Environmental Strategy 2016-2018
Introduction
With over 600 staff, 18,000 homes spread over more than 30 Local Authorities and a large annual development
programme, Great Places recognises that the decisions and actions of the group have a direct impact on the
North West’s environment, social wellbeing and economy. Staff, customers and stakeholders increasingly
expect Great Places and the wider housing sector to act responsibly and sustainably in respect of our
environmental impact and we are in a good position to do so. This strategy outlines Great Places approach to
environmental sustainability until 2018 and references longer term goals.
Environmental sustainability is one of Great Places’ corporate objectives. We recognise our responsibility to
contribute to addressing the challenge of global warming through innovation, design, building standards,
retrofitting of affordable warmth technologies and through education of our customers. We aim to reduce our
carbon footprint and deliver low SAP ratings across our stock. To achieve these goal Great Places need to work
with staff, customers and key stakeholders alike, to ensure they are knowledgeable about environmental
sustainability and work together towards a low carbon society.
Great Places is not working in isolation in reducing environmental impacts. There is an increased cultural
awareness across the UK that sustainability brings with it rewards in terms of reduced utility bills, improved air
quality, health and wealth. An actively implemented environmental strategy improves social sustainability by
reducing the amount of resources wasted and contributing to the financial strength of the organization, our
customers and communities.
Context
There are numerous environmental challenges facing the world including climate change, resource depletion,
energy security and loss of biodiversity. Reducing carbon emissions and ensuring positive environmental
impact continues to be key national targets. The UK’s Climate Change Act 2008 sets legally binding targets to
reduce greenhouse gases nationally by 34% by 2020 and by 80% by 2050 against a 1990 baseline. Despite
recent changes in the UK government approach, these overarching targets continue to be in place.
This environmental strategy sits within Great Places’ corporate plan, cutting across many of the group’s
overarching priorities. Our organizational values can easily be distilled into environmental values that can be
summed up as:
1. Green Homes
2. Green Communities
3. Green People
The strategy is led by the Green Places Strategy Group which reports to Directors and the Great Places Board.
The Green Places group has full support from Directors and Board and is attended by Senior Management
including the CEO and is a mix of representatives from all departments across the organisation. The
representatives are tasked with providing feedback to their teams and reporting to the Green Places group on
environmental progress made by their teams. The group advises on environmental matters affecting Great
Places as well as monitoring and reviewing progress against the Environmental Strategy and making
recommendations to maximize positive environmental impacts. The Green Places group are key in assessing
and implementing new recommendations and best practice, as well as gaining feedback from staff and
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customers on the environmental work of the Group. The strategy will be actively implemented by way of an
action plan developed and monitored by the Green Places Group. Progress towards meeting objectives will be
reviewed on an annual basis and reported to the Executive and Board.
The Green Places group promote cultural change to ensure positive environmental impacts across the group
and will review legislation to ensure that Great Places is fully compliant.
What we do
Great Places has demonstrated it’s commitment to tackling environmental issues by ensuring that
environmental impact is considered in all decision making. This is demonstrated by having an Environmental
Impact section in all strategies and reports to the Executive and Board. Our focus has, and will continue to be
Homes, Communities and People:
Homes:
Great Places has initiatives to raise energy awareness of customers to reduce the amount of energy wasted in
their homes including, Be Green, You Can Glow, Green Doctor and Home Energy Checks.
Every Great Places new home has met Code for Sustainable Homes level 3 as a minimum in the last five years.
Customers in new buildings are provided Home User Guides to help them understand how their homes work
and make sure they are gaining the greatest benefit from the homes and not incurring excessive fuel bills. We
employ dedicated, trained staff to deliver this advice.
Communities:
Through all of this environmental work Great Places seeks to work with partners and stakeholders to ensure
that a consistent message is given to customers. Partnership working with other registered providers, charities
and local authorities has provided excellent projects, such as the LEAF project in conjunction with Regenda
Housing. This partnership secured external funding to pay for Green Doctor visits in Rochdale and Oldham.
Partnership working also enables best practice sharing for example Great Places are part of the Low Carbon
Asset Management Group which explores opportunities for registered providers to work together to improve
the energy efficiency of their homes.
People:
Training has been crucial to the environmental improvements made across the group. Bite size training has
been given to respective teams to ensure that a consistent message (especially about energy efficiency) is given
to local customers. Great Places is the first registered provider to roll out Carbon Literacy to staff and are on
target to become the first Carbon Literate organisation in the world. The training provides staff with an
excellent understanding of climate change, global warming as well as the impact on Great Places and them as
individuals. By the end of 2016 every single person within Great Places will have had the same training in
climate change and what we can do both as an organization and as individuals to reduce our negative
environmental impacts.
