Sustainability work recognised with sliver status

Work to make our customers’ homes and communities and our business greener has taken another step forward – we have retained silver status in our annual SHIFT assessment.

The annual independent SHIFT assessment is an audit of how we are performing against a series of sustainability targets including carbon emissions associated with our activities, energy and water use, how much waste we recycle, and how ethically we procure goods and services.

SHIFT - standing for Sustainability Homes Index for Tomorrow - is the green accreditation scheme for the housing sector. It has awarded us a silver status again this year.

Key achievements include: reducing the average carbon footprint of our homes. This equates to saving the CO2 from running 1,375 petrol cars for a distance of 12,000 miles each over a year.

We have also decreased our office waste by more than 20 tonnes, or the equivalent of four million sheets of A4, and delivered a host of green space initiatives like wildflower and tree planting.

“We are very pleased we have kept our silver SHIFT status as we continue to make progress in these important areas,” Steve Agger,  our executive director of homes .

“But there is more to do with our customers’ homes to improve their energy efficiency and with our business too as we lower carbon emissions, and substantial work is happening soon to achieve this," he explained.

“We are embarking on a further £9.3 million round of home improvements this year to better insulate properties across Oldham starting in 2025 with the Abbeyhills and Roundthorn and Delph area of Saddleworth.

“This means around 2100 - or 700 homes per year for the next three years - will receive upgrades in these areas to give them an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) ‘C’ standard.”

He added: “It is also our ambition that 100% of our homes will achieve this 'C' standard by the start of the next decade.”