News

Catalyst Housing Group is awarded with the ‘Certified Sustainable Housing Label’ from RITTERWALD. The label helps ratify and benchmark Catalyst’s sustainability and Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) credentials.

The ‘Certified Sustainable Housing Label’ (CSHL) scrutinises how sustainability is considered across the entire operations of an organisation, looking at over 40 different ESG criteria that are orientated on the United Nations´ Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs).

Catalyst is the first housing association to be awarded with the CSHL under the refined criteria catalogue. In comparison to the first version of the criteria catalogue only entailing a social and green dimension, we have added a governance dimension to rate companies on all of the three ESG dimensions. Moreover, a status ranking was added for each dimension ranging is descending order from “Frontrunner” over Ambassador” to “Advocate”. Catalyst has been ranked as a “frontrunner” in all of the three (ESG) dimensions.

The CSHL will allow Catalyst to better demonstrate and report its sustainability performance, as well as attract a wider range of ESG investors looking for opportunities. Catalyst could follow the example of the Clarion Housing Group that successfully issued two sustainable bonds with the usage of the CSHL. Both bonds broke the record for the lowest interest rates of primary bond issuances of British housing associations.

Ian McDermott, Chief Executive of Catalyst, said: “I am immensely proud that we’ve received this accolade. Catalyst is absolutely committed to sustainability, we see it as something that runs through every part of our organisation, from the energy efficiency of our new homes and the investment we make in retrofitting and upgrading our existing homes to our commitment to providing jobs and training opportunities for our customers.
Sustainability is becoming more and more important to the housing sector, particularly as we see a growing appetite from investors to look at affordable housing organisations like Catalyst. The RITTERWALD accreditation process was demanding and rewarding, providing an excellent way of looking at our sustainability ambitions in a fresh light.”

Dr. Mathias Hain, Managing Partner of RITTERWALD, said: “We are delighted to welcome Catalyst to the group of housing associations that have been awarded with the ‘Certified Sustainable Housing Label’. This follows an intense and thorough examination process, which was conducted in a very short timeframe in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic. We are proud to document Catalyst’s outstanding ESG performance to investors and stakeholders.”

Catalyst is one of the leading housing associations in London and the South East of England, managing over 34,000 rented and shared-ownership homes.

More informationen on the Certified Sustainable Housing Label: www.sustainable-housing.eu