Awards are great but there’s more to it than recognition

Setting up a dedicated free website to provide highly topical and useful information to all comers isn’t the usual approach from a heat pump manufacturer, but as Russell Jones explains, Mitsubishi Electric is on a mission to increase everyone’s understanding of the need for energy efficiency in our homes.

Tell us about The Hub and why it won an award?
We created our unique blog site almost a year about to act as a useful resource for anyone involved in the built environment.
We publish new articles weekly from both our own experts and industry experts (such as HA’s own Joe Bradbury!) so that we can provide articles that will appeal to almost anyone – from a tenant who wants to know how a heat pump works, or how to Hygge their home; to a landlord who needs to understand about the latest legislation such as MEES (Minimum Energy Efficiency Standards); through to architects, consultants and major corporations.

The primary mission of The Hub is helping people understand how they can minimise their impact on the environment, predominantly through reducing energy use, but also focusing on other things such as plastic waste and the impact this is having on our oceans.  
Last month, The Hub won the Online Initiative of the Year Award at a prestigious industry event in London and naturally, we were absolutely delighted.
What subjects do you cover on the website?
We’ve spent the past year filling the site with what we hope are really useful articles, commentaries and advice on a wide range of subjects from Donald Trump’s rejection of the Paris Climate Change Agreement, to the weather patterns in Game of Thrones.
We have looked at how to buy an ethical Easter egg, how sustainable Premier League football clubs are and which breweries are the greenest.
We’ve published many articles on the major legislation and regulations affecting the built environment as well as focused on some of the modern technologies that are starting to make a real difference in terms of reducing energy use.
So, whether you need to know more about The Renewable Heat Incentive; Indoor Air Quality; MEES; ErP; or EN378, there will be something for you.
Who do you get articles from?
We are reviewing our contributors all the time and have recently added a piece from BSRIA, the standards and testing site, on a new ISO standard for indoor air quality.  In addition to Housing Association, we have editors from building services and architectural titles, housebuilding and refurbishment magazines as well as air conditioning and heating installers, so we try to cover all bases really, but we’re also open to suggestions as long as it fits the broad theme of reducing energy use in the built environment.
Why should I visit The Hub?
I was really pleased to win this Award because it recognises the sterling work my colleagues have done and continue to do in the background to keep the site fresh and up to date.
However, the wider value for me is that it has helped broadcast the site to a wider audience than previously and should hopefully encourage more people to visit the site and share the information on it.
If you’ve never visited the site before, please take a moment to search for a subject relating to the built environment. There should be something informative, interesting or even entertaining to occupy you for a couple of minutes and I’m confident that you will leave with information you didn’t know before.
It’s all about getting the message out there that as an industry, we have the technology, the people and the skills to effect positive change on our built environment – and minimise the effect modern life has on the planet.
So, whilst winning this Award for all our effort is really great, it also gives us a wider platform to talk about the reasoning behind The Hub in the first place – cutting energy use in the built environment.

www.thehub.mitsubishielectric.co.uk