A social landlord in Edinburgh is the first housing association in the UK to graduate from a national programme helping public and private sector organisations to go green by cutting their business carbon footprint.
Dunedin Canmore Group is the only housing association to graduate from the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Management Programme, designed to help organisations reduce their carbon footprint and save money on their energy bills over a five – to ten-year period.
Under the programme in 2011/12 public sector bodies in Scotland implemented projects that reduced their carbon emissions to the atmosphere by over 132,000 tonnes with annual energy bill reductions of up to £53 million.
Dunedin Canmore Group was one of 20 Small and Medium enterprises and 40 public and private sector organisations in Scotland to be presented with an award by John Swinney, Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Employment and Sustainable Growth at an official ceremony in Edinburgh to mark their graduation.
And the Group announced today it has also been shortlisted in category of Corporate Sustainability of The Sustainable Housing Awards 2012, organised by Inside Housing magazine and its sister publication Sustainable Housing.
This awards scheme celebrates the best “green” social housing providers and contractors in the UK.
Dunedin Canmore also recently picked up the Environmental Excellence Award at the Scottish Home Awards for the Quarries development which has solar panels, central boiler system and a solar corridor and vent system that recycles heat into the properties.
By March 2016 Dunedin Canmore will aim to cut its total carbon footprint by 15% and reduce the Group’s energy costs.
Over last two years the social landlord has installed PV solar panels on the roof of several of its buildings including head office and workshop which will reduce carbon emissions by 9 tonnes per year, equivalent to 49 hot air balloons (one tonne of CO2 has the same volume of 1 hot air balloon).
The Carbon Management plan will complement the Group’s Energy strategy which was launched in November 2011.
Michael Hui, Energy and Sustainability Coordinator at Dunedin Canmore, says the organisation has ambitious plans to reduce its Carbon Footprint generated in waste, site energy usage and transport by promoting best practice and energy efficient technologies – and at the same time will aim to help reduce fuel poverty by supporting tenants to cut the costs of their energy bills.
“The Carbon Management Plan is a great step forward for us. It allows us to evaluate what progress we are making. We have made significant moves in the right direction. We have just built a zero carbon home with a high energy efficiency rating which is powered by solar PV panels and an air source pump. The Westfield development is also one of the largest district heating schemes in Edinburgh with nearly 200 homes heated by a communal CHP plant.
“We are investing more in renewable technologies and other initiatives to support the Scottish Government’s Climate Change commitments and to address fuel poverty amongst our tenants.”
Chief Executive Ewan Fraser said, “To be the first housing association in the UK to graduate from the Carbon Management Programme is an honour and recognition of our determination to provide the best we can for our tenants, by bringing down their bills with the help of new technology at the same time as reducing our carbon footprint.”
