For a recent project we had to include some lists of environmental issues facing the UK. It’s a bit of a random collection, but there are some interesting nuggets in there. Extra rainfall Depending on which forecasting model you use and what may or may not happen to...
Assessing the biodiversity of a site can be a challenging prospect for developers and decision makers without the relevant ecological background. Whilst they are not substitutes for expert ecological advice, Biodiversity 3.0 and similar tools provide a biodiversity...
In response to SHIFT client requests, this roundtable took place on 13th January 2022. UK housing associations representing around 80,000 homes took part. The key points for discussion were: KPI’s for environmental performance Developing long-term and interim targets...
We’ve had excellent feedback from our webinars which are helping our SHIFT clients make environmental improvements. They are also great for connecting with peers. We will be running more sessions over the coming months to help social landlords make even more...
How can tenants, social housing providers, and others work together to tackle climate change in our homes and neighbourhoods? With the challenge of tackling climate change in our homes and neighbourhoods, the Northern Housing Consortium (NHC) commissioned a Social...
The release of the UK’s first Hydrogen Strategy details the key steps the UK is taking to deliver the ‘promise’ hydrogen makes for decarbonisation. The UK is aiming to drive progress throughout the 2020s to deliver a 5GW hydrogen production ambition by 2030,...
A whole range of social landlords, investors and other stakeholders love our environmental reporting. They use the data to build meaningful strategies, produce ESG reports, various compliance reports and monitor progress towards a sustainable housing stock and...
At last, building regulations have been updated with the intention of reducing overheating in residential buildings [1]. There is now a different approach to the previous methodology which used historic summer temperatures instead of projected summer temperatures and...
Flood events are horrible experiences for everyone affected. The disruption during the flood event and the long clean-up after the event are stressful periods. Whilst planning rules generally reduce risks for new homes, there remains the issue of what to do about...
Our friends at Greenacre Group have highlighted the connections between leadership skills and the sustainability agenda. Here’s what they wrote. As social housing providers get to grips with climate change and endeavour to drive forward sustainable solutions to the...
The impacts of climate change are clear (flood risk, overheating risk, food and water security). Forthcoming regulations [1] will require organisations to evaluate and mitigate the risks that climate change presents to their operations. However, the regulations will...
It’s great to have a strategic knowledge of how to get a sustainable housing stock. At SHIFT we’re also keen to keep up to date with the practical side of retrofit. How big is a heat pump? Where does the ducting on MVHR go? How thick is internal wall insulation?...
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...
Many social landlords and other building owners are carrying out or planning energy efficiency improvement work to their housing and building stock. It’s one thing to make the improvements, but it’s another to ensure that they actually reduce environmental impacts....
Over the past year, we’ve had some SHIFT landlords asking about internal carbon pricing and how it can be used to help decarbonise social housing. We’ve done the research for you and summarised below. What is carbon pricing? Carbon pricing can be used to recognise...
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...
Many organisations have already commented on the “Heat and Buildings Strategy” released last week [1, 2]. Rather than repeat criticisms or otherwise for the strategy, we take a look at two key points which should aid people working in the built environment. EPC’s are...
One of the key insights we took away from National Housing Federation’s Housing Summit last week, was the prediction that the “levelling up” agenda would manifest itself as a “placemaking” agenda. Commentators thought that political and financial resources would flow...