SmartCarbon Case Study: North Star Housing

Find out how SmartCarbon is supporting regional housing association, North Star, to effectively benchmark carbon emissions as the organisation plots a course for net zero by 2050.

 

North Star Housing Group provides affordable housing to thousands of individuals and families across the North East of England. The organisation first approached SmartCarbon in the Autumn of 2021 with the intention of measuring its carbon footprint for the first time.

A medium-sized business with 1,000 employees, 2 primary offices and a number of smaller offices, North Star represents a typical example of a company of its size in terms of its workforce. However, as a housing association, North Star also has a portfolio of 3,500 dwellings to account for.

Although the organisation is not bound to comply with either the Government’s Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting Scheme (SECR) or Energy Saving Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) due to its size, North Star is nevertheless committed to reducing carbon emissions and intends to become carbon net zero by 2050. As a result, North Star’s board has pledged to report on carbon emissions on a voluntary basis.

Led by CEO, Angela Lockwood and championed by Executive Director for sustainability, Emma Speight, North Star expressed a desire to take its first steps towards understanding its emissions as an organisation. It was for this reason that North Star first engaged with the team here at SmartCarbon.  Only by accounting for all activities that emit greenhouse gases is it possible to measure reductions effectively in the future.

Working with the SmartCarbon team it was established that the best course of action was to adopt the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol and benchmark against the “Scopes” set out within this globally recognised standard.

Not only this but North Star was looking to go beyond Scope 1 and Scope 2 of the Greenhouse Gas Protocol in order to gain a clear and transparent picture of the organisation’s overall emissions – not just the limited factors measured in line with frameworks like the SECR.

 

The importance of benchmarking and tracking progress

Our SmartCarbon Calculator™ is a critical tool for any organisation looking to plot a course towards carbon net zero. Only by establishing a base year is it possible for them to create meaningful reduction plans – and touchpoints to monitor progress along the way.

While it was considered important to benchmark using data from a typical year for North Star it quickly became clear that there were significant challenges presented by acquiring any pre-Covid data. As a result, emissions were calculated using figures from 1^st April 2020 to 31^st March 2021.

Given that the organisation’s working model has evolved since the pandemic, with a large number of employees working on a remote or hybrid basis, it was decided that this “base year” footprint presented a reasonable benchmark. All future reductions measured by North Star will therefore be mapped against this initial reference point.

As is often the case with an organisation looking to record emissions for the first time, it can be difficult to know where to start. Similarly, it can be difficult to acquire all of the necessary information if data has never been collated before.

While measuring emissions within the company’s facilities and fleets are relatively straightforward – and required within Scope 1 and 2 of the GHG protocol – the biggest challenge presented in establishing a base footprint was reporting on emissions relating to the void properties within the housing association’s portfolio. Those properties not occupied by tenants still have emissions attributable and these would need to be captured under the Scope 1 and 2 umbrella of North Star.

This approach makes North Star a rare case in the housing sector. Typically, organisations are only reporting occupied offices as required within Scope 1 and 2, but North Star identified that vacant properties were still contributing a sizeable percentage of the organisation’s total emissions and believed that failing to account for this within its reporting would be disingenuous. Instead, the organisation was committed to looking beyond compliance towards a holistic approach to tracking emissions.

SmartCarbon Lead Consultant, Anindya Chatterjee says,

“Although our experience indicates that many housing associations are only reporting on occupied office spaces, North Star appreciated the value in measuring properties – even those that are unoccupied. However, without the right systems in place for collecting accurate gas and electricity consumption data from dwellings, we needed to provide an alternative solution.”

The solution that Anindya came up in collaboration with North Star’s Asset and Compliance manager, Chris Harris, was to utilise the national statistics from National Energy Efficiency Data-Framework (NEED) and the available EPC ratings for the properties and generate a baseline measurement using the average consumption for the property types within the portfolio (figures that are published annually by BEIS).

Going forward North Star plans to collect actual data from void properties on a sampling basis to compare and adjust the emissions over time.

Other emissions reported as part of this baseline phase included contractor fleet vehicle usage, dwellings, business travel, waste, working from home, and employee commute emissions – all Scope 3 activities not currently required by frameworks such as SECR but integral to gaining an accurate picture of the organisation’s carbon footprint.

 

Next steps

With this baseline reporting now complete, North Star has put in place the necessary steps to gather data across all of these elements year on year. By using the SmartCarbon Calculator™ tool they will be able to track progress over time and report on any reduction in emissions that are achieved over the coming years.

At SmartCarbon we are now looking forward to supporting North Star on this journey, using our calculator to measure progress annually and meet their targets.

As of September 2023 we are also delighted to announce that SmartCarbon has received funding from the North of Tyne Combined Authority as part of the Challenge North of Tyne programme to support on its programme to achieve energy-efficient, low-carbon homes.

Challenge North of Tyne is a £10million fund designed to help restart the area’s economy through projects that are innovative, create jobs and support businesses to diversify, plan for the future and access new markets.

We are delighted to have been named as one of the organisations supporting the region’s housing sector as it looks to plan its journey to Net Zero and look towards a more efficient, automated approach to energy data capture.

You can find out more about Challenge North of Tyne here.