Accord one of first HAs to get green kitemark for eco standards

Published by Jon Land for Accord Housing Association in Housing and also in Environment

Accord Housing Association today moved one step closer to its goal of becoming the ‘greenest in the UK’ after being awarded an internationally recognised eco-mark.

The Birmingham and Black Country-based association is one of only a handful of housing associations across the UK to obtain the acclaimed Environmental Management Standard ISO 14001.

The mark is awarded to organisations that meet a set of tough standards - compiled by The International Organization for Standardization - for controlling the environmental impact of their activities, products and services.

Paul Di Mambro, Head of Environment and Sustainability at Accord, said: “We are striving to be the greenest housing association in the UK.

“We already measure our carbon emissions annually, including those from our 7,000 homes across the region.

“And we are also busy building ground-breaking new eco homes and trying to reduce the carbon footprint of our existing housing.

“This prestigious mark shows that we now have the plans in place to successfully reduce the environmental impact of our own organisation too.”

This year Accord kicked off a campaign to become the ‘greenest’ housing association in the country.

The Association is committed to reducing waste, saving energy and cutting carbon.

As part of the campaign, Accord has successfully:

• Set up a food waste composter at its West Bromwich office and wormeries at care home sites.
• Piloted bio-degradable cleaning products at a care scheme.
• Seen a 50 per cent reduction in water use at the Greenscape depot – Accord’s landscaping and ground maintenance service.

To secure the eco mark, Accord developed a bespoke Environmental Management System and procedures designed to better control the environmental impact of its business operations.

Workshops were held with senior managers to help shape the Environmental Management System documents and procedures.

While some new systems and procedures, around Waste Duty of Care for example, were also produced.

This system was then independently audited by Bureau Veritas Certification UK Ltd who presented the ISO 14001: 2004 certificate on April 24.