Kevin McCloud has chosen his winner, but which one is yours?

The judges have met, the awards have taken place, now we can make it public: Henry Steedman, with his film ‘Janet’, has been announced as the winner of the Great British Refurb film competition by Kevin McCloud and the judging panel.

Henry’s film is about a woman who is ‘doing her bit to save the planet’.  He has won a fantastic prize of a WWF-UK film commission for the ‘What Wood You Choose’ campaign with a £5,000 budget, as well as further bonuses of cash and camera equipmentRead More...

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laughter, wry smiles, contemplation and sheer bafflement

Well, things looked promising as sat down for our movie shortlisting session.

Darren had made cookies and Yael had the coffee percolating (them being WWF's project leads on the Great British Refurb). We opened our home energy efficiency competition for entries back last year, and despite a cracking promotional programme that saw us get plugs from sources as varied as BAFTA, the Times and a host of film and arts colleges across the country - including one of our project partners, the URead More...

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SuperHome under construction

Last July, we published Tina’s blog on her eco-refurb project and on some trouble she had with getting planning permission. Now that this is all over, she is back to tell us about her project’s progress.

After many months, we made it through all the necessary hoops (planning permission, building regs and so on) to start work extending and upgrading our chilly 1950’s solid wall house to create a cosy, ultra-low energy home. With the fabuloRead More...

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The Green Deal Webinar – Knauf Insulation perspective

I recently joined Kevin McCloud and Greg Barker – Minister of State for energy and climate change – for a live webinar in which we were discussing the Green Deal, with the debate fed by questions from you. It was an interesting and stimulating discussion as if the Government gets it right, the Green Deal will not only provide an affordable way to renovate the UK's housing stock and make our homes less energy intensive, but it could also improve their aesthetic appeal, and mitigateRead More...

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Afterthought on our webinar

The premise of our televised online debate between the Energy Minister Greg Barker, Grand Designs front man Kevin McCloud and several leading industry representatives was "The Green Deal: One Year and counting".

So chosen, because for several years the GB Refurb campaign has focussed the lion's share of its energy and resource on what was first the Pay-As-You-Save concept; followed by the variable but similar election manifesto commitments by all the main parties to such a home energyRead More...

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dissecting the Green Deal - GBR webinar

Next week, on 9 November at 2.30pm, Kevin McCloud and Paul King (UK-GBC chief executive), will be joined by Greg Barker – Minister of State for energy and climate change – for  a live “webinar” in which they will be dissecting the Green Deal at your dictat.

The webinar will centre around questions submitted by you. As I write this blog, we are still waiting for the Green Deal consultation to be published and as such a great many questions still remain as tRead More...

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Pay as You Save – Gentoo’s story

Next year – after the UK Energy Bill is granted Royal Assent– there should be a finance mechanism by which homeowners could get energy efficiency measures – like insulation and heating systems – installed in their homes without paying any upfront costs. They will make repayments through the resultant savings to their energy bill savings. This mechanism is called Pay as You Save (PAYS) and is the central tenet of the Green Deal.

The Department of Energy and Climate Change initiated Read More...

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Energy Bill is still inadequate

The Energy Bill has finished its passage through the House of Commons today. It is still inadequate. The Bill, which now goes back to the Lords, will not ensure that the Green Deal, the Government’s flagship energy efficiency policy, is taken up.

At present, the Bill will fail to deliver emission reductions under the Green Deal unless further incentives are put in place.  Improving energy efficiency is a win-win for everyone in terms of lower home fuel bills and carbon emisRead More...

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