Down to Zero: Cynon Taf Community Housing Group
SMART Partnerships support collaborative projects by facilitating the transfer of knowledge and technology regarding R&D, as well the spread of technical and business skills. The Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) scheme also helps businesses to innovate and grow by linking them with a university and an individual graduate to work within the business on a specific project. KTP and SMART Partnership projects can last between 12 and 36 months and are part-funded in Wales by a grant from the Welsh Government.
So far, the project has made huge leaps in assessing the ways in which we can all contribute to reducing our group’s carbon footprint. It has been a real team effort and if the last two years are anything to go by, ‘Down to Zero’ will be a hugely transformational project for the local community and Wales as a whole. During the next stage of collaboration, part of the KTP will be to create and pilot effective retrofit solutions for our housing stock to address Net Zero targets. Alongside this, land-based solutions considered in the SMART Partnership will be developed to provide sustainable benefits alongside removing carbon from the atmosphere and providing financial and social benefit to our community.
Tom Addiscott, Down to Zero
Cynon Taf Community Housing Group (CTCHG) has been operating since 2008, following a merger between Cynon Taf Housing Association with Pontypridd and District Housing Association. The Group is based in the heart of Rhondda Cynon Taf and one of its strategic priorities is to tackle its carbon footprint and the impact of climate change.
In a bid to reduce its environmental impact, its subsidiary ‘Down to Zero’ was created in 2022 offering training, volunteering and direct benefits back to its staff, tenants and wider communities to support its efforts.
Upon the introduction of the new subsidiary, CTCHG sought to enhance its strategy through collaboration with Cardiff Metropolitan University and bid for a 12-month Welsh Government SMART Partnership grant entitled ‘Cynon Taf Housing Association Carbon Reduction and Land-Based Carbon Sequestration Strategy‘. This was to adopt innovative approaches to drive the need to reduce carbon emissions across its housing portfolio.
Over the last two years, the collaborative project, backed by a wealth of research showing that in 2022 the UK’s residential sector accounted for 17% of all carbon dioxide emissions in the UK, has delivered 40+ outputs and achievements.
These include creating a baseline CTCHG organisational carbon assessment and strategy for decarbonisation, as well as the development of engaging teaching materials including institutional knowledge and expertise to support Cardiff Metropolitan University’s estate to deliver a plan for net zero carbon strategy.
Jack Nodwell, the Associate assigned to the project, has also developed an academic peer reviewed paper disseminating some of the findings of the project. Most importantly, a successful 36-month KTP grant for summer 2024 has been confirmed to embed the implementation of the CTCHG Decarbonisation Strategy.
This will include retrofitting 69 existing dwellings to net-zero-carbon standards and exploring carbon sequestration and storage through land-based food and biochar production for tenants to support community resilience to climate change and the cost-of-living crisis.
All of these outputs achieved to date are supporting Welsh Government’s mission for the Welsh public sector to be net zero carbon by 2030.
The decision to apply for both SMART Partnership and KTP funding was part of CTCHG’s acknowledgement that housing is contributing to the largest proportion of greenhouse gases in Wales.
As a result, housing associations are taking innovative steps towards ‘environmental sustainability’ activities for their homes, both to reduce carbon emissions and deliver financial and social benefit to the community through improved skills, opportunities and wellbeing.
To reach net zero carbon by 2030, CTCHG noted the need for national transformation change towards sustainable/renewable energy and material production. Hence the SMART Partnership focussed on investigating how feasible it was for the group as an organisation and their existing dwellings to achieve a net zero carbon balance by 2030.
As part of the SMART Partnership, the team evaluated the operational carbon emissions associated with all CTCHG’s activities including their existing 1,850+ dwellings. The team then developed a unique strategy to explore the reduction of their carbon and sequester and store any remaining carbon through land-based food and biochar production. In conjunction, the team produced a outward-facing strategy involving community engagement and knowledge sharing with other housing associations in Wales.
The multi-faceted and inter-disciplinary SMART Partnership was led by Cardiff Met academic Prof. John Littlewood, with expertise from Dr Fausto Sanna who supervised the complex task of auditing and evaluating carbon emissions associated with all CTCHG’s activities. Both professionals drew upon the additional academic supervision of Kirsten Stevens-Wood, who led on the development of a society-focused strategy involving community engagement and knowledge sharing with other housing associations in Wales.
The project with CTCHG has been hugely beneficial to the university, as well as to the group. The knowledge shared over the last two years has allowed us to gain the institutional knowledge and expertise to replicate carbon audit methodology within our own estate. We are extremely appreciative of the opportunity and will be considering all outputs we can use within Cardiff Met during the next phase of the project.
Prof. John Littlewood, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Carbon Reduction Associate Jack Nodwell gained invaluable experience throughout the project. He delivered over 40 outputs across the 12 months, which included benchmarking the annual organisational carbon emissions to determine the actions and steps necessary to reduce CTCHG’s carbon emissions, then sequester and store their remaining carbon through land-based activities.
One of the key outputs from the SMART Partnership, which I have been privileged to be heavily involved in, is the creation of a CTCHG Decarbonisation Strategy. This aligns with all Welsh policy and supports CTCHG with their decision making for building retrofit and carbon reduction, sequestration and storage options. The implementation of this strategy has now formed the basis of the recently approved 3-year Knowledge Transfer Partnership (KTP) which CTCHG and Cardiff Met will use to build upon all the excellent outputs from the SMART Partnership. I am truly excited to see what can be achieved in the next three years.
Carbon Reduction Associate, Jack Nodwell