Our final conversation covering the theme of Sustainability, we find out what else we are doing to embed sustainability across Stonewater beyond affordable comfortable homes from members of the team.
In this episode we invite previous guest Clare Rainsford, Environmental Business Partner back to co- host along side Paula Palmer.
We met Clare at the launch of the Greenoak Centre of Excellence where she introduced us to the Circular Economy principle, this time Clare is going to talk about what else she is working on with team members Molly Auchterlonie, Environmental Business Partner to Finance and Suzanne Le Sauvage, water and ecology as they discuss how Stonewater is embedding sustainability and social value across the company and reduce our impact on the environment.
Stonewater On The Air Season 04 Episode 09 Transcript
Intro
Welcome back to another episode of On the Air, a podcast brought to you by Stonewater. Throughout season 4, we're bringing you 12 brand-new episodes that will explore four themes: the cost of living crisis, technology and housing, sustainability and professionalism within the housing sector.
Our host, Paula Palmer, will be joined each episode by a guest co-host as well as special guests to explore the latest insight and stories from across the social housing sector.
Paula Palmer
Hello, and welcome back to Stonewater's On the Air podcast. I hope you're feeling good and ready for our third and final instalment in our trio of podcasts exploring sustainability in the housing sector.
In this series, we've already talked about achieving our net-zero carbon ambition, how we're building sustainability into our new and existing homes to benefit both customers and the environment and we've begun to show that sustainability sits at the heart of so many decisions and actions at Stonewater.
In today's podcast, we're going to be discussing some of the wider scope of our sustainability actions with three of our hugely talented sustainability team. We're going to get started by welcoming our guest host, Clare Rainsford.
Regular listeners might remember Clare from our recent podcast, recorded at the launch of the Greenoak Centre of Excellence, where she spoke about the circular economy. It's great to see you again, Clare. Go on, remind us who you are and what you do.
Clare Rainsford
Hello, Paula. Thank you very much for having me back. I'm Clare Rainsford, and I'm the business partner for Sustainable Supply Chain. My role is very much looking at the supply chain and looking at how our suppliers are performing from a sustainability perspective, but also looking internally at our own specifications and how they could be more sustainable.
Paula Palmer
Thanks, Clare. It's great to have you back on again. Let's introduce the other two members of your team. It's great to also be joined by Molly Auchterlonie, who looks at the finance implications, and Suzanne La Savage, who focuses on water and ecology for the team. Hi, Molly.
Molly Auchterlonie
Hi, Paula. Thank you for having me. As Paula said, I'm Molly Auchterlonie. I'm the Sustainability Business Partner for Finance. I support the finance team from a sustainable procurement perspective as well as an environmental, social and governance perspective. I've probably referred to that a lot, so I'll just shorten it to ESG.
Paula Palmer
Great stuff. Go on, Suzanne.
Suzanne LeSauvage
Well, thank you, Paula. Hello, everyone. I am Suzanne LeSauvage and I joined the team just over 12 months ago, and I'm the business partner specialising in water and ecology. My role involves working in partnership with internal and external customers to develop strategies for Stonewater that will make us more water efficient and enhance green spaces across new developments and our current homes.
Paula Palmer
Great. Thanks very much for joining me today. Going to share lots more about sustainability, so I know it's going to be really fascinating. As an organisation, I know sustainability is really important for us, and of course, our customers. Perhaps our listeners won't be so familiar with the challenges we face and the real impact that organisations like ours can have.
Could you start explaining a bit more about the sustainability team, and the changes in the team? I know you've grown a little bit and maybe some of our key objectives? Go on. You start us off, Clare.
Clare Rainsford
Yeah. As a sustainability team, we have a huge remit, so it's focusing on key priority areas for us, which across Stonewater, so it's our customers and how we can help sustainability be embedded a bit more into our homes as well, existing homes, but also new build homes and then obviously finance and then a supply chain to deliver tangible change.
