Part of the MF Freeman Group, Freeman Homes is a family-owned property development and construction business with a proud history of delivering high-quality homes across the South West and Midlands. With a deep-rooted commitment to responsible building practices, the company has recently embarked on a bold journey towards achieving net zero with Planet Mark. Driven by a passion for sustainability and a desire to leave a lasting legacy for future generations, Freeman Homes is integrating environmental stewardship into its operations.
Wanting to go beyond securing ISO14001 Environmental Management accreditation, MF Freeman Group and its subsidiaries that include Freeman Homes sought a Certification that would deliver credible recognition for its environmental credentials and commitments. Joe Teakle, Compliance and Business Improvement Manager at M F Freeman, states, “We spoke to a range of carbon management providers, but we ultimately chose Planet Mark because of its significant network of companies in the built environment. We need to consider the bigger picture with the challenges we’re facing; I wanted to tap into Planet Mark’s community and work with like-minded individuals. As soon as we started to work with Planet Mark, we felt reassured and supported; they answered all our questions about measuring a carbon footprint and our carbon reduction journey.”
M F Freeman Group was steadfast on accelerating its sustainability journey but with construction being a highly complex process with many moving parts, it needed credible expertise to be able to integrate its carbon reduction ambitions into day-to-day working practices and start engaging its supply chain.
The competitive edge: why sustainability makes business sense
The company has implemented a series of sustainability features into its new homes as part of its mission to future-proof its legacy. Freeman Homes successfully differentiate themselves in the market through their sustainability value proposition. A commitment to providing EPC A-rated homes, every property presents:
- Air source heat pump
- EV Car charging point
- Integrated Solar PV panels
- Energy storage battery
- Underfloor heating (to increase energy efficiency)
- Thermally-efficient timber frame construction
Investing in these technologies during the construction phase not only helps the homeowner to live more sustainably and save money, but this will also support driving decarbonisation efforts of MF Freeman’s Scope 3 Category 11: Use of Sold Products. Joe explains, “As we continue to advance our designs and install solar panels, our homes are increasingly meeting the threshold to generate more energy over the course of a year than they use for heating, running appliances, and lighting; this creates the potential to support wider grid decarbonisation.”
Presenting the business case for sustainability was integral for getting the necessary stakeholders on board; this includes demonstrating the value in having sustainability credentials and building beyond building regulations. Joe adds, “With the support of Planet Mark, we have increased engagement in our sustainability journey with a range of stakeholders by presenting the commercial value in furthering our environmental credentials. We refute the perception that sustainability is expensive by addressing the benefits clearly – even when sometimes they’re not obviously tangible.
“Net zero is all about improving efficiencies, minimising wastes, and making better use of resources. There is a clear relationship between building in the most efficient way, sequence, and timing and how it impacts on our carbon footprint.”
Strategy support for every step of MF Freeman’s carbon reduction journey
As a Planet Mark Certified Net Zero Committed Business, MF Freeman has now set its near and long-term targets and is underway with implementing solutions presented in the Net Zero Transition Plan and Action & Progress Tracker, devised in collaboration with Planet Mark’s Sustainability Strategy Consultants.
Joe explains how this support has helped MF Freeman to address one of its challenges: how to implement sustainability into the business when everyone has a day job with business demands, “The Net Zero Transition Plan is methodical, progressive and demonstrates there is an order to the actions we need to take. It allows us to take first few crucial steps to get us started on our carbon reduction journey. We’re finding that by proactively making incremental changes we’re seeing that other solutions are naturally falling into place.”
The transition plan has provided the team with the framework needed to be able disseminate tasks and responsibility out across the business. It is helping to bring colleagues on board its sustainability journey by getting ideas on business improvement and how to minimise wastes.
By looking to reduce its Scope 1 and 2 emissions, the business tapped into the Business Energy Advice Service (BEAS) Grant Programme, funded by the UK Government Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) to improve the energy efficiency of its head office. The company can make its necessary improvements with a dramatic reduction in cost, but this opportunity has only presented itself through tackling carbon reduction.
Taking steps to unlocking collaboration with suppliers
In striving for progress over perfection, MF Freeman dived into measuring its Scope 3 emissions in its first reporting period with Planet Mark. The challenge ahead? Improving the quality of its Scope 3 emissions data to make more impactful decisions to minimise wastes, emissions, and costs. Improving Scope 3 data quality relies on supplier engagement; to support suppliers with understanding MF Freeman’s net zero ambitions and how they play into this, it has produced an ESG code of conduct – a distillation of its ESG policies. This simple solution has:
- Kickstarted supplier engagement
- Demonstrated the importance of transparent reporting
- Provided suppliers with policies that they can use
- Acted as a springboard to ask suppliers for data next year and improve data quality
A legacy built on moral responsibility and commercial opportunity
MF Freeman addresses the moral duty that it has to build future proofed homes that are resilient for generations to come. Working in tandem with the moral imperative of carbon reduction, is the commercial opportunity – all of MF Freeman’s decisions on net zero are scrutinised from a financial perspective.
Commenting on the business benefits of a net zero journey, Joe adds, “Challenges on a sustainability journey make your business leaner and more efficient. I’m confident that we’re putting ourselves in better shape to address challenges that are inevitably coming down the line. We know achieving our near and long-term targets is not going to be easy, but sustainability makes business sense.”
This content is accurate as of February 2026 and represents MF Freeman Group’s sustainability journey at that time.
