Persimmon sustainability score: 40/100
Better than 38% of Construction / Real Estate
Making progress starts at 46. The highest score on SINK is 71.
Persimmon is a UK housebuilder headquartered in York. FY2025 revenue was £3.75bn, with 4,574 employees.
Founded 1984Head office York, United KingdomStaff ~4,574 (2025)Revenue £3,751.3M revenue (FY2025)Website ↗
Persimmon's operational emissions fell steeply, but Scope 3 rose year-on-year as production grew. Water disclosure is absent, nature commitments lack verification, and a £433k regulatory fine for river pollution in 2022 signals compliance failures. Targets are validated only near-term; long-term net-zero remains unverified.
Persimmon scores 40/100 (Below expectations) on SINK's independent climate assessment, scored from public data only. Scores are free. Nobody can pay to change a score, speed it up or hide it. Last verified November 2026.
That places Persimmon joint 421st of 1,023 companies scored, and joint 21st of 40 in Construction / Real Estate.
What is Persimmon doing well, and where does it fall short?
Strongest on Carbon Footprint: Operations and Carbon Footprint: Supply Chain (9/10, 7/10). Weakest on Water Impact and Emissions Trajectory (2/10, 4/10).
Where Persimmon lost points
For each question that lost points, the evidence our public rubric looks for that we didn't find.
What would raise this score
- Its effect on waterMonitor its water use and take measures to reduce it.
- Whether its emissions are fallingShow a year-on-year fall in its total emissions.
- Its effect on natureMeasure its effect on nature and have it independently verified.
Every question that lost points
- Emissions from its own operations9/10No verified figures published with their method and a falling trend.
- Emissions from its supply chain7/10No full value-chain map or supplier engagement programme.
- Whether its emissions are falling4/10No evidence of a year-on-year fall in its total emissions.
- How clean its energy is5/10Less than half its energy shown to be renewable, or no transition plan.
- Its effect on nature4/10Its effect on nature isn't measured or independently verified.
- How it uses materials and handles waste5/10No measurable waste or recycling targets reported publicly.
- Its effect on water2/10No monitoring of water use, or no measures to reduce it.
- Its climate targets7/10No validated long-term net zero target.
- How openly it reports7/10No annual impact report, or no pay linked to climate targets.
- Its record on controversies5/10Points deducted for controversies or its business model. The finding is under question 10.
A score changes when the evidence does. We use new published evidence at the next rescore. Anyone can send us new evidence, free. How to send it.
How is Persimmon's SINK score calculated?
Same ten questions for every company. No private weighting.
SINK = (0.3 × Base + 0.7 × Performance) × ScaleHas Persimmon's score changed?
Persimmon's score has moved from 34 to 40 across 2 recorded reviews, up 6 points.
- 34 → 40+63 November 2026
Agent-mode re-score: Q10 -3 for the 2022 Natural Resources Wales river-pollution fine (guilty plea).
- Scored 344 April 2026
Initial score at platform launch
What evidence is Persimmon's score based on?
14 sources used in this assessment. All publicly available. Each row shows which of the ten questions it informed.
29% of them were published by Persimmon itself; the rest come from independent sources.
10 of 14 sources are independent of the company.
“Scope 1 emissions from gas, tr anspor t, and construction site fuel use tCO 2 e 1 6,65 4* 2 0,29 5*”
“The methodology used to calculate our GHG emissions and energy use is the GHG Protocol Corporate Accounting and Reporting Standard (revised edition).”
“Our homes are equipped with low-flow devices to conserve water”
“Operate a Group Sustainability Committee which reports to the Board and oversees delivery of the Group’s sustainability strategy”
“Persimmon delivered a strong performance for 2025, with completions growing 12% and underlying profit before tax increasing 13%.”
“Persimmon Homes has been fined £433,331 after it polluted the River Gavenny in Monmouthshire, South Wales, in 2019.”
“A total of seven pollution offences, caused by illegal water discharge activities occurred at the Willow Court development site in Abergavenny”
“Prosecuted by Natural Resources Wales for eight water quality offences under the Environmental Permitting (England and Wales) Regulations 2016”
“The group collects and discloses scope 1, 2, and 3 emissions and has strong emission reduction plans in place.”
“a major new initiative to support wildlife from the Future Homes Hub, has been signed by local housebuilder Persimmon Homes.”
“So far, 20 house-builders have signed up to the voluntary commitment, including Barratt, Persimmon, Vistry, Taylor Wimpey and Redrow.”
“Persimmon has been given approval to build a 353-home scheme in Herefordshire after agreeing to buy phosphate credits to offset nutrient pollution”
“The SBTi has validated Persimmon's commitment to reduce absolute scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions 46.2% by 2030 from a 2019 base year”
“It relates to a silt pollution to a tributary of the River Worth at Oakworth, Keighley between January 2018 and February 2018.”
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How does Persimmon compare with other construction / real estate companies?
Where Persimmon sits among construction / real estate peers.
Among the 40 major construction / real estate brands we've scored, Persimmon is tied =21st of 40, with 4 others.
Who scores higher in Construction / Real Estate?
The 3 companies in the sector scoring nearest above Persimmon.
Taylor Wimpey has strong climate targets (SBTi-validated, net zero by 2045) and operational carbon reporting, but supply chain emissions remain 99% of its footprint with only modest reductions.
See the breakdown →British Land discloses comprehensively on carbon and energy, with SBTi-validated absolute Scope 1&2 targets and near-100% renewable procurement.
See the breakdown →Digital Realty reported 1,935,624 tCO2e across Scopes 1, 2 and 3 in 2025, down from 2,849,402 t in 2023, which its report puts mainly down to renewable procurement.
See the breakdown →Which companies moved this week, and why.
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