In a recent meeting with a number of social housing corporations, Finch & Beak invited Rob van Rees to show his vision on the positive effect of energy savings on customer loyalty and satisfaction. The core of the message of the CEO of Greenchoice is to focus on the mobilization of people: lead the way yourself, ensure a couple of influential people in the community take positive action and the rest will follow.

The theme sustainability in the social housing sector

For social housing corporations sustainability is an important theme and energy makes up a substantial part of it. Conformity to several sectoral and governmental targets and standards remain of big importance to manage the affordability ratio. Especially when the rising energy costs are taken into account: between 2000 and 2008 the price level rose with an average of 17% whereas the energy costs in this period rose with 75%.

Aside from the driver of price, sustainability also contains a reputational element. Research shows that corporate responsibility and sustainability are important drivers in reputation management. More and more corporations therefore shift their focus from issue management to strategic choices and from conformity to legislation to distinctiveness by innovation.

Social Housing Corporations Quickscan Sustainability

Finch & Beak developed an instrument for social housing corporation to shed light on their current performance on sustainability. Attention is given to three key areas: internal management, tenant behaviour and housing stock. Common themes such as energy labels and energy reduction are addressed, and also attention is given to areas such as sourcing policy, stakeholder management and mobility.

The quickscan reveals where the corporations stand now and how this relates to the strategy and the ambitions. The result is a clear overview of the current reality. This ensures that on both a strategic level and operational level choices are made to maximize results in terms cost savings, customer satisfaction and reputation.