Refurbishing our tired & leaky old houses

A new post from Alison:

Yvonne and I went on a very interesting training course at the Building Research Establishment (BRE) the other day on Sustainable Refurbishment. It really made us think not just about the implications on the clients that we work with (particularly those that do refurbishment of social housing), but also about the refurbishment of our own houses.

We both live in houses that are at least 100 years old and as such they are pretty energy inefficient however tight we both are with the use of our heating! They are basically like sieves in terms of the heat and carbon emissions that leak from them! There were 3 main things that I took away with me from the course that we thought may be useful to share:

1. the Building Regulations apply to ALL properties undergoing refurbishment - the implications of this are potentially huge, although it became apparent that local authority building control teams do not always have the resources and understanding to police this. That is a real shame - the regulations are changing again next month and the requirements for energy efficiency (i.e. air tightness and use of A-rated equipment) are increasing - it is only through encouragement (e.g. grants and incentives) and policing that we can actually help implement the new requirements which will ultimately reduce real carbon emissions from the significant older housing stock we have in the UK

2. it costs money - refurbishing housing to meet Decent Homes standards costs money. Refurbishing them to Decent Homes standard + getting them to a point where they are energy efficient costs lots more.

3. but the technology is readily available to help improve the energy efficiency of older homes. What is missing are the skills and information to use and know about the new technology. Aerogel, external and internal insulation, photovoltaic panels, phase-changing materials....the list goes on. The new technology is really exciting. But we do not yet have a construction industry that has the knowledge and skills to implement it. This will of course change over time.

Maybe this is a classic case of demand and supply. Until the demand for new technologies is there on a large scale then the supply of them will remain expensive. It may be that the private sector moves quickly on this itself, or it may require Government intervention to help things happen more quickly. Either way it's exciting (if not challenging) times ahead.

Expanding the team

I'm very pleased to say that we've been expanding the team at ECUS. We are very pleased to welcome our new batworker and, finally we have an archaeology and heritage department all of our very own which is terribly exciting. I'm hoping to be able to talk them into introducing themselves to you but, in the meantime, I have managed to get Environmental Management's new consultant to write a little piece. When we advertised for the post we received over 300 applications and interviewed ten people over two days. The candidates were very strong and I only wished we could take more of them but Amanda proved to be everything we were looking for. Here she is:

I am an assistant environmental consultant with ECUS. I have experience in environmental management, environmental accreditation schemes, green procurement, and energy auditing. I have a background in producer responsibility having previously worked for the Environment Agency’s Producer Responsibility Regulatory Service in dealing with the packaging waste, battery, and waste electronic and electrical equipment (WEEE) regulations.

In the past I have also worked with the Peak District National Park Authority (PDNPA) where I worked closely with the Environmental Quality Mark (EQM). During my time on this scheme I worked with a number of small rural businesses, primarily within the tourism & hospitality industry, to improve their resource efficiency.

Prior to my work at the Park I completed my MSc in environmental management. However, I actually initially started out studying Spanish at University and subsequently spent a prolonged period in both Central and Latin America working as an English teacher. As a result, I now have a great interest in Hispanic culture, literature and cinema but sadly failed to master how to Salsa. Other than that, in my spare time I enjoy running, walking and doing pretty much anything active in the great outdoors.