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Aims & Objectives - where do we want to be
Through our three key environmental values, Great Places will work towards ensuring positive environmental
impacts across all of our activity.
Green Homes
Investing in the energy efficiency of our homes is the most significant factor in ensuring our customers are able
to afford to keep warm and well in their homes. By 2018 as many Great Places homes as practically possible will
meet a minimum SAP rating of D.
This will be achieved through asset management (the assessment of homes for disposal that will not meet the
required standard) and specifying improved environmental standards of insulation, heating and ventilation
where appropriate and affordable to the existing homes that we retain. We will continue to work with partners
to secure funding for energy efficiency improvements where possible. This goal of improving the energy
efficiency of our housing stock will be achieved through a careful programme of investment and the use of
trigger points such as major investment and voids. Energy efficiency will be included as we develop asset
management plans. Homes that cannot, economically or physically, be brought up to a SAP of D will be
considered for disposal. Stock condition survey data will continue to be collected and reflect our environmental
data requirements.
Beyond 2018 the government’s target to improve as many homes as reasonably practical to a SAP rating of C by
2030 will be challenging. In this strategy period we will seek to use pilot projects, including retrofitting
environmental measures, in order to explore options for improving our homes to this standard, ensuring that
energy efficiency improvements demonstrate value for money and are sustainable.
Great Places will continue to build new homes to high energy efficiency standards. With the removal of Code
for Sustainable Homes targets and Allowable Solutions, the focus will be to achieve energy standards through a
“fabric first” with ventilation approach. All new homes will meet the energy efficiency standards as set out in
Part L of Building Regulations, with additional measures addressing thermal comfort and solar gain.
Our offices are ‘home’ to staff during business hours and it is crucial that Great Places work to reduce the
environmental impacts of our offices and supported/sheltered housing schemes. These buildings are under our
direct control and through investing time and resources we will be able to achieve a lower environmental
impact. The focus will be to reduce energy demand and water consumption as well as reduce waste to landfill.
These will be achieved through educating staff and investment, where appropriate.
Great Places’ office and scheme waste to landfill is already low having been reduced by over 50% in the last 5
years. Great Places will make sure that there is a robust waste and resource approach through the full
implementation of a waste hierarchy encouraging staff to reduce the waste produced and then recycle where
possible, ensuring that disposal is seen as the last option.
Great Places will continue to utlilise an Environmental Management System to ensure legislative compliance at
all times. The Green Places group will review external accreditations including; ISO 14001, SHIFT and BS8555 to
assess the environmental and economic value of attaining these externally recognised accreditations.
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Green Communities
Working with our local communities and key stakeholders we have developed Sustainable Neighbourhood
Action Plans (SNAPS). Using this model we will work to deliver projects that meet the needs of our customers
and communities. Waste is a very visible negative environmental impact and has been highlighted as an area of
concern in all of our “core” neighbourhoods. We will continue to work with local communities and partners to
inform the local community about waste, recycling and collection options.
Increasing the accessibility of open green space for our customers & stakeholders will also be part of our
strategy going forward. We will ensure that our green spaces are monitored and biodiversity increased where
possible. Through the careful selection of species and timing of planting and maintenance we will reduce the
need for watering and provide shade and cooling for buildings.
Research is a crucial part of our work and it is essential that we understand the true social value of the
environmental work we undertake. Through working within the HACT model we will gain a greater
understanding of the environmental impacts that most directly affect our customers and work to improve
them.
Air pollution, particularly from transport emissions, can have a detrimental impact on local communities in
terms of health. Generally the poorest in society are hit hardest by poor air quality. Great Places aim to
minimise the impact of staff travel and encourage modes of transport that minimise air pollution and reduce
congestion. We will achieve this by putting in place a travel plan which will enable and promote sustainable
transport. Through our fleet management and working with existing staff we aim to reduce carbon emissions
associated with transport by 25% over the course of the strategy through procurement of new vehicles, travel
planning, improved job scheduling, driver awareness training and ensuring that our vans have the correct
equipment on board. In addition, the Distribution Centre will result in better stock control which means the
operatives will have access to the right stock at the right time which will reduce the number of journeys
required due to increased first time fixes.
We recognize that the procurement of goods and services and how we invest our resources have social,
environmental and economic impacts. Great Places can make an important contribution to local, regional and
national sustainability targets by making responsible procurement decisions that have the least negative
impact on the environment and society. We will maximise the value placed on sustainable goods and services
and consider whole-life costs when purchasing as part of the sustainable procurement strategy.
