Housing provider awarded gold for huge environmental achievements

Spandau Ballet’s lyric ‘you are gold’ has been taken literally by a leading UK housing provider as they have recently smashed an environmental assessment out of the park.

Stonewater, a leading UK housing provider, has continuously outdone themselves by striving to become of the most environmentally-friendly organisations within the sector.

According to the latest rating by SHIFT, an independent assessor if environmental performance for buildings, Stonewater’s performance rating has increased by almost 3% within the last year, placing them second out of the 40 most recent assessments that have been carried out.

Following this, the rating that Stonewater was given by SHIFT, which the company uses as an independent measure of its environmental credentials, covers the financial year from April 2022 to March 2023, and gave the organisation an improved score of 64.8% – an increase of 2.71% from the previous year.

The report, which was created after the assessment was completed on the company, highlighted several positive environmental measures, stating that the leading social housing provider had made ecological enhancements to 100% of the homes built in the reporting period and that it increased its proportion of homes rated EPC B and EPC A.

Further sustainability highlights included Stonewater’s strategy for managing and reducing all pollutants, almost 90% of waste from new homes being diverted from landfill and residents’ engagement with local waste initiatives during Recycling Week.

Adam Masters, Assistant Director of Environment & Sustainability at Stonewater, said: ‘What a week it’s been for Stonewater’s sustainability team. First the award win and now the news of our improved SHIFT rating.

‘It’s testament to the dedication of everyone across Stonewater, along with our partners and of course our customers, and we’re really pleased that our work to continually improve our environmental credentials and reduce the impact of our homes and processes on the planet, has been recognised in this way.’

As well as producing greener homes, Stonewater have also recently published a detailed environmental strategy, and has partnered with the Community Forest Trust to introduce a tree planting scheme to offset the timber used in homebuilding.

To read more stories on sustainability and greener home upgrades, visit our other PSN title Environment Journal. 

Image: Cameron Wilkins