Welcome to the Sustainability Policy Guide

Introduction

From 1 April 2002, any Registered Social Landlord (RSL) in receipt of development funding from Communities Scotland will require to have a verifiable Sustainability Policy and Action Plan. To satisfy this requirement, RSLs will need to evolve effective and integrated systems to meet the challenge of sustainability across all of their activities - development, acquisition, management and maintenance.

Different RSLs will be at different stages of development with respect to their sustainability strategies and systems. They will have differing priorities, capacities and experiences to build upon.

Communities Scotland offers this Guide principally for those of you needing support in developing a Sustainability Management System that is right for your individual needs and resources. It is hoped that RSLs already more advanced in the process will contribute by submitting examples of good practice via the Feedback process.

If you do not have a Sustainability Policy, the Guide can help you construct one. If you do have a Policy the guide can help you assess it against good practice principles.

With the aid of the unique Policy Wizard, devised by Thirdwave Scotland Limited, the Guide takes you step-by-step through the process of constructing effective Policies and Action Plans. These are customised to reflect and balance the diverse needs and circumstances of Scotland's housing providers and of the communities they serve.

You can get started by creating a very simple policy. This can be reviewed and developed over time as an integral part of your Sustainability Management System. To help you with this process the Guide provides an extensive list of sustainability objectives relevant to social housing together with suggested policy statements. You can construct a draft policy using the default text suggested then edit this to suit your own needs.

Communities Scotland

Communities Scotland is a Scottish Executive agency. It was established in November 2001 and replaced Scottish Homes, but has a broader remit. The agency’s role is to regenerate neighbourhoods, to empower communities and to improve the effectiveness of investment.