SmartKlub joins UK Green Build Council task group
SmartKlub’s previous blog highlights the social benefits that can be delivered through community led retrofit programmes, specifically from Nottingham’s “Secure Warm Modern programme”. We hope that this has sparked your interest in energy efficiency projects being more than just about kWhs! SmartKlub believes that more community projects like this are needed to help create local jobs, healthy living conditions and affordable energy for local people – in short resiliant communities.
SmartKlub is currently working with the UK Green Build Council (UKGBC), alongside E.ON, BRE, Linkcity, Rockwool, Wilmott Dixon, Haringey Council, PRP, Affinity Sutton, AkzoNobel and Bouygues, to emphasise the business case for energy retrofit and create a model approach for Local Authorities to deliver programmes. This task group is a partnership with, and inspired by, Birmingham City Council during the successful 2 day summit held with them. Sponsored by AkzoNobel, the task group will develop a set of tools to help fund and deliver regenerative retrofit projects.
Alexandra Willey, Head of Asset Sustainability at Affinity Sutton and chair of the task group said:
“With the Government rightly focusing on regenerating housing estates and helping vulnerable residents it is important that no-one is left behind. High quality whole home retrofits can transform residents’ lives, not only bringing down energy bills but also increasing property value, improving health and comfort. A careful balance of physical improvement and retrofit works will deliver refreshed and modernised neighbourhoods with improved facilities, opportunities to mix with neighbours from all walks of life and greatly improved life-chances.”
Peter Howard, Commercial Marketing Manager at AkzoNobel Decorative Paints UK and member of the Task Group said:
“We are proud to continue AkzoNobel’s involvement with UK-GBC as part of this Task Group and as a Gold Leaf UK-GBC Member. We welcome the government’s focus on Industrial Strategy and Regeneration as ways to inspire and deliver positive change across the UK. We believe home retrofit should be one of the top priorities for these strategies.
We firmly believe the home is at the centre of UK society and that the improvements to individual homes can not only improve the lives of residents but create better, more resilient communities. Home retrofit can build local skills, provide local employment and connect local communities across the UK, especially in areas that need it most.”
Richard Twinn, Policy Advisor at the UK Green Building Council said:
“All too often the approach to home retrofit in the UK has been the piecemeal installation of individual energy saving measures like new boilers or loft insulation. But this misses the wide-ranging benefits of high-quality whole home retrofit.
Area-based home retrofit schemes can create employment and skills opportunities across all areas of the UK. And by reducing domestic energy demand it can slash our reliance on gas imports and boost productivity. The industrial strategy is an opportunity for the Government to recognise these benefits and establish home retrofit as a key opportunity to fuel economic growth.”
Over the next few weeks SmartKlub will be sharing some insights from this work with you via a series of blog posts and tweets. This collaborative work will help us answer our question on how we can enable more projects like Nottingham’s SWM programme happen. Follow us over the next few months to learn more about our work with the UKGBC and our case for retrofit-led regeneration.
This series of blogposts and tweets will be delivered by SmartKlub’s new intern Joanna Davies. Joanna is a recent Physical Geography graduate from the University of Bristol with a passion for social cohesion and sustainability. We are very pleased to have her on board to help us and hopefully we can assist Joanna in her quest to learn more about energy efficiency and community energy.
We would love to hear your feedback as well as your own insights! Have you heard of some inspiring case studies of community led energy efficiency programmes? Have you found any of the statistics relating to problems with cold housing particularly shocking? Do you think our research builds a case for retrofit? Let us know and join in the discussion using #RegenTaskGroup.
To find out more about the UKGBC task group visit:
https://www.ukgbc.org/campaigns-policy/task-groups/regeneration-and-retrofit