Sustainability
Welcome to our new Sustainability webpage to keep you updated with what we are doing at South Lakes Housing to tackle Climate Change!
We will be adding to the webpage over the coming weeks and months to create a Sustainability Hub that reflects our Sustainability and Environmental Goals and provides helpful and practical information that can be used at work and at home to shape the environmental future of our communities. You can read all about our exciting Warmer, Greener Homes initiative and award winning Passivhaus Development and other eco-friendly new houses that we have been building in our local communities.
South Lakes Housing is committed to getting to Net Zero as soon as possible to play their part in the Net Zero ambitions of Cumbria.
Net Zero is essential if we want to slow down global warming and to have a hope of achieving the Paris agreement. But more importantly for the community of Cumbria, there is a need to prevent the changes that are happening to our climate that will impact our residents’ lives and livelihoods. To reduce the risk of flooding, overheating and other impacts of extreme weather situations being caused by global warming.
Our Sustainability Strategy (above) lays out how we are going to reduce our Carbon footprint and increase our carbon sequestration (the process of capturing and storing atmospheric carbon dioxide) across our operations and residents. Using our position to influence change of our contractors, colleagues, and residents to reduce their carbon footprint.
You can also read more information about our sustainability successes and plans in our Environmental, Social & Governance (ESG) Report 2023 (below).
We will reduce the carbon footprint of our operations. Through increasing our use of Low Carbon transport in our operations, reducing the need for fossil fuels in the running of our offices and depots, and ensuring our operations are as minimum impact as possible.
Our colleagues will be supported to understand the climate crisis through an education programme of carbon literacy training. This training course will help the staff team to understand the situation and what they can do to reduce the organisation’s carbon footprint. We will roll this out to our residents to increase their knowledge and understanding of what they can do to reduce their carbon footprints.
In our communities we will increase the use of Low Carbon technology across our homes, increasing the number of homes with renewable energy supply and ensuring that the homes are as well insulated as possible to minimise the amount of heating needed to maintain a warm, comfortable home.
Through management of our outdoor spaces, we will increase their capacity for Carbon sequestration. To ensure that we are doing as much as we can to increase the amount of carbon being taken from the air. We will understand the health of our green spaces and increase their health and capacity to have a positive impact upon the carbon in the air.
Alongside our work to reduce our carbon footprint to support the slowing down of climate change, we will be ready to deal with the changes already happening due to climate change. We will support our colleagues and residents to deal with the challenges faced due to increased flood risks, overheating and risks of energy shortages.
Our SILVER SHIFT Sustainability standard certification.
We are delighted to have recently been accredited by the SHIFT Sustainability standard. This Sustainability standard, accredited by SHIFT environmental, is the nationally recognised environmental standard for social housing.
We have been accredited at Silver standard for our work on reducing our impact upon the environment and reducing our carbon footprint. The assessment covers the energy efficiency of our homes, energy consumption in sheltered schemes and office along with all other activities involved that impact upon our carbon footprint.
Richard Hayes, Director of Homes commented, “It’s really exciting to see all the hard work we have been doing to reduce our carbon footprint being recognised. Through this work we have developed an understanding of the carbon footprint of South Lakes Housing, and what we must do to meet our 2050 Net Zero ambitions. This will include making our homes more energy efficient, reducing the carbon footprint of our new-builds and reducing the fuel used in our vehicles.”
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