Taking control – Thirteen ’ s environmental team
PICTURES : TOM BANKS
Our journey to net zero
How Thirteen is facing up to the climate change challenge
With homes accounting for around a quarter of the north of England ’ s carbon emissions , housing provider Thirteen has set firm foundations to make a positive impact on the environment and become a much greener organisation .
Managing around 35,000 homes across the North-East and Yorkshire , the organisation has a big challenge ahead in making its homes and business carbon neutral .
To make the organisation more environmentally conscious and get colleagues on board in helping stamp out its direct carbon emissions , in turn reducing the negative impact on the planet , its ‘ Take Control ’ campaign will see Thirteen achieve its goals , in line with the government ’ s target of 100 per cent reduction in carbon emissions by 2050 .
With an important part to play in helping to achieve this target , Thirteen has set its ambition to reach net zero carbon by 2035 on its direct business emissions .
Head of environmental sustainability Samantha Granger , who is leading the organisation ’ s environmental strategy , said : “ This is a challenge that we ’ re all facing together . We ’ re all seeing the devastating impact of climate change and we know that a collaborative approach is vital to drive positive change in the sector .”
Making sure that its customers , colleagues and organisations , such as its contractors and supply chain , are on board with the journey to net zero is a priority .
Samantha continued : “ We ’ re working on a number of exciting projects to make homes more energy efficient and for some time we ’ ve been testing out new products , services and smart technologies which could be used in the future . We ’ re looking at how we can increase the thermal efficiency of our homes and how we use lower carbon renewable technologies .
“ Retrofitting homes is a challenge and one which everyone is facing , so it ’ s important that we work together and learn from each other . We need to look at the homes we own now and the ones we are building in the future . “ But whatever we set out to do must be beneficial to our customers and their wellbeing - improving the energy efficiency of our homes and helping to lower our customer ’ s energy usage .
Skills challenge Thirteen has already established its environmental team , having created a number of jobs , employing recent graduates into many of the newly created roles .
It ’ s fortunate to have a dedicated environmental team , demonstrating just how seriously the organisation is taking climate change . While it ’ s recognised that there is a real skills challenge around net zero , Samantha
78 | Tees Business