September/October2020

Article Energy Efficiency
WHY WE ALL BENEFIT FROM RETROFIT
Russell Smith, founder of RetrofitWorks, tells Total Installer’s Sophie Stevens why upgrading
the UK’s poorly-performing housing stock is vital in keeping global warming at bay – and
how installers are key when it comes to spreading the word.
have to be a complete hermit not
to realise that climate change is here,”
“You’d
says RetrofitWork’s Russell Smith, as
we discuss the events of the past 12-months
alone. From the devastating Australian bush fires,
to record-breaking heatwaves here in Britain, the
daily effects of climate change are increasingly
evident and the UK’s energy-guzzling, fossil-fuelburning
housing stock will continue to play a key role
in this catastrophe, unless swift action is taken.
While coronavirus continues to wreak havoc
throughout our society, Russell warns that the
challenges it brings will pale into insignificance
when compared to the environmental emergency
that lies ahead. “I can assure you that Covid is
nothing compared to the climate change impacts
that are coming around the corner,” he says.
The UK has committed to bringing all greenhouse
gas emissions to net zero by 2050 but if the
nation’s existing homes are not improved, through
retrofit, to make them more environmentally
friendly, we will never reach the climate goals
required to keep the earth’s temperature below
the tipping point to avoid ecological disaster.
“We’ve got to decarbonise our society in the next
20 years – absolute maximum..,” says Russell.
“We have got to completely change the way we
live in order for this to work and that is a difficult
thing for everyone to swallow.
“If you look at the carbon dioxide emissions
that contribute to climate change, the biggest
proportion is emanating from buildings and
around 35% is houses… so it’s absolutely
critical that we come up with a compelling model
[to remedy this].”
While measures to reduce household energy
consumption, in the form of heating or cooling
RetrofitWorks’ Russell Smith
“We have got to
completely change the
way we live and that
is a difficult thing for
everyone to swallow”
for example, are one obvious solution, Russell
explains that every home needs to reduce its
need for energy in the first place. This requires a
whole-house approach where the building fabric
– including the fenestration and the elimination of
issues such as draughts – is critical. “Windows
and doors are up there, they have a big impact,”
he says.
Russell is founder and managing director of
environmental consultancy, Parity Projects
and the not-for-profit, ethical co-operative and
TrustMark scheme, RetrofitWorks. The latter
came about when a group of contractors, keen
to help improve the energy efficiency of the UK’s
housing stock but frustrated by the way they
felt the Green Deal had been designed to give
large companies control, were in Russell’s words
“looking for a better commercial model”.
Under RetrofitWorks, a ‘retrofit coordinator’ will
issue a prioritised and phased whole-house plan,
incorporating all the things that need to happen to
that house to reduce energy bills and get carbon
emissions down to zero. This “jig-saw” approach
is designed to ensure that works carried out at
the outset do not block further improvements that
may be required later down the line.
“We’ve ended up with a model that local
authorities, community energy groups etc, are
working with to provide a mechanism in their area
to get householders to do more [to decarbonise
their homes],” says Russell. “I’m doing all
this because of climate change. I’m doing this
because we need to renovate 27 million buildings
in the next 10 years.”
With housing playing such a vital part in the
fight against climate change, Russell is keen
to emphasise the “major role” of installers
and contractors in spreading the word on the
numerous benefits of retrofitting.
“They might think ‘well it’s not by job, mate’,”
he says, “but actually, they’re the ones, on the
whole, that homeowners are listening to.
“Rightly or wrongly, consumers trust contractors
to give them advice. If I had the money, I’d
be renovating the house of every contractor
in the country, showing them how to do it and
the benefits… and I can assure you they’d be
absolutely convinced, from day one, that they
should be doing this for everybody they are
working for… If I had a couple of billion, I’d
[renovate the homes of] all the people going
through college, all the 56 year-old plumbers…
because they are the messengers.”
While lack of trust has been a barrier to home
improvements in the past, RetrofitWorks sets out
52 T I SEPT/OCT 2020 PRACTICAL CONTENT FOR THE GLAZING INSTALLER & HOME IMPROVEMENT SPECIALIST