Suzanne and I are probably reasonably new to the team, the newbies, aren't we? In some ways, but we're looking at lots of different things from retrofit and greening spaces, obviously supply chain, but all these things fit together.
Suzanne LeSauvage
Yeah. I would say that I think a lot of the recent growth to the team is due to environmental pressures that we're all facing at business, obviously, but in our personal lives as well, and I think as a landlord and a landowner, we have a responsibility to find ways that lead to thriving communities.
Clare Rainsford
We have what we're doing, as well as also looking at specific targets, so targets making sure that we're EPCC by 2030 for all our existing homes, and also that our new homes are net-zero carbon. They're ready for the 2050 target of having zero carbon.
We also work externally with developers who come to us with land-led schemes, and it's really trying to work with them to say, "Look, we've found new approaches that could be useful that you could use to actually make homes more sustainable."
Molly Auchterlonie
Yeah. We also use SHIFT, which works as a bit of our environmental management system, and that encompasses everything Clare and Suzanne was just saying, SHIFT covers all areas of our organisation, from existing homes, new builds, our offices and operations, our supply chain and even our strategy and the management of how we're trying to tackle the challenges that we're facing. It's a really useful tool.
Another target we have for that is to be SHIFT platinum by 2030. We had to achieve a certain score to reach that, but also some intensity targets and those targets will help us to achieve net-zero as an organisation.
Paula Palmer
Fantastic. What targets are you talking about there?
Molly Auchterlonie
Overall, SHIFT platinum by 2030, but also that encompasses how many homes we have above a C, how many new builds we're building to high SAP in EPC B and A, including sustainability features in those homes, and things like that.
Paula Palmer
I understand. Okay. I think the thing that surprises me most with all of that is just how comprehensive our plans and actions are. Some of what you talk about, I assume very specific specialised organisations would be working on those sorts of things. It's great realising the impact we have or can have that we're looking at all of those as well.
My next question is going to be around. We all understand how important it is to reduce carbon emissions and carbon footprint, but can you tell me some more about why it's so important for organisations like us to have a much wider focus on sustainability, and what work we're doing? Go on, Clare, start stuff again.
Clare Rainsford
Okay. I would say really, carbon, yes, is hugely important, but it's one indicator. We can't look at carbon in isolation because if you do that, you're in danger of missing lots of other opportunities, and essentially as well, missing what might be risks for the future. Perhaps climate change risks or adaptation opportunities.
I'm very much focusing on the supply chain because that has a huge impact from an environmental perspective. I mean, sometimes it's difficult to measure at the moment because it's not hugely transparent and that's the same for everyone, but it could be up to 90% of environmental impacts attributed to a supply chain. It's enormous. It's something that we're really focusing on because it can have those dramatic impacts.
From Stonewater's perspective, and my remit is very much looking at the goods and services we buy, who provides us with those goods and services, and what are those organisations doing. We check them to make sure when we're procuring goods and services that they meet our standards.
Beyond that, supply chains are huge. It's a massive network cutting across countries, continents, and different organisations. It's enormous. We only have sight really of the ones that we're dealing with.
What we're doing really is it's two-pronged approach. It's transparency work, so trying to understand, working directly with our suppliers, how sustainable are you? Where are you on your sustainability journey? Have you got figures to back these things up, which then go to Molly, and then Molly reports on those in terms of the, I'm using acronyms, SRS—and Molly will explain what that is later on—and SHIFT standard. Then also, how can we work with suppliers to make a greater difference? How can we work together? Are there other innovation opportunities? There's enormous.
Can they take back goods that we have? Might have come to the end in terms of our requirements for them, but they maybe could remanufacture them, someone else could use them. We have this circular approach.
Then it's also the opportunity, looking more locally, can we buy things that more locally produced? Can we buy things that last longer, more durable? This inherently has opportunities for our customers. Anything local suppliers produces jobs, training, upskilling opportunities, and we're doing that, then the retrofit side of it as well. At the moment, looking how from retrofit, green jobs can be created as well, perhaps for our customers, but also wider communities.
