A quarter of the UK’s carbon emissions come from housing. By building and looking after homes and communities, we have opportunities to make changes and decisions that are green, sustainable, and help to meet the UK’s 2050 zero-carbon target.

 

WikiHouse shortlisted for Ashden Award

Our WikiHouse project was a runner-up in the Ashden Award for Energy Innovation.

A Wikihouse is made of plywood pieces that slot together like a giant jigsaw. The pieces are designed and cut in a local factory, and brought to the site where they’re assembled into a new home.

We built two semi-detached WikiHouses in Sheffield to see if they could be an alternative to traditional ways of building homes. We’re still completing the project’s testing and evaluation… but our tenants have already said their fuel bills are lower, and we love the homes’ sustainable timber frame.

We’ve been working with the team at Green Estate to bring colour, wildlife, and joy to our communities with beautiful flower meadows. As well as brightening up and bringing wildlife to our communities, they’re easier for us to maintain – cutting both costs and emissions!

This year, we’ve really seen our meadows spring to life – so, we shared photos, videos and more in our #bloominglovely campaign on Twitter. Catch up here!

Find out more about our pictorial meadows

“This year with lockdown our beautiful flowers mean more than ever. My daughter and I wake up every morning looking forward to every new flower and every new insect visitor”

A resident who loves our pictorial meadows 

It starts at home

Back in December 2019, we moved into our new home on Rockingham Street in Sheffield. Our new workspace created opportunities for us to design spaces and use technology to enable us to work more effectively and collaboratively. The building inspires, reflects and welcomes our people and customers, and we look forward to seeing you in our open ground floor space soon!

 

Rockingham Street ground floor kitchen

 

We also designed our new workspace with the environment in mind. We moved the solar panels from our previous home to our new roof. There are lots of cycle racks, to encourage active travel for our people and guests. There are charging points for electric cars, and much of our furniture is locally made and includes recycled and sustainable materials. From double-glazing and ventilation, to colourful planting at the main entrance and on the roof, our commitment to sustainability runs throughout our new home.