Insulate Magazine Issue 12 - November 2017

The only independent insulation industry trade magazine
insulate columnist
and financial incentives to encourage households to take
up energy-saving measures. A mix of measures, including
pilots, demonstrators, research and detailed short to medium
to longer term deliverables.
There’s simply no
silver bullet.
The EEIG will not be stopping
there – we will be
grasping this opportunity
with both hands, focusing
on a strategy and activity
plan for the year ahead
to deliver for government
and EEIG members, new
and existing. We have
started this journey with a
successful media launch
of of our report with coverage
in The Guardian, The
Sun, BBC News, Carbon
Brief and Business Green
and others. This was only topped by our recent Parliamentary
launch event with a written endorsement from
Minister, Claire Perry and with support from a great many
MPs, including our sponsor, Eddisbury MP, Antoinette
Sandbach and speaker contributions from Lord Deben,
former Climate Change Committee Chief Executive and
Frontier Economics Director, Matthew Bell and CBI’s Neil
Carberry.
We simply cannot ignore that energy efficiency formed a
substantial focus in the Clean Growth Strategy, that it is
firmly back on the political agenda. The Business, Energy
and Industrial Strategy department (BEIS) clearly has
more scope for ambition and
more power to influence their
colleagues across Whitehall.
We have a government
that needs to urgently deliver
carbon reductions to
deliver its carbon budgets.
A government perceived to
be weak on climate change
and that needs to secure
more and younger voters
(with climate change second
in importance only to health
according to Conservative
think tank, Bright Blue’s polling).
Let’s also not forget that
more energy-efficient homes
will do so much more to cut
energy costs in the long-run
than a cap on energy prices will.
So we have a big job ahead, no doubt about it. More ups
and downs, a lot to do and a lot to achieve. We don’t
have any guarantees, but government’s do deliver when
people show they want change and come together with
one voice. We need to stay focused, even to the point of
obsession and we need to spread the word - one voice,
one vision and make energy efficiency the new craze.
We believe the EEIG and its members can play a
crucial part in any future success and work closely with
government to deliver a comprehensive Buildings
Energy Infrastructure Programme. We can and will make
this happen.
p.s. Happy First Birthday to Insulate magazine!
Sarah Kostense-Winterton is Executive Director of MIMA,
the Mineral Wool Insulation Manufacturers Association and provides
the secretariat to the Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group
(EEIG). For further details of the EEIG or if you would like to
join, please contact Sarah at sarah@mima.info
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