Preventing pollution

What are the essentials of preventing pollution?

Pollution affects all parts of the environment:Good air quality is critical for human health and wellbeing, for the climate, and natural habitats.

Smoke, fumes, vapours, chemicals, oils and fuels are potential pollutants. These can affect the air, land and surface water, spreading over significant distances especially if water-bound.

We have an environmental management system in place. This means that we have put measures in place to avoid, reduce and control pollutants, so that we can reduce their impact on the environment. Fly tipping or illegal dumping is one of our big environmental concerns. Globally, pollution from plastics is a growing issue, with over 8 million tonnes of plastic dumped in our oceans each year.

Our social responsibility

What are the essentials of our social responsibility?

As NI’s Home Energy Conservation Authority (HECA), our goal is for everyone in our society to have access to decent, affordable housing. We provide advice and services to both tenants and homeowners to help improve their quality of life, support independent living and protect the environment.

Advising tenants on waste

We encourage everyone, especially our tenants, to recycle their unwanted items or pass them on to relatives, neighbours or charities, repair or reuse. Under their tenancy agreement, tenants must leave their property in a clean and tidy condition. A charge could be made for removing items left behind either inside or outside a property.

Advising and supporting tenants

We work with communities and other organisations to deliver better homes throughout Northern Ireland, and meet the housing needs of existing and future generations. We adapt homes to help tenants live more independently and offer home improvement grants to homeowners and private tenants.

At the end of every tenancy, we offer advice on ways to reduce, reuse and recycle any unwanted items. By giving tenants good advice, we reduce the amount of waste transported to landfill during house clearances, as well as the number of journeys needed.

Biodiversity

Biodiversity describes the vast range of living organisms from all sources on earth. The state of our biodiversity reflects the state of our air, water and land environments. The Housing Executive’s Environmental Policy shows our commitment to enhancing and protecting biodiversity and ecosystems.

We look after nearly 4,000 hectares of grounds in Northern Ireland. As a major land owner, we are required to manage biodiversity across all our green spaces. Creating community gardens encourages residents to take pride in their surroundings and has a positive effect on their physical and mental health. It also helps us to build good relations with residents.

Applying these environmental changes

We all have a responsibility to think about your current behaviour – if you challenge yourself to make one small change, what will it be?

More information

Biodiversity in Housing Executive Communities


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Why be environmentally aware?