Our Sustainability Strategy has been developed to ensure that everything we do at Orbit maximises our positive social and environmental impacts. It is an enabler of wider corporate strategy and aims to provide a holistic view of our sustainability approach across the business.
It has three environment-focused objectives:
Working towards net zero carbon.
Improving the quality of natural resources including biodiversity, land, water and air.
Managing resources, materials and products responsibly.
We are committed to following a science-based approach to reduce our direct and indirect greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with the 2015 Paris Agreement.
Orbit published its detailed roadmap in November 2021. This set out our commitments to achieve Net Zero Carbon in our own operations by 2030 and in our homes and supply chain before 2050.
We have committed that 30% of our outdoor green spaces will be enabling nature's recovery by 2030. Developed by working with the Wildlife Trusts, our 30by30 Biodiversity Approach is both scientific and practical in its delivery, and aligns with the goal of the UN Convention on Biological Diversity and the Wildlife Trusts' 30by30 campaign.
We are proud to be a co-founder of the Green Spaces Advisory Board, a pioneering cross-industry collaboration of seven housing associations and a leading grounds maintenance provider, aiming to unlock the potential of green spaces through actions, thought leadership, and collaboration. Under this we have conducted workshops and other engagements that have reached hundreds of practitioners across the built environment, sharing learnings from our approach and best practice around its focus on nature, people and scale.
We have created a habitat condition assessment tool in partnership with the Wildlife Trusts.
We aim to:
This will unlock value for Orbit and our customers whilst reducing our exposure to future resource insecurity.
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.
"As a socially-driven, commercial-minded organisation, I am proud that we remain recognised as one of the sector’s leaders in sustainability and of the progress we continue to make in this important space. Sustainability, including the delivery of social value to ensure we maximise the positive impact we can have on our communities and society as a whole, is rooted in our purpose, the commitment to which I see demonstrated every day by our colleagues."