About Gentoo

Gentoo Group is a non-profit organisation which aims to make a positive mark on the future by investing in people and property. The company was formed in 2001 when Sunderland’s tenants voted to transfer 36,000 homes to Sunderland Housing Group, which later evolved into Gentoo in June 2007. Since then, Gentoo has shown commitment, with over £400 million invested back into people and property.

Gentoo Group comprises several businesses: Gentoo Ventures, Gentoo Homes, Gentoo Construction, Gentoo Sunderland, Gentoo Living and Gentoo Green. Gentoo Green is a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee whose role is to promote sustainability across the whole Gentoo group. It works under the following themes: energy, recycling, waste, properties and transport.

Gentoo has won several green awards, they are ISO14001 accredited, have developed KPIs and achieve a high level in the code for sustainable homes. It has done little adaptation work to date though, and is keen to address this. Like others in the sector, Gentoo is sensitive to weather variability. There is concern that climate change could exacerbate those weather-related risks already faced by the business, and present new risks not previously encountered. Gentoo recognise the need to identify the potential impacts of climate change on the business and take steps that may be necessary to protect its strategic and operational objectives in the face of a changing climate.

Given the many and varied interests of the Group, a broad rather than deep approach was adopted. Gentoo Group was split up into two work streams for the purposes of the study:

• Gentoo Sunderland (which is the traditional registered social landlord arm) and Gentoo Living, who provide social support to tenants of Gentoo Sunderland. This would have a specific Sunderland focus.
• Gentoo Ventures, Gentoo Homes and Gentoo Construction. These businesses have clients and interests throughout the North East and are likely to have considerations of a more technical nature.