Insulate Magazine - April Issue 17
A Free Lunch, The language of Insulation, Artificial Intelligence and Insulation, and in-depth review of Ecobuild 2018 feature amongst articles from the BBA, NIA, Kingspan, IMA, Sto and more feature in this months edition
A Free Lunch, The language of Insulation, Artificial Intelligence and Insulation, and in-depth review of Ecobuild 2018 feature amongst articles from the BBA, NIA, Kingspan, IMA, Sto and more feature in this months edition
You also want an ePaper? Increase the reach of your titles
YUMPU automatically turns print PDFs into web optimized ePapers that Google loves.
<strong>Insulate</strong> insulate Columnist columnist<br />
EE as Infrastructure Priority<br />
Secures Cross Party Consensus<br />
Sarah Kostense-Winterton Executive Director, MIMA<br />
“It is all very well giving assistance with bills,<br />
but a long-term solution - insulating houses<br />
- is surely the way forward” said Conservative<br />
sponsoring MP and EEIG supporter,<br />
Antoinette Sandbach opening the recent debate<br />
in Parliament on Energy Efficiency and the Clean<br />
Growth Strategy.<br />
Sandbach continued by setting out a range of potential<br />
policy levers, and highlighting that bills are £500<br />
lower today than they would have been without energy<br />
efficiency improvements, yet “there is still more to do”.<br />
She did not fail to point out that there has been an 80<br />
per cent reduction in energy efficiency improvement<br />
measures between 2012 and 2015. Never a truer<br />
word spoken.<br />
This two and a half hour debate was a long time in<br />
the waiting – with debates on energy efficiency being<br />
few and far between - also providing the first actual<br />
chance to debate the Clean Growth Strategy launched<br />
in October last year. This was a valuable opportunity to<br />
put on the public record the cross-party commitment<br />
to coordinated action on boosting the energy<br />
efficiency of our homes to deliver social, economic and<br />
environment opportunities for all.<br />
The policy wish list – the cross-party MP’s central ask<br />
“to designate energy efficiency measures as<br />
infrastructure spending” – with the clear economic and<br />
social benefits, not surprisingly reflected the EEIG’s<br />
messages, with all of those speaking at the debate<br />
supportive of the coalition’s campaign. As Sandbach<br />
stated energy efficiency spending is closer to capital<br />
than revenue<br />
Sarah Kostense-Winterton is Executive Director<br />
of MIMA, the Mineral Wool Insulation<br />
Manufacturers Association and founder of the<br />
Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group.<br />
For further details of the EEIG and if you would<br />
like to join, please contact EEIG’s political<br />
advocacy and support, Alasdair MacEwen at<br />
alasdair@theeeig.co.uk<br />
expenditure, and such investments free-up energy<br />
capacity, delivering multiple economic, environmental,<br />
and energy security benefits for the UK.<br />
“Why invest in the big plant if we can roll out energy<br />
efficiency measures across the country, as part of<br />
an infrastructure project?” Sandbach boldly proclaimed.<br />
“Energy efficiency measures provide a public<br />
service: they insulate consumers—literally—against<br />
the volatility of energy markets. Likewise, they provide<br />
health and wellbeing benefits, by enabling consumers<br />
to heat buildings more effectively, and they have<br />
the knock-on consequences of reducing our carbon<br />
emissions and contributing towards our overall aim of<br />
clean, green growth.”<br />
Minister, Claire Perry did not disappoint with her enthusiastic<br />
response saying, “the case that was made<br />
for demand-side as well as supply-side infrastructure<br />
investments is powerful” also committing to meet with<br />
the National Infrastructure Commission in the<br />
coming months.<br />
14<br />
www.insulatenetwork.com
Change language