Then when we're using products, if they are more durable, maybe there's less maintenance, which means less cost, less disruption for customers and so on. Sustainability is very much about being resource efficient and inherently, that saves money and is more efficient, and we're trying to get the benefits from it, but it's also new opportunities.
Also, I should say as well, for our contracts, it's about heightening social value. What additional value can our contracts bring that actually meet the requirements of local communities and our customers?
Paula Palmer
Great. Suzanne, what about you? What do you think is important for the housing sector to be doing in response to the climate crisis?
Suzanne LeSauvage
I think Stonewater recognises that we do face many environmental challenges. We're facing challenges personally ourselves. We can't hide away from that. We see it all over the news, and social media. You don't have to go far to read that we are in a biodiversity climate health crisis and the whole country is experiencing this.
In the last century, the state of nature in the UK has seen a significant and alarming decline due to many reasons: agricultural intensification, pollution, and burning of fossil fuels, obviously leading to climate change, and increased development, also resulting in deteriorated and fragmented habitats. We've experienced a 19% decrease in wildlife abundance on average since the 1970s, ranking among the bottom 10% globally for biodiversity and water.
We live in quite a water-stressed environment. Our water usage has increased by 70% since 1985. All this increase of usage is damaging our UK habitats, and it is simply not sustainable. As a landowner, we've got a lot of land, we've got a lot of customers. What can we do in a sustainable way to support other communities that we have? There's no denying that nature plays a vital role in addressing this crisis.
Nature serves as a critical tool for mitigating and adapting to climate change, and really important as well, actually promoting our own well-being. Nature acts as a carbon sink, absorbing large amounts of greenhouse gases and conserving and restoring natural spaces, and the biodiversity they contain is essential for limiting emissions and adapting to climate change.
Just to go back to the physical benefits of being outside in nature, I think there's no denying that we all feel this huge sense of beauty and awe when we're outside. Just 15 minutes a day, resting our mind, being present and taking the sound of the wind and the trees—I know it sounds a bit woo—but the birds singing, but there are huge benefits.
I think certainly when we had the COVID epidemic, we somehow reached out and felt more of a connection with nature. I think that's just something we need to try and sustain going forward. A good point to say, it's really important that we understand what our customers want to see, and that's something we're always looking to do and that will help us develop projects going forward.
Paula Palmer
I was laughing at that bit you said about the water. It doesn't feel like we've had a shortage of water recently, does it? There's been no raining and flooding.
Suzanne LeSauvage
Yeah, I think we're bouncing between drought and flooding. I think what's good to highlight is these are all extremes we're seeing, the hottest days, the wettest. Something's certainly going on, so, yeah, it's, how do we adapt to that? We'll see what the summer brings.
Paula Palmer
Absolutely. Molly, is there anything you'd like to add to that?
Molly Auchterlonie
Yeah, I just think that our sector and sustainability itself, our response to climate change is evolving so quickly. I think it's really important that Stonewater has a wider focus on sustainability, and we do. There's always one eye on the future, whether that's in regulatory requirements, whether that's innovative approaches to these challenges.
As a sector, we're quite uniquely placed, I would say. We have an opportunity to test approaches and share knowledge with our peers, and we can build better homes, and we have the funding available to do that and make our homes more comfortable for our customers. It's just all those challenges come together with one common goal for all of us.
Paula Palmer
Thank you. I think that leads us really nicely into having a chat about some of the projects initiatives you're working on. What are you getting excited about? Go on, Clare, we've started with you every time we're going to carry on. Go, Clare.
