The strategy will focus on a number of key themes including:
- Affordable warmth and carbon reduction
- Biodiversity and access to nature
- Sustainable supply chains
- Sustainable office and operations
- Transport of the future
- Building sustainable homes.
Our strategy, combined with the themes above, sets out our vision for how our communities can live sustainable and happy lives. It also shows how we as an organisation will meet the significant challenges, both immediate and in the future.
Living sustainably
We're committed to becoming one of the most sustainable housing associations in the UK. To achieve this, we need to work in partnership with you, our tenants, to help you live more sustainable lives.
The following hints and tips give a few small suggestions that can add up to a big change:
- Don't run the tap when shaving or brushing your teeth.
- Catch and use waste water in the garden, or get a water butt
- Fix leaky taps
- Reducing the time you take in the shower by just two minutes can save 10 gallons of water - try turning it off while you’re washing your hair.
- In 2020, households in the UK wasted 4.4 million tonnes of food, worth £13 billion.
- Why not measure out your portions of rice or pasta rather than guessing and overestimating?
- Leftovers and waste sometimes can't be avoided, but any scraps you're left with can be recycled. Ask your local council for a food bin.
- Eat less meat – try meatless Monday!
- Avoid single-use plastics
- Buy loose fruit and vegetables that aren't in any packaging
- Refrain from buying bottled water and drinks, use a refillable bottle instead
- Collect soft plastics and take them to recycling centres or larger supermarkets
- Go paperless by using kitchen towels rather than kitchen roll
- Where possible, switch to receiving bills via email
- Use recycled toilet paper.
- The internet is an amazing resource for how to fix things
- Or you can go to a professional for help, whether that's an electronics shop or a tailor
- Get creative with reusing, whether it’s simple reuse of glass jars or crafting
- Look for a local repair café, lots of these are popping up now
- If something is truly broken beyond repair, why not recycle it by trading it in? Lots of electronics shops will pay money for old and broken mobile phones, TVs, DVD players etc.
- Heating a room by an extra degree for a year equals 310-360kg of extra CO2 being released into the atmosphere. Rather than cranking the heating up in the winter months, it's easy to simply wear some cosy layers around the house.
- When you're not using appliances or electronics such as your TV or laptop, turn off and unplug! It is estimated that phantom power – the energy used by electronics when they are off, but still plugged in – accounts for up to 10% of energy use in the home, with an average household having 40 appliances constantly plugged in.
- We can further reduce our energy use by using natural light more. A lot of us are in the habit of turning on lamps during the day, but turning off lamps for just one hour a day saves 1.22 pounds of CO2. It all adds up!
- Leave space for nature - mow less, sow wildflowers, leave leaves, create log piles
- Put up a bird box
- Dig a pond - even if that means sinking a bucket filled with stones and water!
- Plant a native tree - don't forget to look after it by watering & weeding around it
- Volunteer for nature - join Chiltern Rangers or other conservation organisations at a local event
- Avoid using chemicals in the garden – pesticides such as slug pellets or herbicides such as weed killer.
- Take reusable bags, a water bottle and coffee cup out with you
- Try shopping at a refill shop if you have one nearby
- Try sustainable toiletries – soap bars instead of shower gel, refillable cleaning products.