The power of data: driving ESG success in social housing

The role of data in accelerating ESG efforts

As the UK looks to the future, and towards its ambitious target of achieving net zero by 2050, businesses face increasing pressure to double down on their sustainability efforts. 

This is even more so for the social housing sector, in part because residential homes account for a fifth of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions.

But also because net zero and decarbonisation in social housing ultimately come down to people’s well-being.

Given the social housing sector’s unique juxtaposition between the public and private sectors, and the necessity to prioritise dry, warm and safe homes for the health of tenants, there is a heightened expectation that key stakeholders across the sector need to show further consideration to the social impact and social value of their work. This is something that needs an element of evidence-based data-reporting.

More than ever, housing associations and councils are being asked to look hard at their data and understand the story it tells – whether that relates to the condition of their homes, or the well-being and safety of their residents.

The sector needs all the data tools available at its fingertips – and it needs to be confident about what that data says, and how it can be used.

Improving data access and methodology

Recognising the valuable role data plays in elevating an environmental, social and governance (ESG) journey, Sustainability for Housing has been working with the housing associations and funders that have adopted the Sustainability Reporting Standard for Social Housing (SRS) to open up access to the extensive information that the SRS is gathering.

For context, there are currently 127 housing associations formally using the SRS, which are responsible for more than 2.4 million homes across the UK. And we know there are many more using it, too. We also have 38 funders, which together provide the vast majority of the sector’s borrowing.

Following requests for information-sharing from our housing association and funder community, we’ve launched our SRS Input Tool Data Repository, which includes all SRS disclosures from 2023 and is designed to bring more value to the ESG journey.

It enables adopters to access ESG information that other housing providers are including in their disclosures against each criterion. By having this data in an easily comparable format, adopters can analyse their individual performance against other organisations.

With the ability to create sector averages and peer comparisons, this dataset can be a useful benchmarking tool for housing providers to better understand where they may be under or over-performing across all ESG criteria.  

By doing the former, adopters will also become aware of the strategies and activities of other organisations, which can help to inform their own strategies and approaches.

In turn, the ESG performance of organisations and the adopter community is expected to improve.

Continuous improvement

We also know the importance of hearing from the sector on whether the SRS is meeting its needs.

That’s why we looked for ways to remove any risks that can come with reporting against some SRS metrics that adopters benchmark against.

This involves ongoing engagement with the sector’s ESG working group of up to 20 housing associations to take feedback and review and improve the SRS, helping to address any ambiguity there may be with reporting against criteria.

We’re in regular discussion with the working group, currently honing guidelines and efforts to drive more consistency across key criteria that are proving a challenge to sectors and companies globally – such as how they are reporting their greenhouse gas emissions through their supply chain.

And we’ll soon be entering an exciting new partnership that will further the sector’s benchmarking capability and access to insights as it continues on its ESG journey.

We’ve come so far since the days of recording data on clay tablets and scrolls. Data collection and management is an ever-evolving space, meaning that as sectors and ESG efforts evolve, methods of data collection do, too.

As a sector, it’s crucial that key stakeholders and organisations continue to accelerate ESG efforts. But above this, they need to consider how data can play a role in helping them achieve this.

Sarah Forster, co-founder and chief executive, The Good Economy