Clare Rainsford
We're doing a huge amount, and I should say all these things are interlocking, so it's not in isolation. We're looking at new specifications, sustainable specifications, so looking at what materials might be sustainable in terms of our new development programmes and projects, but also our retrofit work as well, but also maintenance as well. Are there opportunities to actually procure materials which are far more sustainable and maybe more durable? Look at it from something called the whole life cost, but also lifecycle perspective. You're looking at putting the cost together, performance together, still achieving the same performance standards, but also what's the environmental impact of those?
That's gone into some design guides that we're producing at the moment. Then we're also continuously, Molly and I particularly, aren't we? Working with the procurement team in Stonewater, looking at new contracts are coming in, new tenders are going out and looking at what sustainability requirements or environmental requirements might be appropriate, but also social value as well. Those are going in.
Then we're collaborating as well. We've collaborated with SHIFT, with the sector partners as well, to look at what the potential requirements could be going forward into SHIFT. We're working with SHIFT as well and as reporting standards for the sector and working every day more and more closely with our suppliers, testing bits with them saying, "What do you think about this? Does this work for you?" Or maybe if we tweak this and get feedback, but then try to narrow the gap between our understanding, making our supply chain more and more transparent.
Suzanne LeSauvage
Yeah. What am I working on? Gosh, I think at the moment my main focus has been developing a plan, a pilot plan for the southwest. The reason I've picked a particular area is, what I have realised is, that across the country there are so many risks and so many opportunities, but they do tend to be quite driven geographically.
Going back to what Clare and Molly were saying about sort of testing different approaches, collaborating partnerships, et cetera, it just felt that it might be good just to test what are all the opportunities out from a particular area, then anything that is obviously successful, then we can roll that out wider, and then we can just learn from that experience. This will be across the whole business. It's working with development and working with homes as well, working with different maintenance contractors, working with the neighbourhoods teams internally, lots of internal customer engagement, lots of external customer engagement as well, working across with the sector and other organisations, see which opportunities are available there and with non-government organisations as well: Wildlife Trust, Natural England Environment Agency.
There are so many different partnerships that you can make, but what are the ones that are going to really help and support us, support the business and make us more sustainable long term? That's quite exciting.
Just to pick out one of the projects within that area. We've been doing some work, some customer engagement down at Manor Road, which is in Swindon. This was a piece of land that had been developed into a mini allotment about 10 years ago, but yeah, it wasn't used, wasn't maintained, and it's basically just become very, very overgrown. I think there's one customer that was utilising it.
Through a partnership we formed with Wiltshire Wildlife Trust and a local wellbeing group which is bringing other members of the community in to use that space to learn how to grow food and just have maintenance days, just to get outside, get together, get back into nature. That has been really good, and we've got some really exciting opportunities to broaden that out and start working with the local primary school potentially, and with local authority as well and just building on that, really. Yeah, that's something that hopefully we'll get out, back out onto site beginning of April to have another day and bring everybody together.
Then it's really looking to the long-term maintenance of that site. How do we look after that going forward and what partnerships can we form to make sure that it doesn't end up in the state it did before? That's just one project that we're doing in that area, but we are looking to develop a few more within that southwest pilot plan area.
Paula Palmer
Job satisfaction there, isn't there? If you get that one off the ground. I mean, it sounds like it's really exciting to be working in sustainability, and you both spoke about partnerships and collaboration in your projects. I think that's the great thing about our sector, isn't it? We're in housing. It's maybe because it's not for profit, but competition doesn't really factor so much. It's all about collaboration with our customers, our colleagues, contractors, partners, and local authorities. The list goes on and on.
Thinking on collaboration it brings me to what I wanted to talk about next, which is about the Greenoak Centre of Excellence. Clare, you and I were both there, and I wondered if you had a little update for us, something on what's happened since the launch, what you hope the collaboration will bring to the housing sector?
Clare Rainsford
Yeah. Again, there's a huge amount happening. It really is. It's trying to keep on top of everything at the moment. Obviously, the purpose of the Centre of Excellence is about learning and sharing, so we can all hit these targets or know, not try and reinvent the wheel, but share so we can work things out together. Discussions at the launch, there were some fascinating ones.
