ourselves are committed to becoming Net Zero, having compensated 100% of our emissions with Climate Neutral Now. B Corp certification is a recognition that good service and social values are interwoven.”


ENDS


About WeMaintain:
Founded in 2017 by Benoit Dupont, Jade Francine, and Tristan Foureur, WeMaintain is a PropTech scale-up radically transforming the critical building operations market. It offers building managers and owners a solution that combines the technical skills of engineers with the agility and predictability of its proprietary IoT technology. It takes care of the invisible yet indispensable operations that are essential to a building.

The company began with any office building’s most complex equipment – lifts –, reducing the rate of breakdowns by a factor of three. They have since extended their solution to any equipment requiring regulated maintenance, including automatic doors, escalators, fire and safety equipment and, soon, HVAC. WeMaintain supports a wide range of clients in both the residential and office markets and has won major contracts with clients such as Allianz Real Estate, WeWork, in the Paris region, and the DLR in London. Since its launch, the company has raised €38.8M from Eurazeo, Red River West and Bpifrance Digital Venture. The WeMaintain team, based in Paris, London and Singapore, currently comprises 160 people.

https://wemaintain.co.uk

Simon Ward
Sonder London
+44 7396 060272
simon@sonder-london.com