Gold award for Catalyst’s approach to sustainability

We’re delighted to achieve a ‘Gold’ award in our recent SHIFT (Sustainable Homes Index for Tomorrow) assessment.

Published: 05/08/2022

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SHIFT is the sustainability standard for the housing sector and covers every aspect of our business, from our homes and offices to the way we work. It measures how we are doing over a range of environmental criteria, including CO2 emissions, water use, landfill waste and response to climate change. 

Gaining a gold accreditation standard means that Catalyst is one of the leading organisations for green homes in the UK, and we are currently ranked second out of the latest 40 UK housing providers to be assessed. 

Key highlights from the SHIFT assessment show: 

• 100% of office waste was diverted from landfill

• 84.5% of homes are protected from overheating

• A 17% increase in resident recycling above current local authority rates

• A saving of 51.79 kg of CO2 per home through sustainable transport interventions.

As part of our commitment to sustainability, we have become early adopters of the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing. This lets our investors, residents and all stakeholders see our performance against each of the key criteria, and how they align with the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). 

Last year we published our first Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) report as part of our wider performance reporting, demonstrating to funders and stakeholders how we take seriously our responsibilities around tackling climate change, delivering on our social purpose and ensuring good governance.  

Chit Chong, Group Sustainability Manager, said: ‘We’re really proud that Catalyst has obtained the SHIFT Gold Award from this independent assessment, improving on our overall environmental score in the process.  

‘We see climate change as a serious threat to our planet. We’re keen to play our part in improving the local, national and global environment through our work to achieve net zero carbon targets in both our core activities and housing by 2030 and 2050 respectively.’ 

A bespoke report has been issued which contains tailored recommendations on how we can improve, from which we’ll create action plans to achieve our new targets.