New film highlights the wider value of Clarion’s work
RITTERWALD consultancy features Clarion Futures, our charitable foundation, in a new film showing our social impact.
The social impact of Clarion Housing Group’s charitable foundation, Clarion Futures, is featured in a new brand film produced for RITTERWALD, a strategy consultancy, by BBC StoryWorks Commercial Productions.
It tells the story of Jess, who was supported by Clarion Futures to start up her own mobile dog grooming business.
“The future is a lot better now since I’ve had the help from Clarion Futures… I enjoy work a lot more, I’m in a better place,” she said.
Jess is one of thousands of people that Clarion Futures helps every year through what is one of the UK’s biggest social investment programmes, supporting communities and helping people into work or training, developing digital skills, and managing their money. In 2020/21 alone, Clarion Futures invested £13.7m in residents and communities that generated £107m in social value.
Promoting sustainability
The film explains how RITTERWALD, working with a group of European housing associations, developed the Certified Sustainable Housing Label to promote sustainability and help investors looking for more than just a financial return on their investments. The label evaluates the performance of organisations against more than 40 environmental, social and governance criteria, and is independently assessed by sustainability rating agency imug|rating.
Austen Reid, UK director, Ritterwald, commented:
“Investors not only want a return for their investment but they also want to see benefits for society and the environment.”
He added: “The label not only has the benefit in terms of describing housing associations to external investors, but it also galvanises the organisation around sustainability and social objectives.”
Investors are increasingly looking at the “environmental and societal aspects” of their investments, according to Dominic Brindley, head of public sector and structured asset finance, NatWest Markets, who also appears in the film. “When a housing association has the label it allows us to know that it’s an impactful investment and then acts as a beacon of sustainability,” he said.
Clarion was the first housing association in the UK to be granted the label in 2019, and Rob Lane, chief property officer at Clarion Housing Group, said:
“The Certified Sustainable Housing Label highlights our sustainability credentials and attracts investors who want to make a bigger impact above and beyond the bottom line.”
Find out more about how sustainability is at the heart of Clarion’s work.