Home Energy and Retrofit

The need to retrofit our homes to reduce energy consumption and carbon emissions while maintaining (or even improving) domestic comfort is a major and urgent challenge both individually and for society collectively. We need action because ‘the greenest energy is the energy we don’t use’.

The prospect of making changes to the fabric of our homes can be off-putting. This meeting aims to: 

• Make facing the challenge less daunting
• Consider how community collaboration could make things more efficient, effective and manageable
• Inform us about how the challenges of supporting widespread retrofit are being considered by local authorities

The questions considered will include:

• What retrofit measures can we as individuals take to improve energy efficiency in our homes?
• When and why does it make better sense to look at retrofitting groups of properties, for example in a whole tenement, rather than just on an individual level?
• How might we deal with the social and financial challenges of retrofit and low-carbon energy distribution at a communal level?

There’ll be brief presentations from three experts:

• Jo McClelland (Architect with EALA Impacts, a social enterprise for sustainability in the management of our built environment)
• Calum Duncan (Calum Duncan Architects, locally-based RIAS Sustainable Building Design and RIBA Conservation accredited architect)
• Cat Magill (Dark Matter Labs, a non-profit collaborating with communities to shape institutions and infrastructure for response to the climate crisis)

Presentations will be followed by a refreshments break, a panel Q&A session and an opportunity for informal discussions in breakout groups.

• Calum will focus primarily on the practicalities of domestic changes, considering the priorities in trading off cost, benefit and disruption when choosing what to prioritise, as well as touching on the techniques for insulation etc.
• Jo will cover how changes in individual properties should be considered in the context of the benefits of longer term planning of building level maintenance and retrofit – a dry wall is as important as an insulated one. Beyond that yet more could be achieved with block or street level collaboration.
• Cat has been working with the City of Edinburgh Council on a place-based approach to retrofit at scale for the 2030 Net Zero Strategy. Innovative approaches to funding are being considered given the scale of retrofit needed, along with different approaches and models for organising to develop community capacity and to ensure effective and trusted retrofit  solutions.

The panel of presenters will discuss how their different areas of interest align and also address questions from attendees, both publicly and in informal discussion time.

We hope we’ll all leave the meeting better informed about what to do and inspired to work together, with reassurance that we’ll be supported by the authorities.

To ensure a place please register for a ticket at https://banzai-home-energy.eventbrite.com 

Or come along on the night.

Please spread the word to all who might be interested.

As the Head of the International Energy Agency said, saving more energy is “utterly essential” in cutting our rocketing bills, rapidly lowering the CO2 emissions driving the climate crisis and ending reliance on fossil fuel regimes such as Russia.