Suzanne and I had a meeting with someone we met at the launch, looking at the climate change risk assessment tool that we had, and looking had a bit of an issue in terms of how we were going to get some additional information into that. Then it's opened up a whole new arena in terms of the opportunities there.
Paula Palmer
I'm really sorry to interrupt you, Clare, but what is the climate change risk assessment?
Clare Rainsford
Yes. What it is, and I think Suzanne's going to talk about it a bit more later on, is that it's a tool, in essence, to look at how we can assess in terms of properties where there might be future risks if the climate is changing. This is well into the future, whether it's from storms, overheating, these sorts of things. Then obviously, Suzanne, looking at the perspective, how you can adapt and change that.
Suzanne LeSauvage
I think what the climate change risk assessment tool has done has helped me identify where to actually do the projects. It's something that Clare has pulled together, which is amazing. It basically, just to simplify, it gives you a list of properties at one end, so where are the biggest number of properties that we own and we manage. Then it kind of goes along in tabs.
As Clare's already said, it just identifies all those different climate change risks that we have looking, bringing in information from other mapping tools, and then it's just continually growing, we're continually adding stuff, extra columns onto it and then the aim being that it will help us prioritise where we spend our efforts, where we go to. It just gives you that priority, basically, of where to go.
Paula Palmer
Sorry for interrupting you, Clare; what were you saying before I jumped in about the climate risk assessment tool?
Clare Rainsford
The climate change risk assessment tool - we've been working with someone we met at the launch, which has just been fascinating. Then also at the launch, it was another fascinating opportunity that came up to look at how, through our retrofit programme, inherently, there's a lot of glass that's produced. Can we do something with that? Could it go back to the manufacturer, be recycled? There are all new groups and discussions have opened up for it. Watch this space basically.
Paula Palmer
Fantastic. That sounds great. I'm glad it's already having an impact. Molly, perhaps you can help me with my next question. It's about an important part of our work is reducing our impact on the environment, and that's all about measurement. What are we doing to understand how well we're meeting our objectives, and how do we even start measuring our impact?
Molly Auchterlonie
Yeah, it can be a bit of a minefield, I think, when you start thinking about all the things that we are doing and how we measure that. We do have a lot of tools to help. I mentioned SHIFT before, but one amazing part of our sector is the sustainable reporting standard for social housing. Again, something that's quite unique as a sector, we have our own standard to report against, and that's referred to as the SRS. It's made reporting on our ESG themes so much easier. It forms the basis of our annual ESG report as well.
The report itself just provides us with a bit of a chance to show off, show what we're doing for our customers, our colleagues and the planet. That essentially is to have a positive impact on all those things. So making our communities for our customers a nice place to live, somewhere that they have support, that their homes are comfortable and warm, for our colleagues, that they're supported in health-wise, in their job, in their career and the planet. Again, just minimising our impact on the planet and providing energy efficient homes, building energy efficient homes.
One great thing about the SRS is that it has quantitative and qualitative answers to it. It's not just a report full of numbers, which are quite easy to measure when we talk about meeting our objectives and measuring our impact; it's often in numbers, isn't it? Percentages and how much have we increased? The SRS also provides some qualitative answers in that.
We can provide case studies and examples of how we might have supported our customers or new technologies that we've implemented that have really improved customers' lives or meant their energy bills have gone down. It's just nice to be able to explain our impact in both of those ways, and they're both measurable and also provide those real life examples that are behind the numbers, really help bring that to life, I think.
Paula Palmer
I was just going to say, you said, you mentioned it about showing off. What's been your favourite thing that you've managed to report on what's given you the biggest smile?
Molly Auchterlonie
Last year was my first year collaborating the ESG report or collating all the information together. It's just been my favourite part of my job so far, just being able to see all of those things, and I get to read all the case studies of customers and the feedback they've provided.