Green People
Staff, customers and stakeholders play a critical role in the delivery of this strategy. Understanding
environmental sustainability will become embedded across Great Places through the continued role out of
Carbon Literacy Training as Great Places become a Carbon Literate organisation. Great Places are keen for our
customers to benefit from environmental awareness and knowledge, so we will pursue the roll out of a
community carbon literacy training course. This will ensure that customers understand the impacts of their
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actions and how to mitigate them, saving them money in the home. Carbon Literacy training will also help the
employability of our customers as they will have received training that directly impacts all businesses.
A crucial element of our role is making sure that our customers understand how to operate their homes
effectively. The handover process for new build homes and the associated Home User Guide (HUG) will be
reviewed and a database of user guides for the various technologies found within our homes (including our
existing homes) will be created. Via the database, staff will have access to the information they need to make
sure our customers know how to operate their homes effectively. Where homes are retrofitted, including at
the point of replacing heating systems and appliances, the occupants will be shown how to use the home
efficiently and be provided with an easy to understand user guide. This process will continue to align with wider
investment and insulation programmes.
Great Places have trained Energy Advisors who are able to give customers bespoke information about their
home and how to operate it effectively. The feedback from customers who have taken up this service has been
very positive with average annual savings of over £100 per year. The energy advisors are able to give
behavioural change advice as well as undertake energy tariff reviews and provide information about the
heating systems within the home. We understand the benefits of shared knowledge and exchange of ideas and
will continue to hold the very successful Winter Warmer events and Be Green sessions.
For our customers in Supported Housing education and awareness are crucial. We will seek to develop an
approach to promote sustainable behavior change within the schemes. This will be particularly challenging yet
essential for customers who are with us for a short period of time. Educating customers on how to live in an
environmentally sustainable way will be combined with an understanding of the benefits to them as individuals
(health and wealth) and to the local community around them. There will be a particular focus on customers
who are due to move on from our supported schemes to ensure the knowledge assists them as they live in the
wider community.
Information technology has a significant impact on the environment through energy consumption and
sustainability. Over the course of this strategy further work to reduce environmental impacts through careful
use of IT will be undertaken including; the roll out of thin client’ reducing the need for energy hungry laptops,
new audio conferencing software and ‘Follow Me’ printing which will reduce paper waste. Careful use of
information technology can have a significant impact on the reduction of the overall environmental impact of
the organization, but the systems must be in place and the staff must have confidence in how to use it for the IT
to be successful. Part of the strategy is therefore to provide bite sized training to staff to ensure they have the
confidence and knowledge to use information technology to minimise their environmental impacts.
There are numerous pieces of environmental legislation that impact the work of Great Places. It is fundamental
to this strategy that Great Places are compliant with the legislation and ready for future changes and
developments. The most crucial Acts are the Climate Change Act 2008 and the Energy Act 2010. The former
requires the UK government to reduce carbon emissions within the UK by 34% by 2020 and 80% by 2050, while
the latter requires all businesses to review their carbon emissions and work to reduce them. Great Places will
remain cogniscant to environmental legislation by ensuring that a registrater of all environmental legislation is
maintained and respective teams are informed and given training where appropriate.
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Financial / Value for Money implications
Green Homes
Improving the energy efficiency of our housing stock is a significant challenge in respect of cost, but also
improves the value of our assets and ensures that our homes are low cost in respect of energy costs for our
customers. To achieve the targeted EPC rating of D will require £1-1.3 million expenditure, of which insulating
all the worst performing solid wall homes will cost £800k. Value for money will be tested via an assessment of
the long term sustainability of each home. Homes where it is not financially or practically feasible to improve
the energy efficiency levels will be considered for disposal. Coupled with comprehensive advice on reducing
energy consumption and wastage we will provide homes with lower running costs resulting in improved
customer health, reduced fuel poverty and greater affordability.
The government-led 2030 target of all homes having a minimum EPC of C will require an investment of circa
£3,500 per Great Places rented home affected. Currently circa 6000 homes in Great Places stock do not meet
EPC C standard. Understanding stock condition, undertaking pilot projects and alignment with investment and
asset management plans will be essential to assess the most cost effective methods of improving energy
efficiency standards at these homes.
Green Communities
The added value of Green Communities is known to be increased social responsibility, wellbeing and improved
public health. We will work to ensure that our accessible green space is enjoyed by our customers. Through the
HACT model we will understand the value for money element of our environmental improvements.
Lasting sustainable neighbourhoods are those that achieve economic, environmental and social benefits and
our current procurement processes include consideration of environmental impacts and appropriate weighting
during the procurement of goods and services.
As noted above air pollution associated with transport emissions has a significant impact on local communities,
it also has an impact on Great Places’ budgets. Reducing our transport emissions will reduce costs in terms of
fueld consumption and for the fleet, reduced wear and tear on the vehicles and reduced risk of accidents.
