The Winners in London. From Left to Right: Tim Warfield, Gene Brady, Marilou Cheple, Leslie Slocum, Steve Payne and Mark Wolfe
On February 5th, the State & Local Energy Report hosted the 1st annual National Weatherization Awards. One of the perks of winning the National Weatherization Award this year was a trip to London to meet with counterparts in the British government and private sector. The winners were able to see firsthand how the British are integrating climate change concerns with weatherization by visiting innovative weatherization projects, learning about new energy efficiency education and rating programs, and meeting with the people designing and delivering energy efficiency services.
“The exchange of information with our UK counterparts was uniquely valuable. Their approaches to weatherization are very different than in the US. The UK approach primarily emphasizes reducing the carbon imprint, but it is much the same in many other ways, addressing the affordability of energy costs for the poor.” – Gene Brady, Winner of New Construction Category
Gene Brady, the award winner in the New Construction category, says, “The exchange of information with our UK counterparts was uniquely valuable. Their approaches to weatherization are very different than in the United States. The UK approach primarily emphasizes reducing the carbon imprint, but it is much the same in many other ways, addressing the affordability of energy costs for the poor.”
The integration of eliminating fuel poverty through conservation as a means of helping to meet the UK’s carbon reductions goals was striking throughout the trip. For example, Paul Chambers with the newly established Department of Energy and Climate Change, told us that energy suppliers are now required to set energy efficiency targets and that 40% of their expenditure to meet those goals must be in low income homes.
Dr. Jo Nurse, National Lead for Public Mental Health and Wellbeing who directs the UK program to eliminate excess deaths from extreme summer heat and winter cold, told us that the British government views weatherization as a means of reducing health costs during the winter months. By helping to reduce heating costs through insulation and other weatherization measures, they believe that poor families are more likely to keep their homes at an appropriate temperature in the winter, thereby reducing cold-related health care costs and premature deaths from cold temperatures.
Chris Leigh, the Division Director for Household Energy and Fuel Poverty, discussed the strategy to eliminate fuel poverty in the UK, which relies heavily on providing comprehensive weatherization to increase the affordability of energy bills. The British government is in the process of setting a national target for eliminating fuel poverty in the UK. According to their definition, a family is considered suffering from fuel poverty if they spend more than 10 percent of their income on home energy. As discussed in earlier meetings, their strategy is to use comprehensive weatherization as a means of bringing down the total cost of home energy to meet this goal. Their primary strategy is comprehensive weatherization combined with various government income supports, rather than a separate targeted energy assistance grant program, like the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program in the United States.
The trip included a visit to the Beddington Zero Energy Development, or BedZED, the United Kingdom’s largest eco-village, comprised of a hundred homes. Half of BedZED’s carbon reduction comes from building design, 6 percent from sustainable materials, and the remaining 44 percent from lifestyle changes.
The winners did get a moment or two to enjoy the city during the four-day trip with a ride on the London Eye, a slow-moving ferris wheel that has been voted the top tourist attraction in London.
The staff of the State & Local Energy Report, the National Energy Assistance Directors’ Association, National Association of State Energy Officials and the National Association for State Community Service Programs would like to thank the British Consulate General in New York for sponsoring the trip, and especially acknowledge the hard work and generous commitment of time of Leslie Slocum, Press and Public Affairs Officer, British Consulate General in New York, Rosemary Gottlieb, Liaison Officer , and Chris Burchell, Protocol Directorate: Visits, Foreign and Commonwealth Office in London in planning the trip.