Last week we hosted an event looking in detail at how to build sustainability in our sector and highlighting the steps we are taking to become a more sustainable organisation.
The Towards a Sustainable Future event was held at the offices of law firm Winkworth Sherwood in London Bridge and featured guest speakers along with Elly Hoult, our group director of assets and sustainability, Maame-Yaa Bempah, financial services director, and Laura Shellard, head of sustainability.
We wanted to showcase what we’ve been doing to become a more sustainable organisation as well as learn from market leaders about their approaches. We invited representatives from a range of organisations to join colleagues from Notting Hill Genesis in sharing their experiences.
First on the agenda was Will Rivers from the Carbon Trust, an organisation that supports businesses and even governments in realising their plans for a sustainable, low carbon future. Will discussed what the terms sustainability, environmental and social governance (ESG) and net-carbon zero really mean, along with the challenges and opportunities for housing.
Next up was Alex Thomas from Worcester Bosch. He discussed the future of net-carbon zero heating, the Worcester Bosch journey to clean energy and the potential impact for the housing sector.
George Flynn from NatWest discussed the financial context, providing insights into the evolution of sustainable finance, how this may influence investment decisions, which in turn leads to greater long-term funding in sustainable economic activities and projects.
Maame-Yaa Bempah then described how our ESG report was conceived and created, focusing on the key drivers, and challenges we faced. Maame-Yaa also outlined how we developed our sustainable finance framework, which supported the issue of our first sustainable bond of £250m in June 2021.
Finally, Laura Shellard talked about shaping homes for the future and getting to net-carbon zero across our portfolio of 66,000 homes.
You can listen to all the speakers in the video of the event below.
The event was attended by 50 delegates and sparked lively debate and questions. Such was the success of the session we hope to run similar events in the future.