A green electricity tariff can be labelled ‘green’ if some or all units of electricity purchased are ‘matched’ by units of energy generated from a renewable energy source. It can be difficult to separate a reliable green tariff from a greenwashing tariff as...
Job description for an Environmental Champion Recently a client asked us if we knew of a job description available anywhere for an Environmental Champion. We know that appointing Environmental Champions is a popular approach to promoting sustainability issues,...
In a summer when all three of the issues in this blog title have occurred, it’s good to know that Government is preparing for the third National Adaptation Programme (NAP3) [1]. It follows on from the national risk assessment [2] that identified, amongst other items,...
Up until now, policy intended to make buildings more efficient has focused on operational emissions. Embodied carbon within construction is not assessed or controlled, therefore it is no surprise that little or no progress has been achieved in reduction. Engineering...
In May the Welsh government launched a consultation on its draft Welsh Housing Quality Standard (WHQS) 2023 to replace the existing standard, introduced in 2002. The proposals include new requirements for consideration of biodiversity and water poverty as well as...
Establishing a meaningful metric for biodiversity has long been an elusive task. Perhaps a new approach could provide such a metric for strategic decision making. The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) has released a second draft version of its...
The UK’s Green Finance Strategy, published in July 2019, had three objectives: helping the financial sector align with net-zero; mobilising private investment that supports sustainable growth; and ensuring businesses can benefit from the transition to net-zero. The...
Of the UK’s total energy consumption 24% is attributable to the domestic sector [1] and of this embodied carbon could account for 6-10%. Despite this embodied carbon is not, in general practice, a consideration when a building is designed, specified and constructed....
A new Part L of the building regulations will come into effect on June 15th 2022. This is billed as an interim uplift towards the Future Homes Standard scheduled for 2025. The new uplift focuses on much better fabric standards and is intended to reduce CO2 emissions...
Last year the Department for Transport published its Decarbonising Transport strategy[1] for addressing the greenhouse gas emissions from transport (responsible for 27% of the UK’s emissions in 2019). The Strategic Priorities include accelerating the modal shift to...
This roundtable session took place on the 21st March 2022, and included social landlords representing over 60,000 UK homes. The key points of discussion were: Reporting guidelines Data requirements Benefits of SECR reporting What is SECR SECR stands for Streamlined...
The cost of transforming our homes to net zero is going to be huge. One estimate puts the cost of getting all English housing association homes to net zero at ~£60bn. For context, the present Government has pledged £3.8bn over 10 years for decarbonising social...
The Department of Levelling Up invited us to comment on their review of the Decent Homes Standard so far and here’s a summary of our response. As a team of professional environmentalists, we carry out annual environmental assessments for around 60 UK social...
This SHIFT roundtable session took place on the 15th March 2022 and included social landlords representing tens of thousands of UK homes. The summary focuses primarily on points raised during the roundtable discussion. A more comprehensive guide to decarbonisation can...
Establishing “green credentials” for an organisation can involve a little burden. But is it worth it? Of course, the real worth is a protected environment where we and our loved ones can all live, breathe and thrive happily. However, happiness is not enough of a...
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...