With climate change, spiralling energy costs and a cost of living crisis in the news, the winter of 2022 was the perfect time to launch our Retrofit Revolution event series.
What we did
This series of free talks from experts in their field was a chance for local people to be inspired and informed on topics such as heat pumps, insulation, carbon reduction, solar panels, retrofitting, planning regulations and more. British homes are some of the worst performing in Europe in terms of energy use and carbon footprint. Our aim was to kickstart a Retrofit Revolution in Herne Hill (no pressure then!)
At each of the four events, guest speakers gave a half hour presentation followed by a Q&A for attendees to get to grips with some of the new technologies available. We tried to ensure that the information was useful to tenants as well as home owners.
The speakers who attended the event were:
- Jeremy Brackpool, Together on Climate
- Alex Clesham, Groundwork’s Green Doctors
- Cassidy Travis, Lambeth Council
- Helen Hayes, MP
- Ian preston, Ecofurb
- Alan Piper
- Chris Procter, Architects’ Climate Action Network
- Tom Buttrick, Southwark Council
Rob O’Sullivan, Lambeth Council - Penny Stern, Dulwich Society
- David Rowden, Flujo
- Alfie Dunk, BB Heat Pumps
- James Pge, Joju Solar
- Paul Hallas, SE24 Sustainable Energy
- Natalie Black, enbee architecture + design
- Omar Al-Amin, Repowering
- Melissa Merryweather, hearth
We chose four different, accessible venues around SE24 to make it easy for people to attend. At the end of each event we provided free drinks and nibbles to encourage informal questions of our experts and networking between neighbours.
Project Legacy
Each of the events was filmed to ensure the information was captured for future reference. These recordings will be available on our website. Our retrofit resources page gathers together the information we found whilst programming the event and we hope to add to this in the future. We also set up a WhatsApp group for people to share tips, recommendations, and articles. We hope that this will encourage people to take the plunge and move towards a more carbon-neutral lifestyle. Drop us a line if you’d like to join the group: info@hernehillforum.org.uk.
Retrofitting existing homes is one of the most important measures we need to take to reach net zero and reduce energy bills… it is fantastic that Herne Hill Forum is running this programme to equip and empower local residents to retrofit their own homes where they are able to do so. It can be difficult to understand where to begin and what’s right for your home.
Helen Hayes, MP for Dulwich and West Norwood
Details
- Date of completionFeb 2023
- Budget£9,650
- Funding SourceNational Lottery Community Fund
- Participants17 expert speakers, local attendees, Herne Hill Forum Committee volunteers
- Project TeamGiles Gibson, Jasia Warren