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...
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...
Our Sam McConnochie details how he set up the SHIFT [1] portal which helps social landlords report on all environmental issues and provides an excellent audit trail. Here’s what he wrote: Working with a web development agency, we built the SHIFT portal from concept...
The IPCC’s [1] latest report made the headlines a few weeks ago. The report confirmed that climate change is real, it presents adverse effects to us all and it is caused by human activity. For environmental professionals this is hardly news, but it is good to see...
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...
With environmental and sustainability requirements becoming more prevalent across a variety of sectors, UK Government has established a new independent expert group to advise on standards for green investment. The Green Technical Advisory Group (GTAG), made up from a...
The sugar and salt taxes in the recently announced national food strategy made the headlines [1]. However, the original brief for the author was to review the entire food system. Many of the resultant recommendations relate to environmental protection. The bulk of...
The “Wellbeing of Future Generations Bill” has completed the first stage of a 12 stage journey to becoming UK law [1]. Inspired by a similar law in Wales, the proposed bill, will require public bodies to improve “the economic, social, environmental and cultural...
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...
Hydrogen is regularly discussed as a form of low carbon heating. Theoretically, hydrogen can be transported using existing gas infrastructure. For this reason, hydrogen has been viewed as a good low-carbon alternative. There are several ways of producing hydrogen gas,...
The UK Government has recently announced plans to end the sale of halogen lightbulbs from September 2021, to cut carbon emissions and facilitate the journey to net-zero carbon[1], with fluorescent lightbulbs likely to follow suit from September 2023. In addition to...
The recently released Procurement Policy Note (PPN)[1] presents how the UK Government will take account of suppliers Net Zero Carbon Reduction Plans in the procurement of major contracts. The PPN applies to all Central Government Departments, agencies and public...
UK Government recently requested feedback via a consultation on the regulation of climate-related financial disclosures by public quoted companies, large private companies, and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs). Climate change poses one of the greatest threats to...
At SHIFT Environment we are truly committed environmentalists. Which is why, as well as running our consultancy business, we spend some of our time engaging with Government, regulators and key organisations. This has led to the creation of SHIFT’s "Fund Net Zero...
Heat networks are systems in which heating, cooling or hot water is generated at a central source and supplied by the operator to multiple third party consumers. Heat networks serve either multiple buildings (district heating) or multiple occupants in a single...
It seems that the Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion is not too impressed by the way “Social Factors” in ESG investments are being handled by investors. In a recent consultation, he states: “I am concerned that social factors are not well understood. “Many...