Working today for a better tomorrow Origin Housing’s Sustainability report 2011 - 2012

Great homes, positive people, strong communities

At Origin we make sure that sustainability is a part of everything that we do. It has been a challenging year yet there have been impressive achievements where we have embedded sustainability into our everyday activities.

We realise that it’s not just us that can make a difference. Over the past year we have been working closely with our residents to help them to build a community that will last.

One of our main targets has been to extend our residents’ knowledge of sustainability issues, provide information and training to them on saving energy and money at home. This has taken a huge step forward, with the launch of a free advice line with Climate Energy Network (CEN). The advice line is just the first step, working with CEN we are going to train interested residents in energy saving so that they will be able to train other residents in their areas.

Our achievements this year:Our office buildings and how we workWe have measured our carbon footprint for each of our main office sites with the

Camden Climate Alliance. They looked at our carbon-generating areas such as energy consumption, recycling, IT, transport and office procurement. We’re proud that our results show we are rated ‘Good’’. We’re going to keep going though to improve next year by looking at heating improvements, building Watermill Lane to Excellent BREEAM standards and new green IT initiatives.

As well as looking at our work, we want to work with suppliers that have established green credentials. Early next year we will be tendering our office supplies contract to include recycled products and to avoid products that are tested on animals.

Promoting greener ways to travel for our staff and helping them to plan their journeys with online public transport planning, encouraging cycling and car sharing.

Great homes, positive people, strong communities

Building new homesOur approach to our new homes is to use technology that is practical, cost-effective, durable, easily understood by users, and readily maintainable. We use tried, tested and dependable equipment and building methods.

Completed schemes this year have included the following equipment:

• Photovoltaic cells – Watermill Lane, Gilbert Street, Waverley road and others,

• Air Exhaust Heat Exchange – Green Lanes,

• High Efficiency Central Boiler – Watermill Lane,

• Passivhaus construction principles – Great North Way,

• Solar water Heating – Weir Hall Lane,

• Mechanical Ventilation with Heat Recovery systems being to reduce condensation and improve the indoor environment – Gilbert Street, Weir Hall and Waverley Road,

• Biodiversity – green and brown roofs are included in selected projects such as Watermill Lane,

• A project to ensure that metering and billing of new installations is correct and transparent to residents has been completed and implemented,

• An architect firm has been commissioned by Connected to monitor resident use of a small sample of completed properties to compare new Code 4 property energy costs compared to design targets and Building regulation comparables.

Improving our existing homesOur Carbon Reduction Strategy and sustainability statement has been developed to identify the worst

performing buildings so we can target our resources at improving those properties.

We have installed photovolactic cells at three of our locations to take advantage of feed-in tariffs. Although the original £2.4m of investment did not fully proceed due to government changes in tariff rate the installations completed will reduce service charges to residents.

Members of our Community Development Team have been accessing and distributing free equipment available from utility companies, such as water and electricity efficiency measures. CEN are helping us to find products, such as electric smart meters which have proven to change in behaviour by residents by displaying real-time information on energy use.

Helping to build sustainable communitiesOur community projects are aimed at as many people as possible in the areas in which we work.

WorkSmart - a volunteer work placement programme aimed at providing practical work experience and training, including numeracy, literacy and an NVQ in Customer Service. There are five participants in the programme

Great homes, positive people, strong communities

– three of whom are Origin tenants - skilling-up participants so that they are ready to apply for entry-level jobs within Origin as they are advertised.

Time Bank - continuing for another year with 159 active members, primarily based in Camden. Members gain new skills and often establish and run their own projects – including community garden, yoga classes and a sewing group.

4-Kix Project - supporting 12 football teams across Camden and Enfield with over 200 young people participating.

Many participants have also gained paid employment as football coaches as a direct result of the project as well taking part in awards such as the Duke of Edinburgh.

Our youth programme had 1,281 participants in March, providing vital opportunities for young people to come together, socialise and learn new skills.

The St Joan’s Gardening Project continues to promote both community and environmental sustainability with a focus on food-growing using organic methods.

Contact usOrigin Housing St Richards House 110 Eversholt Street London NW1 1BS

Telephone: 0800 040 7989 or 020 7209 9222 Email: enquiries@originhousing.org.uk www.originhousing.org.uk

Great homes, positive people, strong communities

Looking to the future We will continue to measure our carbon footprint and set ourselves challenging carbon reduction footprints.

Exploring more green IT changes, such as the introduction of a Nightwatchman system. This system automatically turns off any equipment that has been left on, so saves energy.

Training our employees and residents on energy efficiency so that they can provide advice to other residents.

Looking at the ‘Green Deal’ and other funding initiatives to contribute to improving the energy performance of our homes.

Reviewing the technologies we use in our installations to existing and new homes.