Last year, after consulting with residents and staff, we added ‘becoming a more environmentally responsible organisation’ to our aims. It has become clear to us that being socially responsible is not enough and that along with our housing and community partners we must consider the environmental impact of our work in the light of climate change, reduced reliance on fossil fuel and the fragility of the natural world. This will have a profound effect on how we make decisions, on our housing services and the new homes we build.
We recognise that this is a challenge but we also recognise the benefits and creative opportunities a ‘greener’ business approach offers.
Social housing provision is by its very nature sustainable, we design and build quality affordable homes for local people, investing in those homes and communities for the long term, generation after generation. It makes perfectly good sense to make sure that through improved knowledge, technology, community development, strong partnerships and investment we ensure our homes and resident households are equipped to meet the challenges of the 21st century.
This won’t be achieved overnight, thinking and acting sustainably requires asking different questions, putting aside old ways of doing things and much closer links with our residents and community partners as we experiment with new technology, different ways of doing things and in some cases, relearning the old conservation and re-use skills of our grandparents. There is more information on this below:
To achieve our aim of becoming a more environmentally responsible organisation we have highlighted three priority areas in our sustainable development strategy:
- creating sustainable communities - supporting resident involvement in the work of the association and the wider community through community development and community investment to improve the social, economic and physical environment
- providing sustainable buildings - delivering sustainable homes through the Housing Investment programme, and incorporating asset management approaches within the existing stock
- delivering sustainable services - providing housing management, support and advice to residents and home owners in the wider community.
