What is an ESG report?
An ESG report provides information on organisations’ environmental, social and governance performance:
- Environmental: This focuses on our impact on the environment, for example, how we’re reducing energy usage and carbon emissions
- Social: This refers to the impact we have on people and wider society
- Governance: This area looks into to the structure of the organisation and how it is managed.
Highlights from our 2024 report
- 97% of our new homes are affordable and social housing (excluding new homes developed as part of a joint venture)
- 80%+ of all A2Dominion homes have an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) of C or above
- On average, A2Dominion customers spend 45p for every £1 a private renter would pay for a comparable home
- Our Tenancy Sustainment Team supported 2,245 customers to claim financial support worth £9.7m
- 99.9% of our properties meet the Decent Homes Standard
- We generated £12.3m in social value* through our support services and work with local communities
- We diverted 95% of building waste from landfill
- We decreased the greenhouse gas emissions we caused as a company (known as Scope 1 Emissions) by 40% from 2021/22 to 2023/24
Improving the energy efficiency of our customers’ homes
Our 2023/24 ESG report shows that more than 80% of all our customers’ homes hold an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C or above. This is a marked improvement from just 5 years ago when the figure stood at 56%.
EPC ratings is the industry standard measure used to assess the energy efficiency of a property from A (best) to G (worst). For example, a higher rating means less energy is required to heat the home and this is likely to lead to lower fuel bills.
All our new homes completed in 2023/24 received an Energy Performance Certificate (EPC) rating of C or above (2022/23: 99%).
We know there’s more work to do and we’ve put an investment strategy in place to ensure all our homes meet a minimum of EPC C by 2030. We also continue to provide advice and support to customers on how to be more sustainable.
This includes:
- Information packs when customers first move into their homes
- Help and advice for heating and hot water usage via our customer website
- Efficiency advice from gas engineers when undertaking gas safety checks
- Signposting to relevant independent advice services.
To help improve the energy efficiency of our customers’ homes, we have continued to invest in cavity wall and loft insulations in more than 100 homes. We have also started using a range of low carbon technologies, such as standard insulation measures, new heating systems, as well as installing new windows and doors.
In July 2024, we began trialling the use of infrared radiator panels, these can be controlled using an app on customers’ phones, allowing them to decide when to heat their homes and which rooms to heat to help manage energy use.
Tracey Barnes, Chief Financial Officer at A2Dominion, said: “Our customers are our top priority and we’re continuing to work hard to put the right processes in place to deliver our vision of providing homes people love to live in.
“This ESG report is a snapshot of where we are in our sustainability journey. The work outlined in this report highlights the steps we’ve taken to improve the efficiency of our customers’ homes and provide value for money and we know there is still a lot more work to do to deliver for all our customers.”
Reducing emissions
In 2023/24, we reported a 40% decrease compared to 2 years ago in the emissions we make as a company, for example, transport emissions when travelling to customers’ homes to carry out repairs. These are known as Scope 1 emissions.
We’ve not emitted any Scope 2 emissions (those a company makes indirectly) as we purchase green electricity for our offices and communal supplies. This is generated from renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, which produce no carbon.
Our plan to reach net zero emissions by 2050
In 2023/24, we published our Climate Resilience Strategy to set out our ambitions to achieve net zero by 2050.
Through this strategy we will implement a set of measures to:
- Decarbonise our existing homes, aligned to our investment strategy
- Meet our needs for goods, services, works and utilities through ethical procurement
- Deliver our ambition towards net zero for new homes
- Transition our energy from fossil fuels for heating and transport to electric heating and transport and reducing demand for energy where possible.
Listening to customers
We want to listen to your views and we’ve created a range of ways for you to scrutinise our services and performance. This includes scrutiny groups, activities and themed workshops supported by our customer engagement strategy. If you’d like to register your interest to get involved then find out more.