Background We have launched the SHIFT “social” section which is FREE to all UK social landlords. The aim of this blog is to a) explain the extent of our involvement on the “S” part of ESG reporting and b) to suggest new, meaningful placemaking metrics. SHIFT delivers...
Recently a client asked us about scope 3 carbon emissions from investments in pension schemes and whether this is something that is discussed amongst the social housing sector. Carbon emissions can be associated with the investment of pension schemes, so how...
Many clients have asked us about embodied carbon of construction materials. Not only is this interesting for understanding complete carbon emissions from operations, but it also will be a factor (amongst many others) in deciding between refurbishment or demolish and...
At SHIFT, we are committed to keeping the SHIFT environmental standard up-to-date. This means considering continual improvements in line with national policy updates and feedback we receive from SHIFT landlords. Annual feedback is vital to ensure we are capturing the...
Building new homes to EPC A rating is an approach we champion at SHIFT and with 25% of our landlords having already built to this standard, the demand for a roundtable to share advice and experiences was high! Across two sessions, 18 social housing providers managing...
At SHIFT we are seeing an increasing adoption of net zero carbon strategy development across several sectors. Recently, we’ve seen Health and Social Care organisations develop their plans to get to net zero. Alternative Futures Group (AFG), a health and social care...
Our friends at Safecility told us about some of their remote testing innovations that can help reduce carbon emissions. Here’s what they say: While the current spotlight is on long term deep property retrofits to enhance homes and make them easier to heat – there are...
While there has been a focus on reducing energy demand for heating, with global temperatures set to increase, there has been little consideration for future for cooling systems demand. There is no doubt that in recent years, the UK has experienced record breaking dry...
A client paid us a very nice compliment about our Energy White Paper response[1]. They also asked whether they should sign up to a tree planting scheme. We’ve been asked about this topic a few times, so we checked the scheme and shared our thoughts. Tree planting...
Following the International Day of Happiness (20th March 2021) we have compiled a number of statistics to see how close we are to reaching a goal of 100% long-term wellbeing. Since March 2020, there is no surprise that we have faced unprecedented challenges, and our...
Following on from our blog on the New Homes Ombudsman, Paul Surin [1], IBM’s Global Lead on the Built Environment and BIM, shared his experience of very poor quality new build. He thought he was moving into a highly energy efficient performing home, but after moving...
As the provision of new homes across the UK continues to grow (MHCLG, 2020), it is essential that these homes meet adequate standards and building quality does not suffer. The announcement of a New Homes Ombudsman, by Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick MP, will assist...
The Government has updated its Fuel Poverty strategy. The long-term targets remain unchanged since the last one, but there are a few nuances that are worth looking at. Overall, the strategy applies to all tenures and is described as a “living document”. There is no...
To practice what we preach, we assessed our own environmental impacts. Our reporting period was 1st October 2019 – 30th September 2020 and here’s how we did: Offices Our office space has no gas supply, and instead uses a ground source heat pump for space heating....
BEIS asked us, via our professional institute (IEMA[1]) for feedback on the recent Energy White Paper. For domestic properties there is a lot mentioned: EPC targets, new homes, hydrogen, electric heating and heat networks. We have some suggestions and information...
Our friends at Chirpy Heat have written an overview of the latest regulations and kindly given us permission to share. Here’s what they say (originally published 12th November 2020): Last Friday BEIS (finally) not only published their response to the Heat Network...
Average long term UK personal wellbeing has increased to 86.16% compared to 84.58% when we monitored it 5 months ago. But there are some data caveats: As seen in the June 2020 update, air quality has not improved as dramatically due to lockdown as expected and as the...
Introduction A quick word search on the new “The Charter for Social Housing Residents Social Housing White Paper” resulted in 5 specific mentions of “climate change” so we took a deeper look with an environmental perspective. We’ve also suggested actions that...
Recently, a contact got in touch for thoughts on PassivHaus. This is what we replied: I’ve not personally built one myself, but I’ve worked with a few people that have. I’ve also done some cursory analysis of energy certificates. On that basis I’ll share...
Reducing carbon emissions from offices should be part of any organisation’s “net zero carbon” plan. But how do you do it? How do you know which parts of the building to upgrade first? Which interventions will have the most impact? How much does it cost? How much...
Tracing the amount of responsibly sourced materials used in repairs and maintenance is hugely important to maintain a strong reputation and to avoid costly mistakes. However, tracking the flow of materials is a massively labour intensive. Due to the high volume of...
At SHIFT we are pleased that our environmental reporting scheme for social landlords aligns extremely well with the current ESG reporting criteria (see our publications page for the SHIFT ESG matrix). We also know that environmental protection is crucial for our...
