Environment: Protecting our planet

We took a bold and exciting step in January 2023 by making a public commitment to achieve Net Zero by 2040. Our roadmap to achieve this target sets out the critical milestones we need to hit in our pursuit. The first major milestone is to cut our direct and indirect CO2 emissions by 49% by 2030. Our ambitious environmental goals are therefore laser-focused on paving the way to a Net Zero future and creating an engine of opportunities for our Housing Association and Local Authority clients as well as the communities where we live, work and travel.

The nature of our business means that our GHG emissions inventory is dominated by our purchased goods and services. To better show the breakdown of the rest of our emissions and how we are aiming to reduce them, we have also created a glidepath excluding purchased goods and services.

We established our baseline emissions for Scopes 1, 2 and 3 using 2022 as a reference point from which to measure progress. All our calculations are independently verified and adhere to the Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Protocol, an internationally recognised methodology for measuring and reporting GHG emissions. Building from 2022, we have now calculated our emissions for a second year and are proud to report our progess. Our success is attributed to a range of initiatives around each one of our material Scopes.

This year we installed a Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery unit (MVHR) in our head office and made investments in internal and external wall insulation for our buildings, helping us to reduce our reliance on brown gas. We have also implemented an energy efficiency register for our buildings which will help us to identify more opportunities to reduce our heat loss through the implementation of energy efficiency measures.

Whilst it is assumed fugitive emissions from refrigerant gases will remain the same due to lack of knowledge surrounding new technologies, we will endeavour to reduce our impact where possible by avoiding emissions through improved leak tightness; fitting leak detection systems and following a regular maintenance schedule. We will also ensure correct end-of-life treatment of refrigerant gases; recover and dispose of refrigerant gases correctly when maintaining, upgrading or decommissioning a system and substitute refrigerants with other less harmful substances e.g., refrigerant gas with zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) and low global warming potential (GWP).

Kinovo occupies five offices of which we have operational control of three. In those offices where we have control we have switched to LED lighting, which has helped us to reduce our electricity demand. In addition, we fitted 12 more solar voltaic panels at our head office helping us to increase the proportion of green electricity we consume and reduce our reliance on the grid, and our energy efficiency register will help us to change our behaviours, and will enable us to look for opportunities to reduce our electricity demand.

We take pride in our fleet, which is Fleet Operator Recognition Scheme (FORS) accredited, developed by the Transport for London (TfL) to improve the safety and environmental performance of commercial vehicles operators. The majority of our 122 commercial vehicles are equipped with advanced telematics which provides real-time information on fuel use and driving behaviour leading to lower operational and maintenance costs, significant fuel savings, and a reduction in carbon emissions, resulting in both financial benefits and a positive environmental impact. By the end of this reporting year we had seven electric vehicles in our 122-strong fleet with a further eight on order, and all of our five office locations were fitted with EV charging points (seven in total).

The majority of our carbon emissions, approximately 97%, fall within Scope 3 Category 1, encompassing the emissions associated with the production of goods we procure. We recognise that substantial progress in reducing carbon emissions in this category will depend on our suppliers’ adoption of emission reduction targets. While we acknowledge that we do not have direct control over the pace of this transformation, we can leverage our purchasing influence to encourage suppliers to align with our sustainability strategy.

Our trade suppliers are made up of large national companies, specialist services companies and over 100 local providers of services. They are a fundamental part of the performance of activities within the Kinovo group and strategic players in the transition towards a decarbonised economy. As such, they are considered business partners. We seek to ensure a fair, transparent and ethical value chain, and we engage with a proactive attitude towards their needs and supporting them in the development of new capabilities.

We simply cannot achieve Net Zero without a radical transformation of our supply chain which requires us to emabark on an improvement campaign to continually review and encourage our partners to adopt leading practices to reduce their impacts. This includes:

• Analysing the contribution and performance with regard to environmental challenges, such as reporting greenhouse gas emissions, protecting biodiversity, water resources and deforestation.
• Evaluating the relationship with employees, local communities and people in general, considering aspects like employment, health, safety and diversity.
• Assessing governance mechanisms, shareholder rights and executive management responsibilities, which dictate how decisions are made, the organisational structure, control mechanisms, and compliance systems.