One great thing was a customer we were able to provide a laptop to, and it meant that they could complete some qualifications that then led them into a whole new career path. I just think that quite—although obviously there's an expense to providing someone with a laptop—it's one simple thing that we've been able to provide that's changed that customer's life into changing their career and their future, which has been really great. Yeah, it's really nice pulling it all together.
One part I like about it is that I describe my role as having a helicopter view of everything that goes on, not just in our team but across Stonewater. It's just really nice to see. I know that behind everything that I'm writing about, it might have been a whole year's worth for someone's job trying to create all those projects to get going. It might be a little section in our ESG report, but it brings the whole picture together and that's really lovely.
I think the SRS as well shows those key themes, and a great thing about it is that it changes and it updates. This year, we're going to be reporting against the new standard. The 2.0 standard for the first time. The SRS consulted on that with us with other housing associations. It was quite a big process, and it just shows that they're really keen to keep up with what's important to us in the sector. It's not what they think is important. They actually care about what we think, and we obviously get our feedback from colleagues and customers as well, so it all comes together.
One new thing we're reporting against this year is damp and mould. That's been really high on the agenda, really important for housing providers to change their approach to that. The SRS is providing us with an opportunity to show that we have done that. That's new for this year, and also to compare against that to our peers and learn from them, see how they're tackling the challenges that we're all facing.
At the end of the day, we are all working towards a common goal. We all face the same challenges. The collaboration of the ESG report and the SRS has really provided that, which has been really great to learn from.
Paula Palmer
Thanks, Molly. Yeah, I mean, it's quite good that you say it's quantitative and qualitative. There are lots of things that you can measure with numbers but lots that you can't. Is there anything else that we sort of look to measure, or you could talk about that maybe isn't numbers, but is that, like you say, qualitative factor?
Suzanne LeSauvage
Yeah, I mean, what might be good to mention here is, particularly with biodiversity, one of the challenges we have is actually measuring what we have already. I think from day one since I started, it's all been about trying to understand what our baseline is, where are we, how much green space do we have, what quality is it, and actually, where do we want to get to, what is realistic?
That's been really difficult. We don't have the money to send an ecologist out to do a study on every single piece of land. We have to study exactly what we have. We're very much down to doing this in a kind of remote way and looking at things like mapping, etc.
This is something we haven't really had available to us at Stonewater like we would have liked to have seen. That's something we're hopefully changing and going forward with, and that will make that process easier.
Yes, it's down to understanding how much green space we have and grasslands, trees, shrubs, what part of that is hardcore, and then coming up with a target of where we want to get to. Yes, that's quite exciting and hopefully, something that we can develop, and that will help Molly with her shift reporting as well. We've got ideas, but we just don't know exactly where we are at the moment.
Again, what has been key to that is actually working with other social housing providers to say, "Well, you've calculated your baseline. How did you get that?" I've had some amazing conversations with others that are much further ahead than we are and actually equally had some conversations with people that aren't quite where we are and learning from Stonewater. Yeah, everyone's very willing to talk and share ideas and thoughts and different ways to come up with these targets, I suppose.
Paula Palmer
I just keep hearing talking around collaboration. I mean, that's something that keeps coming back, isn't it? There's the other C. It's cost. It's a challenging time for everybody, for organisations, for individuals.
Is cost a big barrier to us doing more work to improve sustainability? I think maybe that's a little, yes, from Suzanne. Are there any financial positives for us doing the work, for getting into the ESG work?
Molly Auchterlonie
Yeah, definitely. As a sector, we do need to take a long-term view of the initial cost of sustainability work, but there are incentives for organisations like ours to meet our obligations. Through the SHDF, the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund that provides funding for our retrofit. The majority of our emissions come from our houses. It's important that we have the investment to reduce these.
