Kier sustainability director appointment: delivery and ESG governance lens for project teams
Reviewed by Tom Sullivan
First reported on The Construction Index
30 Second Briefing
Kier has appointed long-serving executive Tracey Collins as sustainability director, giving her overall responsibility for the contractor’s environmental and social sustainability strategy across its UK infrastructure portfolio. Collins, previously director of emerging talent, inclusion and social sustainability, will work alongside Ben Stone, who remains group head of environment, and Verity Magee, who continues to lead social value. The move consolidates Kier’s ESG governance, signalling tighter integration of carbon, resilience and community objectives into project delivery and supply chain requirements.
Technical Brief
- Collins brings 15 years’ internal experience in training, learning and development to the sustainability brief.
- Her most recent remit combined emerging talent pipelines, inclusion programmes and social sustainability delivery.
- Ben Stone remains focused on environmental management as group head of environment, separating technical environment from governance.
- Social value delivery continues under Verity Magee, implying a three‑pillar ESG leadership structure.
- Kier’s mission statement links infrastructure delivery to climate adaptation, protection and socio‑economic value creation.
- Leadership messaging frames sustainability as central to operational decision‑making rather than a standalone compliance function.
Our Take
Kier’s creation of a dedicated sustainability director role comes as it is taking on more public-sector work such as the £120m Darlington government hub and major retrofit schemes in Edinburgh, where whole-life carbon and social value metrics are increasingly embedded in procurement.
Within our infrastructure coverage, Kier appears frequently in stories involving UK councils and central government clients, so a group-level sustainability lead is likely aimed at tightening compliance with evolving UK regulatory frameworks, including proposals in the Single Construction Regulator Prospectus.
With 729 infrastructure stories and 2005 tag-matched pieces on sustainability and projects in our database, Kier’s move signals that large UK contractors are formalising ESG leadership to stay competitive against peers like Vinci and Bovis Construction that are also repositioning for low‑carbon and public-sector pipelines.
Prepared by collating external sources, AI-assisted tools, and Geomechanics.io’s proprietary mining database, then reviewed for technical accuracy & edited by our geotechnical team.
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