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...
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...
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...
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...
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...
At a recent National Housing Federation (NHF) event we met with fellow “sector supplier” Dynamis. As we know that NHF do a rigorous check on who they classify as a sector supplier we were very pleased to meet them. We found that they are a solar PV installer firm...
We were delighted to be selected last year to deliver a project on behalf of several Primary Care Networks to carry out environmental surveys at their GP surgeries. For each surgery we looked at carbon emissions resulting from their energy use, including an assessment...
UK Government’s Levelling Up agenda aims to give ‘everyone the opportunity to flourish'. This “people” focussed aim seems to align with other emerging trends: examples include “placemaking” [1], social value, wellbeing and the “S” part of ESG. Whilst this is a...
The UK has been busy establishing domestic water efficiency targets to prepare ourselves for climate change. Here’s a quick review. England The government has recently released its latest water efficiency policy paper for England [1]. Several objectives have been...
Coastline Housing in Cornwall has collaborated on a research and innovation project called Smartline, which has included the installation of smart sensors in some of their homes. We asked Smartline to share the details of their interesting and pertinent project: How...
There are a couple of bills currently being discussed in the Houses of Parliament that are of interest to the private rented sector. These are the MEES (No2) Bill and EU Retained Bill. The first piece of legislation going through parliament of interest, is an...
One of our SHIFT clients recently asked us a question that is no doubt on lots of people’s minds - so here’s the question and our response: Question: We are delivering housing (retrofitted) for some of the poorest homes in the UK. With this in mind, is it more...
We have received a flurry of requests on how a new build development can attain “SHIFT Gold”. On the one hand this is a great sign that the SHIFT scheme is having a real impact on what gets built. On the other hand, it’s not the intention for SHIFT to accredit any...
In Montreal last month, the global biodiversity conference ‘COP15’ adopted a new, 10-year global framework for nature recovery. After what the UN’s Convention on Biological Diversity called a “sometimes fractious” two-week meeting, the Kunming-Montreal Global...
Now available from all good bookshops chartered environmentalist (and SHIFT Managing Director) Richard Lupo’s book Happiness By Numbers. In it, Richard draws on decades of expert research to provide a science-based framework that shows how your decisions and actions...
The National Federation of ALMOs (NFA) have recently published a report for the NFA Best Practice Series [1] addressing lessons from the ALMO sector regarding decarbonising social housing. This blog outlines areas where ALMOs differ from housing associations, but it...
It’s that time of year that we’ve all been waiting for… SHIFT’s annual consultation on our updates for next year’s environmental reporting and audit process. We continuously monitor national policy, strategy and legislative changes related to sustainability and the...
In 2019, as part of the European Green Deal, the EU announced the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) which has recently been approved and will soon require companies to publish detailed information on their environmental, social and governance...
It is becoming increasingly important to ensure homes are resilient to the impacts of climate change. Around 20% of UK homes already overheat, even outside of heatwave events, while 1 in 6 homes are at risk of some form of flooding, and the risks of both flooding and...
Soon after Liz Truss became prime minister, BEIS initiated a “Net Zero Review” which aimed to establish how net zero targets can contribute to an economic growth target of 2.5% [1]. Given all the recent U-turns on both economic and carbon policy we’re not sure what...