Also, from investment, we've seen a lot more sustainability-linked loans, which is really great because it shows that we're not the only ones thinking about this, which is another collaboration that we have. It means that a sustainability-linked loan means that we have KPIs linked to the loan that we have to meet in order to receive a more favourable interest rate. That essentially provides us with cheaper money, if that makes sense, but that allows us to do more for our customers and the planet and even more of an incentive to reach our targets.
There's more obvious practical advantages to the work that we do. So future-proofing our homes, making a positive impact for customers, reducing our impact on the planet, but it's also the right thing to do. As much as we have these incentives, it just also pushes our agenda out to the rest of the business to finance understand the targets that we have to meet and helping us do that by increasing the amount of sustainability-linked loans that we have.
Paula Palmer
Yeah. Thanks, Molly. I think you're right. There are so many great reasons why we should be doing this work, and great that we've got the incentives to do it, too, isn't it?
Molly Auchterlonie
Absolutely.
Paula Palmer
Yeah, the funding does come in very handy. Suzanne, I want to talk to you about water and ecology. They're not the first things you think about when you consider working at a housing association. What do we want to achieve in these areas? Tell me some more.
Suzanne LeSauvage
Yeah, well, I think. I mean, hopefully, I've highlighted why we need to do this. I think as I explained earlier, we are a landowner and landlord, and the environment is under a lot of pressure. With most of the country under pressure environmentally, there are many legal requirements that, as a developer we need to adhere to.
Just to explain a couple of these. We've got nutrient neutrality, which means that we need to ensure that a development doesn't add to the existing nutrient burden and attachment. We've got water neutrality as well. That's making sure that when we develop homes, that we're not increasing the amount of water abstracted from the environment. There are certain parts of the country that have to respond to that legislatively.
Then we've got biodiversity net gain as well. This is something that has become mandatory from now on, and this is just making sure that the homes that we develop have a measurably positive impact on biodiversity compared to what was there before. We recognise the importance of engaging with our customers about what we would like to achieve, but also to ask them what they would like to see in a local community, considering biodiversity when creating new communities and making better use of existing space around homes. That's absolutely key.
The key to success of this is partnering with others in the sector and seeking opportunities to collaborate with landowners, local authorities, water companies and Wildlife Trusts and, other NGOs, non-government organisations, and ultimately learning from each other, engaging with the ground maintenance contractors.
As a sector, it's really important that we learn from each other. I found this hugely beneficial in developing, certainly, strategies that I've been working on. It's about developing skills and knowledge that support the organisation, but actually support myself as well.
I've been working with other housing providers, and we've set up a network, and this is all about learning from each other and sharing best practice, looking at risks and opportunities, and it feels like we're all working together and everyone's very passionate about what they're doing, which has been great.
Paula Palmer
Thanks. I mean, there are terms in there that I've little knowledge of what you're going on about, but I think what you're trying to say is we're trying to make places better than they were before, make sure that what we're doing isn't putting any more burden on our world and trying to improve it, really, leave it in a better state than where we started. Before we wrap up, is there anything else that you'd like to share with us? Some ideas of what's next for the team or for yourselves?
Molly Auchterlonie
Yeah, sure. I think one important thing for the team is formalising our strategy, especially in terms of setting carbon reduction targets and a plan that goes alongside that, showing that we're annually reducing our emissions to reach net-zero in different areas through our own offices and operations and our supply chain as well, and encompassing all of those targets into one plan and one target, or maybe a few targets, just to formalise that.
Paula Palmer
Wow. I've got to say, that has been fantastic. I think collaboration was our big word of the day, but the work is going on. It far exceeded whatever I expected to hear. Thank you so much for sharing. Thank you to our guests, Clare and Molly and Suzanne for taking part. Thank you to everyone who's listened in.
If you've enjoyed that, please do subscribe to hear more. That wraps up our conversations on sustainability. Our next trio will focus on professionalism in housing. Please do join us again. Goodbye. Until next time.
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