Posted 24/05/2021

New Head of Sustainability will Help Swan Love the Planet

Swan Housing Association has announced the appointment of Ben Coombes as its Head of Sustainability. In this newly created role, Ben will be central to the delivery of Swan’s ‘Love the Planet’ agenda, ensuring that all Swan’s activities are sustainable and that Swan is thinking about the planet now and into the future.  

Ben, who has worked in the sustainability sector for over 16 years, joins Swan from the GLA where he was a Senior Programme Manager leading on a wide range of initiatives including the social housing technical assistance programmes “Retrofit Accelerator – Homes” and “RE:NEW” and “Solar Together London”  having previously worked in a range of roles including Energy Projects Manager for Affinity Sutton and as an environmental consultant.  

Swan, whose purpose is “to find better ways of doing things so they improve lives and communities. Every day,” recently highlighted the extensive environmental benefits of its £500m regeneration at Better Queensway in Southend and has been an early adopter of sustainable construction methods through its modular housing factory based in Essex.

John Synnuck, Swan’s Chief Executive commented:

“The challenges facing our planet cannot be underestimated and at Swan we are committed to taking action whilst we can still make the maximum impact.  Our ethos is always to innovate and get ahead and our thinking around the environment is no exception.

 Our ‘Love the Planet’ aim in our new Corporate Strategy is challenging but deliberately so and the creation of this new Head of Sustainability role demonstrates our commitment to meet our own ambitious targets on sustainability. We recognise that we need sector leading expertise, working alongside teams in every part of our business to make sure we are doing the right thing by the planet now and into the future and we are delighted that Ben has chosen to join us to deliver this critical role.”

Ben Coombes, Head of Sustainability commented:

“I am very pleased  to be working with the Swan team to deliver on their ‘Love the Planet’ commitments.  As an innovative Housing Association with a significant development pipeline as well as existing homes, a modular housing factory and their own in-house developer, Swan have the opportunity to work with their strategic and borough partners to put in place transformative environmental measures and ensure that these benefit their residents and the wider communities in which they work. 

I am passionate about sustainability and very much looking forward to working with Swan and its stakeholders to do the right thing by the planet and our residents now and into the future”.