A few months ago Inside Housing magazine asked us to comment on overheating risk. Here’s what we wrote: As if Covid-19 isn’t enough, summer is fast approaching and extreme weather events are high on national and international risk registers. Met Office central...
Average long term UK personal wellbeing has increased to 84.58% compared to 83.69% when we monitored it 3 months ago. But there are some data caveats: Good: Air quality has improved slightly, but not as dramatically as some news reports maintain. It’s quite a messy...
Having carried out several supply chain surveys for our clients, we have been pretty disappointed with the results in the responsible materials section. Although there seems to be some anecdotal successes, there is a lack of a consistent metric that enables...
From the beginning of the financial year 2019/20, the Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018 applies. This new legislation extends the carbon reporting obligations from quoted companies to also...
This article was originally written for National Housing Federation to promote their board excellence conference: The latest UK statistics show that we emit over 350 million tonnes CO2 per year. That’s a very big number, but what does it mean? To relay the importance...
Green spaces are hugely important to people. As well as providing a place of recreation, they also provide a degree of flood attenuation, summer cooling, air cleansing, biodiversity and carbon sequestration. All these benefits are increased when the amount of...
At SHIFT we help landlords prepare roadmaps for net zero carbon. One of the things we have noticed is that including the new build departments in holistic net zero roadmaps can lead to significant savings to whole life costs. This is even if there is a little “over...
SHIFT, the sustainability standard for housing and the supply chain, works with social landlords that are dedicated to creating a sustainable future, delivering high quality homes and improving the wellbeing of both residents and employees. Recently, many clients have...
To help you save time and resources we have written a Step-by-Step guide to help aid and encourage our clients to sign PDF forms electronically. It saves resources by eliminating the need to print so many documents (saving paper and ink) and reduces the amount...
To mark International Day of Happiness (20th March 2020) we’ve put together some statistics to show how close we are to a goal of 100% long term wellbeing. These figures include environmental protection which is so crucial to securing our supplies of basic needs such...
Our SHIFT Assessor, Sam McConnochie, has recently learnt that he won the Royal Geographical Society Planning and Environment Research Group’s prize! This is a national award that goes to the best undergraduate dissertation relating to planning, environmental...
Over 280 local and major councils have declared a climate emergency in 2019 alone and many housing associations are looking to identify what they can do to ensure they are responding positively to council ambitions for carbon reduction. With the Forest of Dean...
A few months ago, Inside Housing magazine asked us to contribute to an article on social housing and climate change. We based our information on our Housing 2050 research which can be downloaded from here: Housing 2050. Here’s what we wrote: Introduction Government...
The Government’s recent Green Finance Strategy states, “The Government expects all listed companies and large asset owners to be disclosing in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations by 2022.’ There is no specific...
There has been a slight decline in overall happiness and wellbeing, with the specific environmental data revealing that our environmental security continues to face sustained pressure. Water security has been negatively impacted this year and this is most likely...
At our recent SHIFT event entitled, “Sustainability and Value For Money”, we heard from specialist speakers who highlighted the financial benefits to social landlords from pursuing environmental strategies. Representatives from 18 housing associations managing over...
For various reasons, including our carbon footprint, we decided on a staycation this year. The accommodation was our own home and no long car journeys or plane rides were involved. We “visited” 5 countries, had a couple of ‘resort days’, (i.e. chill out and mooch...
A housing association client of ours needed to replace old storage heaters with a new electrical heating system. Rather than a like-for-like replacement, they wisely decided to monitor the energy and cost performance of 3 different potential replacement systems before...
In July 2019, the UK Government revealed its eagerly awaited Green Finance Strategy which signalled that investment and funding shall be made available for green projects such as homes and other infrastructure. The strategy aims to put financial services at the heart...
There has been a slight improvement in overall happiness and wellbeing, with the specific environmental data revealing that our environmental security continues to face sustained pressure. Water security has been negatively impacted this year and this is most likely...
Suss Housing has received this message from PassivSystems. Please note, this is not necessarily an endorsement from Suss Housing, we are merely highlighting a funding opportunity. PassivSystems are delighted to announce the launch of their new heat pump monitoring...
SHIFT, the environmental reporting and accreditation scheme for social landlords, has a new home! Suss Housing is the new company that delivers SHIFT, which has been running since 2008.The reboot-ed SHIFT comes at a crucial time. The UK Parliament has declared a...
Some social landlords are finding that they have to comply with new environmental reporting regulations under Government’s new policy of Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR). Although not all landlords are captured this could be viewed as the thin-end of the...
