carbon footprint

The UK’s commitment to achieving net zero by 2050 is more than a climate target—it is a societal imperative. It intersects with the housing crisis and energy poverty, but recent assessments indicate that we are behind schedule. Meeting the sixth carbon budget and achieving an 81% emissions reduction by 2035, as recommended by the Climate Change Committee (CCC), will require bold action and financial innovation. Crucially, this includes transforming how we heat homes, as heating accounts for a third of emissions. The financial tipping point—when renewable heating solutions like heat pumps become not just environmentally preferable but economically accessible—is central to progress. Housing Association Magazine’s Joe Bradbury discusses:

Cottsway is West Oxfordshire’s largest housing provider and has over 5,100 homes across Oxfordshire, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire and Worcestershire. Cottsway are working to reduce carbon emissions and energy costs for customers in these homes and are working with Sava to help achieve these objectives.

What did Cottsway want to achieve?
At the beginning of the project Cottsway held only enough energy data to calculate ratings within Sava Intelligent Energy for a small number of properties. Cottsway had commissioned a large number of EPCs over several years which they no longer had access to. Cottsway also held a lot of useful energy data in separate asset datasets such as PV information and gas boiler makes and models.

Housing associations have a pivotal part to play in supporting the UK’s journey to net-zero but further change is needed if we’re going to get there.

The UK has some of the most energy leaking housing in Europe, much of it built in the pre-war period.

According to the National Housing Federation the UK’s 29million homes produce 58.5million tonnes of CO2 every year. That’s more than the CO2 produced annually by all car journeys.

The challenges and opportunities of improving heat network performance to support residents will be explored at a free conference in central Manchester on Thursday 8th June 2023.

Hosted by heat network specialist Switch2 Energy, the event will explore solutions to three major challenges facing the industry. These are how to reduce operating costs and residents’ energy bills; how to reduce carbon emissions, and how to comply with tougher new regulation.

Michelmersh has announced its successful bid to the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) UK Government, Industrial Fuel Switching competition to conduct a feasibility study to replace natural gas with hydrogen in the brick making process. The programme is part of the £1 billion Net Zero Innovation Portfolio (NZIP) which aims to provide funding for low-carbon technologies to decreasing the costs of decarbonisation.

The project represents a global flagship physical study to replace natural gas with hydrogen in brick manufacturing. Phase 1 of the project will demonstrate the viability of fuel switching and will see hydrogen used in the clay brick production process at Michelmersh’s Freshfield Lane site. The project aims to inspire radical change across the sector and present opportunities and evidence-based research to support manufacturers on their journey to heavily decarbonise the production processes.

71 per cent of UK adults think we’re in a large ‘climate emergency’ but serious divides emerge when it comes to levels of personal responsibility for tackling it.
•    71 per cent of UK adults think we’re in a large climate emergency.
•    37 per cent of UK adults feel ‘powerless’; 32 per cent ‘frustrated’; 29 per cent ‘anxious’ about climate change.
•    68 per cent of UK adults think that global action to tackle climate change needs to begin immediately but they are divided over how much personal responsibility they have in helping to tackle climate change:
     - 43 per cent say they have a large personal responsibility.
     - 46 per cent feel they have little or no personal responsibility. Of these individuals, 30 per cent said there are too many conflicting opinions about climate change, 26 per cent said they can’t afford to make any changes, and 16 per cent said they don’t know where to start.
•    In the next five years, 41 per cent of UK adults said they would be willing to reduce how often they eat meat and animal products on a weekly basis to help lower their carbon footprint.

Synergi is an independent mechanical design consultancy that specialise in Mechanical Engineering, District and communal heating and Steam Engineering. Our knowledge and expertise covers varying technical solutions incorporating the latest renewable technologies.
 
Since its conception in September 2017 Synergi has drawn together it’s in depth knowledge from various mechanical services systems to quickly become a leading innovator in heating and cooling networks. Synergi has worked on a large number of networks and by utilising this knowledge it’s enabled Synergi to improve the energy efficiency of a large number of networks while also increasing their reliability.