Green People
Energy prices are predicted to more than double over the next ten years. This will have a negative impact on
customers, staff and also the cost to operate the business. Through improving the physical fabric, installing
energy efficient equipment and raising the level of environmental awareness for customers & staff the business
will benefit financially.
Great Places will continue to seek to gain funding for research especially in terms of customer engagement and
behaviour change.
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Risk
The risk of not implementing this strategy and associated action plan are as follows:
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Increased fuel bills / unsustainable (hard to let) properties
Non-compliance with environmental legislation resulting in fines
Missing government targets for housing efficiency
Increased complaints from customers / loss of market share
Increased disengagement with customers
Great Places reputation would be at risk resulting in Increased staff disengagement and potential impact
on recruitment if not improving our environmental impacts.
All tenders now have an environmental section. Without an actively implemented environmental
strategy Great Place may miss out on future contracts.
Third parties and stakeholders are also seeking to reduce their costs and environmental impacts and
would prefer to work with an organisation that is seeking to do the same.
Performance monitoring
The success of this strategy will be monitored by way of an annual action plan led by the Environmental
Manager. The action plan will be updated every month and reviewed at each Green Places Strategy Group
meeting. Progress towards meeting objectives will be reviewed on an annual basis and reported to the
Executive and Board.
The overarching targets are as follows:
 Green Homes
Reduce carbon emissions from offices and schemes by 5% year on year from 2014 baseline.
Improve SAP to a minimum of D for as many homes as reasonably practical by 2018.
Each year 100 households facing fuel poverty to receive bespoke Home Energy Advice .
A pilot project to assess the cost and benefit of retrofitting a home to SAP of C.
 Green People
Reduce Great Places fleet mileage by 15% based on 2014/15
Reduce Grey fleet mileage by 10% in year one followed by 5% in each subsequent year based on 2014/15
Reduce carbon emissions associated with the Great Places fleet by 15% by 2018 based pm 2014/15 baseline
80% of staff trained in Carbon Literacy
Great Places to become a Carbon Literate organisation
Implement a Community Carbon Literacy Programme
 Green Communities
Implement 20 growing projects across the region
Increase the biodiversity across the region
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Review of sustainable products
Implications for customers
Great Places customers will benefit through increased knowledge and awareness of environmental issues
particularly with regards to energy saving in the home. Through improving the energy efficiency of our housing
stock and increasing the energy awareness of our customers they will benefit from cheaper costs to run the
home. In addition with the aim to roll our community Carbon Literacy customers that attend will receive the
latest training increasing their employability and confidence in environmental issues.
Equality & diversity implications
Great Places will work to ensure that all customers have access to information and advice to minimise their
environmental impact. We appreciate there can be language, cultural and vulnerability barriers which may
increase the difficulty of passing on environmental information and understanding. We will work with our
customers and stakeholders to ensure the knowledge and understanding is conveyed as appropriate to the
customer’s needs.
Environmental implications
Through the implementation of this strategy and associated action plan Great Places will increase the positive
environmental impacts associated with the group.
Conclusion
This aim of this environmental strategy is to ensure that Great Places staff and customers know and understand
how to minimise negative environmental impacts and maximise positive environmental impacts. There will be
monitoring of the systems implemented and a focus for projects to enable them to be implemented fully and
correctly prior to moving onto the next project.
Links to related polices:
While the strategy is core to Great Places work and activity it links to a number of existing strategies including:
Affordable Warmth Strategy 2013
Development Strategy 2015-18
Sustainable Procurement Strategy 2014-16
Business Systems Strategy 2015-18
Asset Management Strategy to be written 2016
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Equality Impact Assessment Screening
Question
Could there be any equality issues arising from this policy? (If no,
you do not need to answer the following questions but must
provide justification for why)
Is there any reason that some groups may not receive a fair and
equal service?
Could this issue have a significant impact?
Will the policy impact on a significant proportion of people?
(include justification for why you think it is significant or not)
Is there any reason to believe service user/employee profile is not
consistent with community profile?
Is there any evidence to suggest that any part of the policy,
practice or procedure could discriminate unlawfully, directly or
indirectly, against different groups?
Total
Yes/No (add explanatory notes if
appropriate)
No – we will work with respective local
teams to ensure any equality
requirements are met
No
Not applicable
Yes – through improving the physical
fabric of our buildings and improving
knowledge and understanding a
significant portion of our customers will
benefit
No
No
0
Score:
5-6 = high priority
3-4 = medium priority
1-2 = low priority
0 = no EIA required
Strategy Approval Date:
Equality Impact Assessment Date:
Safeguarding Impact:
Y / N (If Y date went to Safeguarding Group
for approval.)
Strategy Review Date:
Lead Team:
Level of Authorisation Required:
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Board / Directors / Other (please state)
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