Green turns to Gold for WDH

Published by Richard Lord for Wakefield & District Housing in Housing and also in Bill Payments, Central Government, Communities, Education, Environment, Health, Local Government

Wakefield and District Housing’s (WDH) commitment to “going green” has turned to Gold after it won a major national award for sustainability. WDH was the only organisation to be awarded the Gold Award at the SHIFT awards ceremony on Wednesday 9 February.

SHIFT (Sustainable Homes Index For Tomorrow) is a benchmark that has been created by the World Wildlife Fund UK (WWF-UK), the Tenant Services Authority (TSA), Homes and Communities Authority (HCA) and the UK Green Building Council.

Organisations that sign up for assessment automatically commit themselves to being measured against a challenging set of targets for reducing carbon emissions – the ultimate goal to reduce climate change and a broad range of environmental impacts.

Andrew Eagles, Managing Director of Sustainable Homes, secretariat of SHIFT said: “SHIFT provides an independent assessment of sustainability. By having this assessment WDH is standing head and shoulders above the rest of the sector.

“They are illustrating how seriously they take the issues of adaptation and mitigation of climate change. A performance of Gold for WDH is extremely admirable.”

WDH Chief Executive Kevin Dodd said: “WDH is committed to making an important contribution to reducing carbon emissions in our area.

“This latest award comes only a few months after we became the first housing authority in Yorkshire to retro-fit older homes so that not only did they become drastically more eco-friendly but they also reduced household fuel bills.”

Owen Daggett, Energy Efficiency Manager for WDH, said: "Achieving the Gold standard is a great reflection on the approach that WDH takes towards sustainability and demonstrates the steps that we are taking to ensure we have a positive impact on the environment.

“We are looking to build on this achievement to ensure that we continue to be a leading organisation in terms of sustainability.”

Over the next few months construction will finish at WDH’s Park Dale estate – making it the UK’s biggest-ever “Zero Carbon” social housing development.

Code 6 refers to the highest level of reduced carbon emissions that a home can achieve under the Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes.

Every one of the two, three and four-bedroom homes in Airedale near Castleford will have mechanical ventilation and heat recovery systems, photovoltaic solar panels that enable the landlord to sell power back to the national grid, superior levels of internal air tightness and grey water recycling – in addition to many more energy saving features.

Homes in the new neighbourhood will draw heat from its own “Eco Centre” – a district biomass heating system that will be powered by renewable wood pellets produced in Yorkshire.

It is expected that tenants will save significant amounts of money each year on household energy bills, including water bills being reduced by using recycled water to flush toilets.