Lowering CO2 emissions from the repairs process in the Housing sector

Sustainability client stories

Dr Christian Brand, Lead Researcher at the University of Oxford found that if we cut out one car trip per day, we reduce our carbon footprint by about 0.5 tonnes over a year. This tiny change makes a significant impact over time. At Ad Esse, we worked with A2Dominion and Ealing Council to reduce CO2 emissions caused by surplus repair call outs.

Sustainability calculator

To calculate the environmental impact of improving your repairs process and reducing wasted car trips, you can use the calculator below. E.g. If the average car journey is 16 miles (there and back), and you have 300 repair call outs caused by failure demand per month, you are unnecessarily creating 1,320kg of carbon dioxide. If you reduce failure demand, you have the potential to cut your carbon emissions by 15,840kg over a year.

A2Dominion improve voids and repairs process

Providing over 36,000 homes in London and Southern England, A2Dominion Group reached a point where their Customer Service Centre was receiving 600 repair calls per day. 57% of these calls were caused by failure demand, which is demand caused because of failure within your organisation.

The benefits: As well as increased customer satisfaction and process clarity for people delivering the service, A2Dominion reduced inbound calls to the Customer Support Centre from 57% to 18%. This greatly reduces CO2 emission caused by unnecessary travelling to fix problems onsite that could have been resolved in one trip.

Customer-focused repairs process at Ealing Council

Ealing Council provide rented, leasehold, and sheltered housing services to approximately 18,000 homes across the borough in London. Ad Esse were asked to help their responsive repairs service to ensure delivery of a positive customer experience, free up capacity by reducing waste, introduce better performance measures, reduce the level of failure demand, and introduce a stable platform for further improvement.

The benefits: As well as improving customer satisfaction to its highest point in years (96%), this work increased efficiency levels for the organisation and the number of repairs completed on the first visit.

How the seven wastes impact sustainability

Time spent physically moving or transporting things from one place to another for processing are just two examples from the seven wastes tool that make a negative impact on the environment. They also take up your time which could be spent on activities that add value for your customer. Some travel is necessary to deliver an effective repairs service, but when a repairs job could have been resolved in one trip, the extra CO2 emissions from extra trips could have been avoided.

To reach your sustainability goals and reduce waste in your organisation, email hello@ad-esse.com.