Blog

Reducing carbon emissions from offices should be part of any organisation’s “net zero carbon” plan. But how do you do it?

Tracing the amount of responsibly sourced materials used in repairs and maintenance is hugely important to maintain a strong reputation and to avoid costly mistakes.

At SHIFT we are pleased that our environmental reporting scheme for social landlords aligns extremely well with the current ESG reporting criteria (see our publications page for the SHIFT ESG matrix).

A few months ago Inside Housing magazine asked us to comment on overheating risk. Here’s what we wrote:

Average long term UK personal wellbeing has increased to 84.58% compared to 83.69% when we monitored it 3 months ago. But there are some data caveats…

Having carried out several supply chain surveys for our clients, we have been pretty disappointed with the results in the responsible materials section.

From the beginning of the financial year 2019/20, the Companies (Directors’ Report) and Limited Liability Partnerships (Energy and Carbon Report) Regulations 2018 applies.

The latest UK statistics show that we emit over 350 million tonnes CO2 per year. That’s a very big number, but what does it mean?

Green spaces are hugely important to people. As well as providing a place of recreation, they also provide a degree of flood attenuation, summer cooling, air cleansing, biodiversity and carbon sequestration.

At SHIFT we help landlords prepare roadmaps for net zero carbon. One of the things we have noticed is that including the new build departments in holistic net zero roadmaps can lead to significant savings to whole life costs. This is even if there is a little “over and above” costs for building better quality homes, beyond building regulation standard.

SHIFT, the sustainability standard for housing and the supply chain, works with social landlords that are dedicated to creating a sustainable future, delivering high quality homes and improving the wellbeing of both residents and employees.

To help you save time and resources we have written a Step-by-Step guide to help aid and encourage our clients to sign PDF forms electronically.

To mark International Day of Happiness (20th March 2020) we’ve put together some statistics to show how close we are to a goal of 100% long term wellbeing.  These figures include environmental protection which is so crucial to securing our supplies of basic needs such...

Our SHIFT Assessor, Sam McConnochie, has recently learnt that he won the Royal Geographical Society Planning and Environment Research Group’s prize! This is a national award that goes to the best undergraduate dissertation relating to planning, environmental policy, infrastructure and environmental geography. Here’s what he found.

Over 280 local and major councils have declared a climate emergency in 2019 alone and many housing associations are looking to identify what they can do to ensure they are responding positively to council ambitions for carbon reduction.

A few months ago, Inside Housing magazine asked us to contribute to an article on social housing and climate change. We based our information on our Housing 2050 research which can be downloaded from here: Housing 2050…

The Government’s recent Green Finance Strategy states, “The Government expects all listed companies and large asset owners to be disclosing in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) recommendations by 2022.’

There has been a slight decline in overall happiness and wellbeing, with the specific environmental data revealing that our environmental security continues to face sustained pressure.

At our recent SHIFT event entitled, “Sustainability and Value For Money”, we heard from specialist speakers who highlighted the financial benefits to social landlords from pursuing environmental strategies.

For various reasons, including our carbon footprint, we decided on a staycation this year. The accommodation was our own home and no long car journeys or plane rides were involved.