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Street by Street

Greening our Homes

Housing and energy experts gathered in Edinburgh in October 2009 to discuss neighbourhood approaches to making our homes more energy efficient. Home energy use accounts for one-third of Scotland's carbon emissions, so finding cheap, effective and popular ways to make all of Scotland's homes energy efficient is absolutely essential to meeting our climate change targets.

A new report from WWF Scotland and the Energy Agency, Achieving our potential - an analysis of area-based approaches to improving energy efficiency in Scottish homes, was presented, citing the many social, environmental and economic benefits of these schemes, as well as the effectiveness of a non-means tested approach in reaching the fuel poor.

David Adams, Knauf Insulation, gave detailed evidence of the scale of change needed to achieve our 42% reduction in emissions by 2020, while David Fotheringham, from the Scottish Government, offered an insight into current Government thinking on this problem.

There were a series of projects highlighted which showed how the Street by Street approach is effective in lifting people out of fuel poverty, reducing emissions and creating local jobs.

  • Retrofits: The role of area-based programmes in the Scottish Government’s approach to tackling climate change(David Fotheringham)
  • Area based retrofit for low carbon homes - Best approaches for Scotland (David Adams)
  • Community Powerdown - An Integrated Community Focused Approach to Area Based Retro-fit
  • Aberdeen Warm Zone - An Overview (Aberdeen City Council)
  • Achieving a low carbon future - An analysis of area-based approaches to improving Scottish homes (Energy Agency)

The conference was hosted by  WWF Scotland, in partnership with Changeworks and funded by the Scottish Government, Energy Saving Trust and the Sustainable Development Commission Scotland.

Elizabeth Leighton and David Adams

Elizabeth Leighton, WWF Scotland and David Adams, Knauf Insulation

Report

Achieving our Potential

Powerpoint Presentations

David Fotheringham

David Adams

Community Powerdown

Aberdeen City Council

Energy Agency