What's it all about?

The National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts (NESTA) is running a prize fund - the Big Green Challenge - offering a £1 million prize over two years to the community that can demonstrate an innovative approach to reducing their carbon dioxide emissions by 60%.

The prize will go to one community and can be spent on anything (within reason). ASSA has decided to submit an entry to the competition. The proposal is to engage as many residents/landlords/tenants in the ASSA area as possible to install energy-saving measures and low carbon energy generation equipment to achieve the 60% reduction in emissions. This would all be done at zero cost, and capital outlay to residents would increase the house value and reduce bills (no, there isn't a catch, and yes it is possible!).

Challenge of climate change
It's hard not to be aware of the threats climate change will pose if we don't significantly reduce CO2 emissions in the next 10-15 years. What you may not be aware of is that 40% of UK emissions come from residential and commercial buildings. There are a lot of regulations covering new buildings, and by 2016 all new homes will need to be carbon neutral - but what about older buildings like ours? Houses standing today will make up 85% of the houses standing in 2050, and conservation area homes make up a large minority of those houses, but little has been done to consider the unique problems houses like ours present.

The ASSA proposal seeks to address these problems while making it as easy as possible for residents to adopt a range of measures, including:
∗ energy-efficiency improvements, like insulation, draught-proofing, new light bulbs and more efficient boilers and appliances
∗ low carbon energy generation equipment, like solar water heating and electricity generation, ground source heat pumps and combined heat and power boilers.

Under the proposal, third-party companies would be brought in to carry out the work, and the initial installation costs would be paid for by energy savings and the many grants available for this work. Each resident will be offered a set of options that would suit their flat or house, and the financing will be arranged without them taking on any debt (the supply company takes on the debt).

If you have any questions, would like to get involved or are simply just curious, please contact Chris Morrison - christopher.h.morrison@gmail.com - 07971 198555.