Low Carbon Existing Homes conference

The Corn Exchange, Exeter

14 July 2009

Copies of the presentations from the conference are available below.

There is significant & growing momentum for action to refurbish the existing housing stock to create low carbon homes:

• The Climate Change Act sets a legally binding requirement for the UK’s carbon emissions to be reduced by 80% by 2050
• Existing homes are currently responsible for 27% of the UK’s carbon emissions
• The Government’s recently released Heat & Energy Saving Strategy proposes an unprecedented programme of action & incentives to reduce carbon emissions from existing homes
• Local authorities are now required to reduce carbon emissions in their areas to meet national indicators

Fuel poverty has increased in recent years Construction industry & professional bodies such as the Federation of Master Builders & the RIBA are running high profile campaigns for low carbon refurbishment of the existing housing stock

This½ dayconference covered:

• The national perspective, looking the reductions in carbon emissions required in existing housing to ensure we meet our targets out to 2050 & how the current policy response, including the Government’s proposed Heat and Energy Saving Strategy, measures up.

• The challenges & opportunities in the South West, including the current situation in the region regarding existing homes, the cost & benefits of major investment & the role of local authorities.

• Case studies of successful low carbon refurbishments of existing homes, including both individual home refurbishments & street & neighbourhood-scale programmes.

The conference was organised by the DSBI & Ecos Trust. For copies of the presentations from the conference please click on the links below.

All presentations are in PDF format.

Please note that some of the presentations are quite large.

The national perspective: The scale of the challenge (0.4MB)

Dr Brenda Boardman, Environmental Change Institute, the University of Oxford

The regional perspective: Challenges & opportunities in the South West (0.5MB)

Ian Hutchcroft, Head of Energy Saving Trust (EST) South West

Collective action: neighbourhood & street-level approaches to low carbon homes (0.5MB)

Peter Capener, Independent Sustainable Energy Consultant

Case studies of low carbon refurbishments of existing homes (4.2MB)

John Doggart, Chairman, Sustainable Energy Academy (SEA)