All-in on sustainability: Orbit

Orbit has gone big on sustainability, from ensuring all homes reach EPC C by 2030 and achieving net zero internally by the same date, to training staff on sustainability-related skills and committing to zero waste. Unlocked caught up with David March to find out more. 

Why is sustainability important to Orbit? 

At Orbit, sustainability is not just a priority: it is deeply rooted in our core purpose and embedded in our 2030 strategy. We are committed to delivering lasting social value that maximises the positive impact we can have on our communities and society at large. We believe that everyone deserves access to a high-quality home they can afford, in a place they are proud to call home. 

For us, sustainability means more than just providing affordable housing. It’s about offering good quality, safe homes, and fostering inclusive, sustainable neighbourhoods that prioritise the wellbeing, aspirations, and needs of our residents. We understand the impact of our work extends beyond the walls of our homes, and we strive to create environments where people and nature can thrive, today and in the future.

How are you working to improve the sustainability of your homes? 

We have set an ambitious target that 100 per cent of our existing homes will achieve an EPC band C rating or above by 2030. As of now, we have made significant progress, with 85.6 per cent of our homes already rated EPC C or above. 

Our main mechanism for delivering on this objective in recent years has been the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) [now the Warm Homes: Social Housing Fund]. We have improved 69 homes through the demonstrator, while a further 141 properties in the West Midlands benefited from energy efficiency upgrades under SHDF wave 1. We are now well into our SHDF wave 2.1 project, which aims to upgrade an additional 212 homes, with several already completed. 

We have also invested in a variety of other energy-efficiency improvements to benefit our residents. These include LED lighting replacements across several schemes, solar PV (photovoltaics) installations at both new developments and existing properties, and energy awareness workshops that help customers better understand and manage their energy usage. 

Additionally, nearly 68 per cent of Orbit’s properties now feature electricity meter remote reading capability. This technology not only improves billing accuracy, ensuring customers only pay for the energy they use, but also provides us with valuable insights into energy consumption, enabling us to identify areas where we can help our customers save energy. 

Looking ahead, we will ensure our new developments meet the highest sustainability standards; by April 2026, all our direct build developments will achieve an ‘A’ Environmental Impact Rating. 

How are you working to make Orbit a greener organisation more broadly? 

Our 2030 strategy is closely aligned with our sustainability strategy, ensuring sustainability is a fundamental driver of everything we do. This strategy outlines how we plan to make a positive impact socially and environmentally. 

We released our ‘Orbit to Zero’ roadmap in 2021 and have since achieved a series of milestones, including the purchase of REGO-certified electricity, the transition from red diesel to hydrotreated vegetable oil (HVO) in our construction activities and a series of lighting and efficiency upgrades in our offices and schemes. So far, this has contributed to a near 40 per cent reduction in our scope 1 and 2 emissions.  

Our sector-leading approach to biodiversity, 30by30, commits us to managing 30 per cent of our outdoor green spaces in support of nature’s recovery by 2030. This was developed with The Wildlife Trusts and will see Orbit transitioning half a million square metres of low-quality grass to diverse habitats including pocket woodland, hedgerows, shrub and flower beds, and wildflower meadows. All prioritising native species and the buy-in of our customers. 

Our approach is published online and interested readers should also check out the work of the Green Spaces Advisory Board that Orbit co-founded and supported in the release of resources including a guide for those in the sector looking to improve green spaces.  

We will shortly be publishing a ‘zero-waste approach’ to underpin our commitment to diverting all waste from landfill and incineration by 2030 and reducing avoidable construction waste by 15 per cent per home. We are working with designers, suppliers, contractors and the material recovery sector to bring this to life and exploring modern methods of construction as part of this exercise.

Other key achievements from our sustainability journey include:

How do you ensure staff are bought into your sustainability ambitions? 

To promote our sustainability ethos and culture, we have set up ‘Orbit Earth’, our environmental sustainability engagement programme. This is both colleague and customer facing and allows us to both raise awareness and engage stakeholders through campaigns, competitions and other outreach programmes. I would advise anyone in the sector looking to promote a positive culture internally or externally to consider the merits of creating a similar programme. 

