The coronavirus pandemic and its impact on the social fabric of our society has made it clear, once again, that the need for a good, affordable home has never been more important.
In 2019, in response to increasing interest and demand from investors, and together with our partner organisations the Good Economy and Big Society Capital, the Impact Investing Institute joined a working group with the aim to help establish a credible, meaningful and comparable set of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) criteria that housing associations can use to demonstrate their impact to investors and boost flows of socially responsible investment in social housing.
Following a series of workshops and with insight gathered from lenders and investors over many months, we helped draft a White Paper that proposes sector-standard ESG criteria and metrics for discussion and consultation.
The proposed 10 themes and 45 criteria are open for consultation. If you haven’t already submitted your feedback to the consultation, you can do so until 31 July 2020. Written feedback can be shared via the ESG social housing website, where you can also download the white paper and draft criteria.
The Good Economy has been running a series of webinars designed to answer key questions relating to the draft ESG reporting criteria. If you missed the webinars or would like a refresher to help inform your feedback, you can access recordings of the four hosted by working group partner Trowers & Hamlins using the following links:
Webinar one: What ESG reporting means for UK social housing
Webinar two: Social criteria review
Webinar three: Environmental criteria review
Webinar four: Governance criteria review