At Greatwell Homes, we are working towards being Zero Carbon by 2050. Not only does our mission help the environment, but by upgrading our customers’ homes the cost of running a home could be lowered.
By 2030 all our homes will have an EPC rating of C or above. This is only one part in our journey to ensuring we hit the key milestone of Zero Carbon by 2050.
To help us reach this milestone we’ll be:
- Changing all meters in our flats to smart meters. This has already been completed in our Independent Living schemes and we’re just under halfway through completing this project in our general need’s flats.
- Promoting smart meters to customers to help save £’s on energy bills, as well as signposting to our partners at Energy Angels so as customers you can compare your energy bills and make sure you get the most competitive rates.
- Working with our suppliers to find out about new heat technologies that could be installed in the future to help us work towards Zero Carbon. In the meantime, we’ll continue to install gas boilers, recognising they are currently the most cost-effective source of heating for our customers.
- Replacing all windows and doors that no longer meet the Decent Homes Standard, or are 20 years old, to ensure they are energy efficient, unless as a customer you don’t want the work completing.
- Upgrading all roofs and insulation to make sure they meet the Decent Homes Standard.
- Ensuring we have an EPC certificate for all our homes. We’ve recently invested in training two of our in-house surveyors to become qualified EPC assessors to carry out these certificates.
Helping our communities become Green
Our mission towards being Zero Carbon by 2050 has a big focus on our homes. However, it’s not only our homes that contribute to the environment, but we also want to encourage our communities as well.
To help our communities become greener we will:
- Explore options to provide EV charging points on some of our estates as part of wider environmental improvements subject to affordability and necessary planning consents
- Renew our electric van contracts, we currently have 3 electric vans in our Greatwell Places fleet.
- Upgrade our repairs system to allow the system to book jobs and compare geographical locations for the operatives to avoid unnecessary use of fuel.
- Continue to invest in battery powered tools for our operatives to use, and over time reduce the amount of petrol tools we use.
- Continue to digitise our internal systems to help reduce paper usage. In 20/21 we had a paper reduction of 38% from the year before by digitalising systems. Our customer application process is now online and with the decision to close our office, our office-based staff now work from home which has had a massive effect on paper usage.
- Continue to promote our community grant for Care & Repair to offer Warm Home Assessments to our customers.