In a recent customer survey, we found a 95 per cent satisfaction with the work of Orbit Earth, which was fantastic. However, at the same time, only 11 per cent of customers were aware of it. That tells me that we have a really strong foundation here, but we need to do more, to reach more people in the coming months and years. 

We do not operate in a ‘sustainability silo’ but instead believe that sustainability is the role of everyone in the organisation

There is also a lot more knowledge and skills required to support our strategy. We do not operate in a ‘sustainability silo’ but instead believe that sustainability is the role of everyone in the organisation. 

To that end, we provide introductory e-learning, bespoke team workshops and then a two-day environmental sustainability ‘skills for managers’ course, with more than 200 colleagues trained so far. Orbit is believed to be the only social housing provider in the UK to be certified by the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA) to deliver this training in house. 

Finally, we challenge and support all managers to ensure that their teams’ objectives each year support our sustainability strategy and therefore that rewards are also aligned.

How do you measure the impact of your sustainability work? 

Our performance is primarily overseen by our sustainability steering group, sponsored by two executive directors and attended by leadership representatives from key departments. Ultimately, they are overseen by Orbit’s executive team and the Orbit Group board through a robust performance management framework. This oversight ensures our strategic commitment to sustainability remains strong and actionable. 

We report externally an annual sustainability report and an appendix in the format of the sector’s Sustainability Reporting Standard. Our annual report details our progress against the sustainability targets and a selection of case studies to bring to life the work that our colleagues across Orbit are doing for customers and the planet. This report is published alongside the Orbit Group annual report and accounts, providing a full view of our sustainability journey. 

Increasingly, Orbit is also reporting its performance on selected targets to the financial community. This is in support of a series of sustainability-linked loans that we have agreed, where Orbit is pleased to receive lower interest rates on borrowing where we are meeting selected targets. This is all supported by a sustainable finance framework. 

Finally, we actively seek external verification of our approach. For example, we invited HACT to audit our approach to data collection and social value calculations, and recently, our progress against our target to ensure that 30 per cent of its outdoor green spaces support nature’s recovery by 2030 has been independently assessed by The Green Partnership. 

What challenges have you encountered in your sustainability journey so far? 

The two main challenges at Orbit have probably been procurement and wider change and uncertainty. In terms of procurement, Orbit went through a period during the pandemic of contract extensions and quite old agreements that largely did not mention sustainability. That meant that early engagement was slow and largely based on goodwill. 

That is now starting to change, and the commercial heating contract we’ve just signed, targeting a 25 per cent reduction in carbon in our schemes, is a fantastic example of this. 

The other challenge is one faced by anyone seeking to drive a strategy forward in an organisation: managing change against a backdrop of wider changes. At Orbit, we have seen significant changes with a new leadership team and corporate strategy. This has required a lot of work to build new relationships and ensure the sustainability strategy was integrated into the new 2030 strategy. 

Many conversations and business cases had to be refreshed and sold again, which was a lot of work but ultimately a rewarding and successful exercise. We now have a 2030 strategy that fully incorporates sustainability and will take us forward to the end of the decade with everyone moving in one direction. 

What are your long-term goals? 

Our long-term sustainability goals are focused on creating lasting positive impacts for our communities, environment, and future generations. 

We are committed to: 

• Ensuring that 100 per cent of Orbit properties meet a minimum EPC rating of C or higher 
• Achieving net zero carbon in our own operations (scope 1 and 2) by 2030 
• Achieving net zero carbon across our homes and supply chain (scope 3) by 2050 
• Ensuring that 30 per cent of our outdoor spaces contribute to nature’s recovery by 2030 
• Reducing avoidable waste generated per direct build plot by 15 per cent by 2030 
• Ensuring zero non-hazardous waste is sent to landfill or incineration by 2030. 

These goals will unlock value for Orbit and our customers while reducing our exposure to future resource insecurity, creating more sustainable homes, and contributing to a greener future. 

What advice would you give to other housing associations that aren’t making as much progress as they would like in this area?