The energy we use for our homes is responsible for around a third of the UK’s carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions, so to tackle global warming we must deal with our housing stock – which is amongst the most inefficient in Europe.

But we can’t simply knock down all our old, inefficient houses and build new ones – as well as being completely unaffordable it takes a huge amount of energy to build most houses, which would outweigh the benefit of taking less energy to run. So we need to make the most of the ’embodied energy’ in our existing housing stock by improving it, and bringing those houses up to modern standards of comfort, health and affordability.

When starting from scratch it’s not difficult to design a super green home, but retrofitting an existing building can be a huge challenge, that often involves compromise.

I wanted to eco renovate… to be low impact… sustainable…

But these terms can sound quite woolly. What do I mean specifically?

Aims

Reduce Greenhouse Gas Pollution

The most important for me; given the deepening planetary emergency I can no longer bear to burn any more fossil fuels than necessary.

Beautiful, Comfortable & Healthy

I’m sick of living in cold, mouldy properties

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

I have not thrown away building elements that are doing an adequate job, or replaced things for the sake of it. I strived for a zero waste policy on site.

Natural, Biodegradable Materials

… as opposed to synthetic materials made with chemicals from fossil fuels. To consider the entire life cycle of a product from the manufacturing process to disposal.

Reduce Toxins

Many products from paints to sofa foam continue to release low levels of chemicals into the atmosphere of our homes, which may cause harm to health over periods of time.