We recently hosted a sixth form student for his work experience week at SHIFT and his work here included a research project into the costs and benefits of solar carports and street lighting. Here's what he found (thanks Albert!): Solar street lighting Solar street...
Image by Morteza Mohammadi on Unsplash Understanding the UK CBAM and its role in reducing embodied carbon emissions Supply chain emissions are creeping up sustainability agendas and there is new legislation that promises to help. The UK’s Carbon Border Adjustment...
Image by S O C I A L . C U T on Unsplash How climate change threatens the global hop supply The world of beer is facing an unprecedented challenge as climate change threatens the very ingredient that gives it its distinct character — hops. With rising...
Many people will be familiar with air source or ground source heat pumps, but a relatively new technology has emerged called “ambient temperature heat pumps”. These are mainly for groups of homes where circumstances prevent individual heat pumps being installed in...
We have a had a few queries recently about carbon credit schemes that pay landlords for making carbon saving improvements to stock. Whilst we haven’t looked at any schemes in detail, we do have some thoughts. Here is one of our answers. Thanks for your time...
IEMA, our governing institute, has issued new guidance to help with climate related financial disclosures [1]. The Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations and resulting disclosures are proving to be hugely influential and take-up in...
A new Global Commission on Modern Slavery & Human Trafficking has been set up [1] with the aim of driving international momentum towards eradicating forced labour, ending modern slavery and human trafficking – in line with UN goals. It is part funded by the UK...
A couple of new consultations are out which will have implications for managing environmental issues in Scotland. The first is about biodiversity. The second is, perhaps surprisingly to some, about water efficiency ‘Tackling the nature emergency’ [1] is based around...
There is currently no sensible financial arrangement for funding the transformation of social homes to net zero. And no-one seems to be talking about long-term plans either. After chats with a few FD’s, investors, and the Green Finance Institute, we thought it might...
In readiness for 2025, the Government has issued its response to a consultation on the detail of the Future Homes Standard (FHS). Others [1] [2] , who have been closer to the consultation process, have noted that the proposed standards are far weaker than initial...
Amidst a growing importance in Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) for new developments, the lack of practical metrics for UK social landlords to manage biodiversity and green spaces for existing land portfolios has become apparent. This gap presents an opportunity to explore...
Each year we upgrade our methodologies for environmental reporting. The main reason we do this is to ensure that our methodologies align with new national methodologies or UK environmental strategies. For example, last year new water efficiency targets were...
Introduction There are emerging global and national agendas on placemaking, levelling up and wellbeing. Investors are looking at environmental and social factors of the organisations they lend to for their ESG investments. This trend aims to improve the places where...
Estimating CO2 emissions from purchased goods and services is notoriously difficult, especially for larger companies where there can be hundreds of thousands of purchases a year. The task is made doubly difficult when the description box of the same purchased...
It’s great to see that prospective students are thinking about environmental degrees. A client asked for some advice on behalf of his son who is passionate about zoology but doesn’t see many career options. We shared our thoughts: Great that your son is...
Why is there a picture of apples on a blog about energy saving? We spoke to energy monitoring software providers GridDuck to find out. Here’s what they say: With fuel shortages, unprecedented price hikes and the bankruptcy of large industry names, energy...
‘Science-based targets (SBTs) specify how much and how quickly a company would need to reduce its’ greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in order to align with the goals of the Paris Agreement.’ [1]. This is an initiative set by the partnership between: World Resource...
Since its invention 199 years ago in England, Original Portland Cement (OPC) has become a critical building block for modern civilisation’s infrastructure. However, despite advancements in reducing emissions produced in cement production, it still makes up as much as...
Real estate is entering a challenging period of transition to net zero, where we need to re-engineer the way we value, finance, design, construct, refurbish, and operate our buildings. At the recent ‘Beyond Green’ conference we met Lucienne Mosquera and John Flexen of...
At SHIFT we closely monitor all relevant national policy, strategy and legislative changes related to sustainability and the built environment and carefully consider any resultant updates that are required to our environmental audit process. In addition to our ongoing...