Environmental impact | Orbit Group

We have a responsibility to protect our planet.

Orbit Earth

We are working to create a better society, building affordable homes and communities, and doing so in more socially responsible and sustainable ways. All of this will be delivered in full acknowledgement of the global environmental crisis, ensuring that Orbit reduces its impact across homes, services and offices.

To help us achieve this, we have established our environmental sustainability programme, Orbit Earth. Under this programme, we will actively enhance our environment, creating and improving places and spaces for communities to thrive.

Our objectives are to:

Achieve net zero carbon emissions
Enhance our green spaces to improve their quality and biodiversity
Transition to a circular economy where resources are sourced, produced, used and disposed of sustainably

You can learn more about Orbit Earth and our environment approach in our policy document.

Orbit to Zero

As part of Orbit Earth, we have made a firm commitment to achieve Net Zero Carbon in our own operations by 2030 (Scope 1 + 2), and to become Net Zero Carbon in our homes and supply chain before 2050 (Scope 3).

Our Net Zero Carbon Roadmap sets out how the organisation will deliver these commitments across our operations, homes and supply chain.

Read our net zero carbon roadmap

Investment in homes

We continue to work to reduce the carbon emissions of our homes in line with our net zero carbon commitments.

Our cross-business Carbon Forum monitors and manages the Group’s Net-Zero Carbon programme, providing oversight of the delivery of our Net Zero Carbon Roadmap and helping to foster a culture of collaboration and innovation, and co-investment and funding opportunities.

We have initiated a phased ‘fabric first’ investment approach for installing carbon reduction measures in our existing homes with the aim that all our homes meet EPC levels A-C as a minimum requirement by 2030. As a result of this programme, over 80% of our existing housing stock now achieve EPC band C or above.

Alongside investment in our existing properties, our Innovation Hub is exploring new technologies to support retrofit requirements and we are undertaking a number of pilots, including heat pump and PV roof panels with battery storage, that will enable any electricity generated to be stored and used at a later point.

Finally, as a housing developer, it is essential that we also ensure that all new home we create are also fit for the future and there is minimum need for future retrofit work. Our new design specification and house type range includes improved thermal efficiencies, reducing future retrofit requirements, measures to reduce water and energy usage and the introduction of EV charging points for all appropriate new build properties.

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrator - Stratford-upon-Avon

In conjunction with Stratford District Council, we have been awarded £1.45 million by the Government’s Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) Demonstrator to install sustainable technologies in a number of our homes in Stratford. The SHDF Demonstrator is a UK-wide scheme which will upgrade around 2,000 social homes currently EPC rating D or below, using a whole house retrofit approach, with energy efficiency products such as floor and wall insulation and low carbon heating.

Alongside the SHDF fund, we are investing a further £2.2 million into the project to help us better understand the scale of the challenge ahead and explore the impact of selected sustainable technologies in a retrofit application. This project will generate knowledge and insight, which we can work into our ongoing home improvement programmes and share with the social and new build sectors.

80% of homes at EPC C or above

Decent Homes 99.9%

Commitment to achieve minimum of EPC Band C for all homes by 2030

Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund (SHDF) Demonstrator project with Stratford-on-Avon District Council

Enhancing our green spaces

We are committed to ensuring that the green spaces we care for contain a rich biodiversity encouraging nature to grow and prosper, as well as a space for our customers to enjoy and improve their wellbeing.
We are working with the Wildlife Trusts to create detailed habitat surveys of some of our estates to help us to develop future enhancement plans that will make our estates both more enjoyable for our customers but also more biodiverse, with greater varieties of plant and animal wildlife.
It is anticipated that these plans will range from maintenance regimes to capital enhancements. This approach aligns with the Wildlife Trusts' 30by30 campaign and we are piloting it on four representative estates to test its viability.

“Being sustainable on all levels is important to us which is why we’re an early adopter of the social housing sector’s ESG approach, the Sustainability Reporting Standard. As a landlord and builder of new homes, we have always fully acknowledged that we have an impact on the environment both directly, through our business operations, and indirectly, through our supply chain and customers. How we build and maintain our homes, how we run our offices, and the partners we work with, all have environmental implications.”

Mark Hoyland, CEO

Our commitment to the environment