The largest social housing provider in the Borders is leading the way when it comes to reducing carbon emissions and believes that it is key to a successful future.
Award-Winning Sustainability Efforts
Eildon Housing picked up the Chamber’s ‘Net Zero Business of the Year’ gong in the Scottish Borders Business Excellence Awards for 2024 and Chief Executive, Nile Istephan, explains in our latest ‘Spotlight’ video why the net zero agenda has become so central to the company’s focus. Key to their success has been the appointment of Liam McGuckin as their first full-time ‘Sustainability Coordinator’, which has made it one person’s responsibility to shine a light into all corners of the business and explore energy waste, but also to find routes to innovative ways to cut costs and secure new funding.
“It’s extremely important for us,” says Liam. “Increasingly, we’re seeing banks and private investors looking at our environmental, social and governance (ESG) indices. In order to prove to lenders that we are an organisation of merit we need to be able to showcase this and quantify our impact.”
”"...there's a real mission there for us as a charity, to do better to make our housing system work better."
Nile IstephanChief Executive, Eildon Housing
Tackling the Housing Crisis with a Greener Vision
The national and regional housing crisis has also highlighted both challenges and opportunities.
Mr Istephan added: “It [housing crisis] has been a long time in the making and housing is a long-term business, but we know there is always a queue of people waiting for our homes.
“So, we know that we can keep growing and there’s continued demand, but we also know that people are living in unsuitable conditions, and so there’s a real mission there for us as a charity operating in the Borders with our partners, to do better to make our housing system work better.”
See how Eildon are developing their net zero approach here.
