Recently, Andy Smith, Head of Impact Services at The Good Economy (TGE) – Sustainability for Housing’s (SfH) secretariat – sat on a panel at the Inside Housing Warm and Safe Homes Summit. The panel session, Turning data into action: Using insight to deliver safer, warmer homes, explored ways organisations can practically use their data.
Andy sat alongsideother industry experts, including:
- Sameena Ali-Khan, presenter at ITV Central Tonight
- Amma Antwi-Yeboah, Head of Housing Solutions at Babergh & Mid Suffolk District Councils
- Thomas Fountain, Director of Knowledge and Insight at Places for People
Read Andy’s key takeaways below:
With the recent launch of the updated Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing (the Standard or SRS), SRS v2.1, it was fitting to discuss the importance of a standardised framework which allows organisations to track their data and use it to improve their environmental, social and governance (ESG) commitments. This provides the background for boards to set overall strategy.
During the discussion we heard some great examples of how Places for People are using data to make practical operational decisions to better prioritise investments and improve outcomes for residents.
We also discussed the importance of collecting the right data, and the value in calculating data vs modelled data when trying to plan retrofit activities.
Additionally, I had the chance to hear an insightful discussion on climate risk on the panel, Embedding climate risk in long-term asset and sustainability planning. There is a large focus on climate risk within the SRS, so it was encouraging to hear the consensus across organisations within the sector.
The discussion emphasised the need to consider retrofit as part of the sector’s approach to mitigating climate risks, while also placing the needs of residents at the forefront of any changes. This also means there is value in organisations adopting a place-based approach to ensure varying requirements are met across different geographies.
Moreover, the panel explored the importance of bringing an organisation’s board on its sustainability journey – climate risk will have a financially material impact on the business in the future, so it is imperative that they can understand and visualise this now.
