A greener future mapped out: GIS for net zero

Wednesday, 23 April 2025

Our Building and Compliance Information Manager, Mat, writes about GIS and net zero.

As a housing association with thousands of homes, there is a lot of data we need to collect, store, and update over time. In the past, we have had outsourced systems that weren’t suitable for housing and made it difficult to understand our homes and the areas around them.

To improve the quality of our data and how we manage it, in 2022 we adopted GISMO, a cloud-based mapping software designed for social housing providers. GISMO enabled us to capture up-to-date information for our stock as well as grounds maintenance data.

Recording detailed spatial data has helped us focus our efforts to future-proof and decarbonise our homes according to the government’s 2050 net zero emissions target.

For instance, GIS allows us to visualise flood risk data over the location of our properties in a single map. This means that we can identify if individual properties are likely to be affected by a flood event, prepare for emergencies and embed flooding mediation in our new development plans. Doing this helps us keep our customers and their homes safe as the climate changes.

A man delivering a presentation in front of a seated crowd. There are two screens behind him, one partly hidden, and two banners with lots of logos

Mat delivering a presentation at ODCGIS

Upgrading our data management has also made an impact on our environmental footprint. We have used data from GIS to submit to the SHIFT assessment, the sustainability standard in the housing sector.

SHIFT assesses the full environmental impact of your activities covering CO2, water, climate resilience, supply chain impacts, waste, and biodiversity. It provides a bespoke plan for improvements, and an accreditation of bronze, silver, gold or platinum.

At B3Living, we want to be a data-led organisation. This means ensuring that our decision-making is informed by facts and statistics. The accurate data derived from GIS for our annual SHIFT assessment helped gain us a gold accreditation in 2024. This, in turn, informed our Net Zero Strategy and will improve the energy efficiency and sustainability of our customers’ homes going forward.

Considering everything we have used GIS for so far, we are confident that it will help us plan future decarbonisation works and our net zero targets.