Pippa Pang, Social Value and Marketing Manager, Kinovo Group
This month, we speak to Pippa Pang, Social Value and Marketing Manager of Kinovo plc Group (comprising Purdy, Spokemead and R. Dunham), a leading provider of specialist property services, centred on safety and regulatory compliance, home and community regeneration and sustainable living through the installation of efficient and greener energy alternatives. During our discussion with Pippa, we covered a wide range of topics including industry diversity and inclusion, delivering Net Zero by 2050, and the important role that social value plays.
image source : Pippa Pang
Regulation, Regeneration, Renewables
“Kinovo’s strategic focus is on the three pillars of Regulation, Regeneration and Renewables, arguably the areas that represent our sector’s most significant current challenges. Combine these ‘three Rs’ with the recent Women in Construction Week, and you can see what a vibrant and dynamic sector housing is. It’s also full of many challenges that will involve collaboration, sharing best practice and learning together.
“This is the main reason Kinovo recently chose to join the NHMF Contractor Forum, to help shape the future of our sector. We joined this forum so that we could share not only our own best practice. but also, be able to tap into what others are doing to make a difference in a social housing sector which is facing some of its biggest challenges. If sharing these ideas can add value to the many residents that need support, we can collectively have a positive impact on people’s lives.
Diversity and Inclusion
“While it’s great to see the recent Women in Construction campaign, it’s important to remember that just 14% of construction (and related sectors) workers are female. I think this is down to many reasons: starting with schools and careers advice, how many girls are encouraged down the construction route? Even as the daughter of a successful builder myself, I certainly wasn’t pushed in this direction, although I’ve now come full circle and back where I really feel at home, albeit in a more mature, socially aware market.
“Equally importantly, the perception of our sector to the outside world, to all those potential groups currently not involved, feels outdated and unattractive. It’s true we can’t erase history and we are where we are, but we need to move away from ‘bricks and mortar’ thinking and focus on promoting customer service, the softer skills, the data focus and technology talent we employ every day. I am by no means a militant feminist, but I am passionate about attracting more women into the sector and I am proud to be part of the WISH group. At Kinovo we practice what we preach, and the business currently benefits from the input of females across all levels of our business from Directors, senior leadership, to electricians and gas engineers. We need to smash the stereotype, but in a measured and sustainable way.
“I think implementing change like this has to come from raising awareness and sharing the amazing things our sector does, and how every day, we have the opportunity to impact on someone’s life in a positive way.
Social Value: more than just a pledge in a bid
“Before I joined Kinovo I didn’t really understand what social value was about or appreciate the positive impact it has when done as more than just a tick box exercise. And now it’s in my job title! True, it may have been subtly forced onto a sector as a way of ‘levelling up’ across the country, with the burden and cost put on social housing landlords and contractors to deliver, but how we got here isn’t the important part. Social value has to be more than a pledge that goes into a bid. It gives us the opportunity to really care about being part of the supply chain that is delivering it. I’ve worked hard over the last few years to help clients in their social value delivery, through collaborating and making sure we’re all on the same page. It’s especially rewarding as a contractor to help some of the smaller RSLs with their social value as it can be a daunting prospect for them. The Kinovo team look forward to sharing our own ‘real life’ experiences with other members of the Contract Forum.
Net Zero by 2050: the elephant in the room?
Net Zero by 2050 is a huge ask and represents one the biggest engineering, retrofitting, refurbishment and mobilisation challenges our sector has ever seen. Naturally through our green product solutions, experience and skill sets, Kinovo is in a strong position to help practically deliver net zero works through heating solutions. But we should also take this challenge as an opportunity to attract new, transferable skills. We need customer service experts, retrofit coordinators and assessors, more engineers, project managers, solar professionals, data analysts – the broad section of people needed to deliver this is awesome. And we need to deliver all this an extension of our clients’ teams. That’s why we were delighted to be successful on the new Net Zero Works Frameworx which is massive for us and sits so well with our Rs of Regulation, Regeneration,
As part of the Contractor Forum, the Kinovo team is excited to share what we do, keep learning and ultimately be among the forward-thinkers who are committed to making and keeping our sector vibrant, innovative, attractive and sustainable.
