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...
Blog
Comparison of Science Based Targets (SBTs) Compared to Net Zero Path for Housing
‘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...
Cementing the Green Revolution: Decarbonising Cement
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...
Making commercial premises energy efficient when there is a landlord/tenant relationship
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...
SHIFT 2024 consultation begins
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...
natural harmony in danger
The current state of the environment is in a bad way currently, with biodiversity being shown to have significantly decreased over the last 50 years. ‘As a result, the UK is now one of the most nature-depleted countries on Earth’ according to the ‘State of Nature’...
The Energy Bill, On The Cusp of Change
The new ‘Energy Bill’, previously, the Energy Security Bill, looks at reforming the 10-year-old Energy Act (2013). This is to get the legislation up to speed with not only current technology, but the needs of consumers and businesses alike. The bill has reached...
can air travel be sustainable?
Right now, air travel contributes to global CO2 emissions and even more flights are projected. One way to cut emissions would be to get people to fly less. But sometimes this is a hard ask for businesses that consider flying essential and, families wanting holidays...
Sustainability Accounting That Makes Cents: SASB Standards for Real Estate and Home Building
As the global community continues to grapple with the urgent need to address environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues, standards and frameworks for sustainability reporting have become essential tools for businesses, investors, and regulators alike. The...
We must work with our investors to develop a shared carbon journey to make meaningful change
Following our carbon footprint work with Bromford and engagement with their finance contacts, we produced an article for Social Housing Magazine [1]. The article was co-written by Imran Mubeen, Director of Treasury at Bromford and Richard Lupo, Managing Director at...
Using drones for biodiversity measurement
Drones, or to give them their technical title, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs), are a rapidly advancing, versatile technology that is already having a major impact on a variety of sectors. Asher, one of our SHIFT Environmental Assessors, undertook research...
Sustainable procurement event – how to engage the supply chain
Following lots of requests from our client base, we have seen that there is a clear and necessary desire to engage the supply chain in a meaningful way. This makes sense, as the supply chain can have massive impacts on carbon footprints and responsible sourcing of...
Preparation for Future Homes Standard – Midland Heart case study
Midland Heart have produced an excellent case study on their recent completion of homes intended to comply with the Future Homes Standard. The standard aims to ensure that all new homes built from 2025 will produce 75-80% less carbon emissions than homes built under...
SHIFT impact
At SHIFT we work hard to deliver impactful environmental reporting. We want to make sure that our reports provide clients with the information they need to make environmental improvements. We like to understand what is particularly useful and informative to each...
A CO2 IT system for construction companies – our thoughts
We’ve had some queries lately from construction companies looking to report their scope 1,2 and 3 CO2 emissions. Specifically, they have been after an “off the shelf system” that they could simply plug data in to as an when they have it and then the system would churn...
Monitoring energy use for a post occupancy evaluation: how Safecility’s onboarding process could help
At SHIFT, we know that one of the most difficult things when monitoring energy use in a building is getting the right monitoring equipment installed. Once we have the data we can do wonders with it, but getting the data is a key part of the process. Our friends at...
“Happiness by numbers” – book launch event success
It was great to see so many people and from such a variety of backgrounds at the event to celebrate the launch of the book “Happiness by numbers”. Part of this variety would surely be because everyone wants to be happy, don’t they? On top of that, in the commercial...
Transforming your owner-occupier house into an Eco-Home – a case study
As well environmental reporting for social landlords we also work in other sectors. Here’s an example where one of our Stroud-based office colleagues, Caroline, wanted advice on transforming her house to an ecohome. This was very much a pilot to see if we could...
Happiness, placemaking and asset management
The National Housing Maintenance Forum (NHMF) recently asked us to write our thoughts on how asset management and residents’ wellbeing may develop in the near future. Here’s what we wrote: Talking about “happiness” in an NHMF blog may seem a bit of an odd subject...
Data to transfer from the new build department to asset management
A social housing client recently asked us a great question. They were aware that their new build department had lots of excellent data on the sustainability of their new homes. They were also aware that it would be useful to transfer that data over to asset...