Climate change award for social landlord

Published by Max Salsbury for 24dash.com in Housing and also in Environment

A social landlord has joined the likes of Sainsbury’s, BT and Marks & Spencer in winning the Sustainable City Award.

Viridian Housing won the Climate Change category at a ceremony held at the Lord Mayor’s residence in London last night.

Now in its twelfth year, the Sustainable City Awards acknowledges the UK’s greenest organisations.

Viridian was recognised for its efforts to engage colleagues and residents in its plans to cut energy use by a third over the next five years.

“We are completely over the moon to win the Sustainable City Award for tackling Climate Change. We were up against an extraordinary range of international organisations that were also shortlisted for this category," said Karl Linder, Viridian's planning and investment Manager.

"Viridian is now among leading global brands to have received the Climate Change Award, including DHL, BT Group, Sainsbury's, BskyB and Marks & Spencer. This is a great achievement for Viridian and differentiates our environmental performance from other housing associations in our sector.”

In the past 18 months, Viridian has installed cavity wall insulations in 1,018 homes as part of its sustainability strategy, saving an estimated 296 tonnes of CO2 a year in emissions and residents up to £100,000 on their energy bills.

The housing provider has also fitted 397 homes with new loft insulation, saving residents around £200 per home per year on their energy bills and saving over 63 tonnes per year in CO2 emissions.

Judge Livia Firth said: "It is exciting to reward brands and retailers which put sustainability at the forefront of their businesses and we hope they will use this as an incentive to do more and more in this direction."

Other winners on the night included Aviva, Wahaca, Close the Door Campaign, CA Cheuvreux, TFL, Camden Council, McGrath Group, British Land, Scope, Castle Climbing and Thrifty Couture men and women.

Viridian manages 16,000 homes across the Midlands, London and West Sussex.