Midland Heart publishes its first Sustainable Finance Framework

Establishing a mechanism to allow its financial instruments to be recognised and formally linked to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) activities is an important milestone in the journey to becoming a more sustainable organisation, claim housing association, Midland Heart.

The organisation has recently published its first Sustainable Finance Framework, aligning social purpose and carbon reduction plans together with a funding and financial strategy.

This Framework enables Midland Heart to issue a broad range of sustainable debt instruments, such as private placements, loans and bonds, funding a mixture of Environmental and Social projects.

The report begins with an outline of the organisation’s approach to low carbon, and examples of projects undertaken in the last year to improve the energy efficiency of its housing portfolio and lessen the impact on the wider environment.

Each Environmental and Social project is aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs) and attributed against the internationally constructed voluntary principles published by the International Capital Markets Association (ICMA) and the Loan Market Association (LMA).

At a time when housing associations are having to be especially mindful of how and when they spend, sharing our first Sustainable Finance Framework is an important milestone, one which gives our stakeholders, investors, and tenants greater insight into how we plan to continue investing in projects that support environmentally, socially and financially sustainable outcomes. The framework gives us the flexibility to issue financial instruments to support our commitment to sustainability and delivering social value, as well as building on our vision for everyone to have a quality home they can afford.

Joe Reeves, Executive Director of Finance & Growth at Midland Heart

Read the Sustainable Finance Framework.