We have various policies in place to engage with our supply chain with ‘sustainability as standard’ in our procurement processes to reduce ESG-related risks and identify opportunities for incremental improvements. The Purdy Sustainable Procurement Strategy, for instance, has an overall aim to ensure that all goods and services procured by Purdy Contracts are designed, manufactured, delivered, used and managed at end-of-life in an environmentally and socially responsible manner.

The process has developed and embedded tools that enable sustainability objectives to be addressed in the procurement process, with actions including introducing relevant sustainability clauses into our contracts, developing sustainability risk assessment tool(s) and furthering the outcomes of our current environmental risk assessment procedures and implement these for all future contracts (to inform category strategy and business case development).

• Identify sites with high gas consumption and perform energy surveys to identify capital expenditure (CapEx) opportunities
• Investigate new technologies as they become available and install these where practical (e.g., hydrogen powered boilers)
• Reduce reliance on gas use and replace gas boilers with electrical heating systems such as air / ground source heat pumps, infra-red panels, electric storage heaters etc. where feasible
• When renewing HVAC systems, choose the most efficient systems:
  • Investigate systems using least damaging refrigerant gasses with low potential leakage
  • Installing new systems may offer energy savings as well as next generation refrigerants (HFOs (hydrofluoroolefins) and natural refrigerants)
  • Limit use of refrigeration / air conditioning systems

• We will transfer our electricity contracts onto high-quality green tariffs for the three offices where we have operational control.
• For the remaining two offices, we will engage with the landlord to gain visibility on our electricity usage and source. Energy surveys will be undertaken at sites consuming large amounts of electricity to identify capital expenditure opportunities
• We will investigate opportunities to install more green energy production facilities onsite where practicable
• 90% of vans will be fitted with “Lightfoot” telematics by 2024
• 8 further electric vans are on order and will be received during FY2024
• All new van orders going forwards will default to electric vans

• We will work with our suppliers to improve their sustainability performance through our supply chain during 2024
• We will stimulate innovation by ensuring that sustainability performance is measured as part of the management process for key suppliers and categories
• We will develop and initiate a supplier recognition programme structured to directly identify achievement and contribution from suppliers
• We will facilitate the establishment of four supplier sustainability programmes in different supply areas to focus on
  • driving efficiency
  • innovation
  • risk management, and
  • increased opportunity

We will explore the development of an ethical code of practice for adoption throughout the supply chain

We have been following the reduce, re-use, recycle model for several years – seeking to break the linear model to extract, use and dispose. Our focus is to embed the principles of circular economy in the products and materials we procure, and the services we deliver for our Housing Association and Local Authority clients. Our Environmental Policy makes clear that we aim to:

• Minimise waste, emissions, and consumption or resources (materials, fuel, water and energy) and ensure that unavoidable waste is, where possible, recycled or disposed of responsibly
• Ensure that all employees and service providers working for us act in accordance with this policy and our Environmental Management system
• Minimise waste by evaluating operations and ensuring they are as efficient as possible
• Achieve bottom line savings by reducing waste of resources, cost of waste disposal, energy and water costs

Our focus is to embed the principles of circular economy in the products and materials we procure, and the services we deliver for our Housing Association and Local Authority clients.

We have implemented practical systems and procedures to improve our waste footprint through:

• Cultivating a work ethic with a high level of awareness of waste minimisation and recycling
• Purchasing materials with recycled content and those which can be recycled at end of life
• Minimising waste by encouraging the exchange, and re-use of equipment and materials cross department where possible
• Creating a waste management strategy which accommodates recycling procedures and initiatives
• Establishing a wide range of recycling schemes where possible

Our employee handbook details what each one of us at Kinovo can do to reduce waste, and makes it clear how each one us can help by:

• Eliminating unnecessary waste by correctly storing materials and equipment, potentially avoiding or reducing damage or loss
• Reducing the amount of waste we create in our work areas, keeping materials in their original packaging until required for construction or use and reducing waste by re-using surplus materials or offcuts initially used elsewhere
• Reusing materials or equipment on more than one work activity or project
• Recycling materials whenever possible, segregating waste streams into their relevant containers and ensuring these are disposed of in a safe manner, by Kinovo’s appointed registered and Licenced Carriers

As a result of consolidating our waste with one provider, we can now measure the amount of waste produced, and diverted from landfill. This year (2023) will provide a baseline as we move towards our goal of zero waste to landfill by 2027 and will also allow us to provide further granular detail in future reports including the breakdown of materials such as concrete, bricks, wood, glass, metals and plastic.