Recognition at The Green Organisation's Green Apple Awards

We are delighted to announce that our Harbour Quay development was recognised at The Green Organisation’s Green Apple Awards held in Canary Wharf, London in June.

The Green Apple Awards are designed to recognise environmental and sustainability best practice, and Harbour Quay won the ‘Building Project – Housing Association’ category for the best residential building project commissioned or delivered by a housing association.

Completed in February 2012, Harbour Quay consists of 69 one and two bedroom apartments, nine of which are suitably adapted for tenants with disabilities. Judging was based on areas such as environmental benefits, social benefit, visual impact, innovation, energy efficiency and waste reduction.

The development was praised for its sustainable features which included its timber frame construction, materials that were sourced from sustainable certified sources within a 30 kilometre radius, and the main roof covering of the building which was formed utilising demolition rubble – to create a ‘brown’ roof, allowing vegetation to potentially grow over the surface.

We’re one of the Top 50

Best Companies to Work For in the UK 2012!

Coastal Housing was up against stiff competition for a coveted award, resulting in 32nd place in the not-for-profit sector with continued improvement in performance overall.

All employees were invited to participate in the survey anonymously and their answers revealed appreciation of Coastal’s commitment to looking after their wellbeing – ranked 10th against other organisations. Employees also felt they were getting a ‘fair deal’ in employment benefits – ranked 16th overall. 

One employee commented: “Coastal Housing Group is a fantastic company to work for. I feel it is one of the few organisations in the UK that actually cares about its employees. I can honestly say I enjoy coming to work every day!”

This positive statement shows that we continue to provide an environment and workplace where people want to work. Benefits include generous annual leave and flexible working arrangements with a strong focus on health and wellbeing – including annual health checks, holistic therapies, lunch time yoga and excellent opportunities for personal development.

This is welcome news in today’s tough economic climate despite the not-for-profit sector facing huge funding cuts.

Coastal staff are always looking for ways to improve services to tenants and we recognise that these dedicated staff are our greatest asset in delivering quality services.

We take a Lean approach to paperwork and internal processes and try to make sure that the people actually doing the work are able to make prompt decisions.

We are also in the process of forming an in-house maintenance team for tenants and at the same time create new job opportunities for the local community. These are in addition to recent recruitment of surveyors, IT and finance posts.

This employee comment on the survey sums everything up “Most of the people working for this organisation appear to genuinely enjoy working here and they support the ethos of the organisation. Each member of staff is trusted to make decisions on the ground. I think that this offers a better service to our tenants. The benefits offered to staff are second to none. I really feel as if what Coastal does makes a difference.”

Best Companies uses an accreditation scheme to recognise workplace performance and best practice. Following a Michelin star style system, it awards companies with one star for first class, two stars for outstanding and three stars for extraordinary performance. 

For a further year Coastal Housing was delighted to achieve: 

TWO STARS 

Recognising Coastal as an Outstanding Place to Work