Lincolnshire Housing
Partnership
Introduction
Lincolnshire Housing Partnership (LHP) is a social housing landlord owning and managing 12,500 properties along the east coast of Lincolnshire. Libby Kerman is the Sustainability Manager at the company and has been working with Notch over the last year to measure and record the carbon emissions across the group. We spoke to Libby about her Net Zero aims and ambitions and how she has used the carbon accounting software.
Why have you chosen to do Carbon Accounting?
“Social value is embedded into everything that we do. Our core value is ‘Customer First’ and we work hard to get the best possible outcomes for our customers and the community that we serve. We have a vision to provide great homes and strong communities and we know we cannot deliver that without having sustainability at the heart of everything we do.
“We are committed to a sustainability journey and our aim is to be Net Zero by 2050 and provide vibrant places, green spaces, and future proof homes.
We published our first ESG report in 2021 and it recognised a need for carbon reporting. As we are a not-for-profit organisation, we need to have data to support our process and make better social value decisions.
We know that there will be a legal requirement in the near future and in order to access government funding for our energy programmes we will need to provide valid data about our carbon emissions as part of any bid submissions.”
Why did you choose Notch?
“Prior to using Notch, we captured a small amount of data on spreadsheets, but we felt it wasn’t engaging and accessible to all our internal and external customers. We know that in order to meet our sustainability goals we need to bring everyone with us – our internal team and our customers.
We have found the Notch software really useful. By inputting the data monthly, it allows us to identify trends more frequently, increase our understanding and allows us to be more responsive.
We especially like that the platform allows us to visualise the data and share it with our colleagues which gets them engaged in the longer-term conversation. We have a plan to use the dashboard as part of a quarterly business review. The data will inform the narrative and we can share our plans for improvement.
It can be a challenge to collect data at the beginning, but my advice is to pick an area and just start recording it; then you can move onto the next area. The sooner you start the easier it will be in the future.
The entire team at Notch have been incredibly helpful and I always feel comfortable asking lots of questions. They make things very accessible and not only have in depth knowledge of carbon reporting but have the up-to-date information on the sustainability sector which they share with us.”
What benefits have you seen?
“To date we have secured £8million funding from the Sustainable Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) for retro fitting energy efficiency measures.
We have also secured funding from Eco Four. With 92% of our carbon emissions coming from our customers’ homes this is where we can have the biggest effect on reducing carbon plus customer bill savings too. “
Read more about this achievement https://www.lincolnshirehp.com/news-events/news/lhp-announces-successful-shdf-decarbonisation-bid/
