National Carbon Action Network Training Day Conference
- York, 27 March 2012
Presentations
Conference Chair: Andy Stephenson - Chair of the National Carbon Action Network
Presentation Title: Chair's Welcome
No slideshow used
Andy Stephenson is the current National Chair of CAN. Taking over in 2009, he was previously Chair for the North East Region for three years. In his day job at Durham County Council, he is their Low Carbon Strategy Officer whose role is to work across the Council and its Partners to ensure that the County meets its carbon reduction targets. He has been employed in many roles across the energy industry including Building Services Engineer, EEAC Centre Manager, Energy Manager and HECA officer giving him a wide range of knowledge in the industry and a viewpoint from strategic issues to installation. He is also a fully qualified plumber though he only does work for family and friends these days.
Peter Chisnall, Partnership Development Manager, Climate Energy
Presentation Title: Sponsor's Address & Introduction to Passivhaus
Download presentation slides (pdf: 8.8 MB)
Peter is Partnership Development Manager at Climate Energy, a Certified Passive House Consultant, Chartered Environmentalist and Chartered Environmental Health Practitioner, as well as a Member of CIEH, CIWM, CIWEM, IOSH, CIBSE, EI, IEMA and IOA.
Peter Chisnall has been with Climate Energy for three years, originally managing the EST East of England advice centre but now concentrating on the CAN sponsorship and working on projects with Local Authorities and Housing Associations.
Previously with Braintree District Council for 19 years, as an Environmental Health Officer and s even years as Head of Waste Management and Resource Efficiency, Peter was responsible for the innovative Council Tax cashback scheme for households installing cavity wall insulation.
Peter has been Involved with HECA from the outset and in 2004 was awarded the Eastern HECA Officer of the Year at the UK HECA conference for his work with Braintree, Essex and East of England local
Ed Matthew, Director of Transform UK
Presentation Title: The Energy Bill Revolution
Download presentation slides (pdf: 2.33 MB)
Ed is Director of Transform UK, which campaigns to accelerate investment into the low carbon economy. Transform UK founded and coordinates the national campaign for the Green Investment Bank, which has now been adopted as a flagship Government policy. Transform UK is now co-ordinating its second major campaign, the Energy Bill Revolution, to recycle carbon tax to make UK homes super energy efficient.
Ed previously worked at Friends of the Earth where he led the Economics Team which specialised in climate economics. The team developed and campaigned for the introduction of Carbon Budgets within the Climate Change Act. Ed also led the successful campaign for Feed-in Tariffs and the Renewable Heat Incentive to be included in the Energy Act 2008.
Ed has 14 years experience as an NGO campaigner working on biodiversity and climate change issues and has also worked for WWF, The Wilderness Society in Australia and the Environmental Investigation Agency.
Ed is an award winning campaigner and has received The Energy Institute's Communication of the Year award for the Green Investment Bank Campaign, the Renewable Energy Association's Campaign of the Year award for the Feed-in Tariff campaign and the Observer Food Monthly Campaign of the Year award for the UK's first palm oil campaign.
Simon Bowens, Friends of the Earth, Yorkshire and the North East
Presentation Title: Climate Change and the Role of Local Authorities
Download presentation slides (pdf: 180 KB)
Simon Bowens is Friends of the Earth's campaigner in Yorkshire and the Humber and has worked for the organisation since 2004 following a successful career in business management. He has a passion for taking a local approach to tackling climate change and biodiversity loss. He took a leading role in Friends of the Earth's Get Serious about CO2 campaign which focussed on a local council's role in reducing carbon emissions.
He is married with two children and spends his spare time fell running in the beautiful Yorkshire countryside.
Fern Leathers, Senior Policy Adviser, Department of Energy and Climate Change
Presentation Title: Hills Fuel Poverty Review Final Report and Workshop C: Hills Fuel Poverty Review
Download presentation slides (pdf: 1.24 MB)
Fern has spent the last year working on the Hills Fuel Poverty Review. Prior to that, she has worked on a number of climate change and environmental issues in Government, most recently at the Cabinet Office in the European and Global Issues Secretariat focusing on the international climate change negotiations.
Jenny Saunders, Chief Executive National Energy Action (NEA)
Presentation Title: Fuel Poverty - The Current Picture
Download presentation slides (pdf: 208 KB)
Jenny Saunders is Chief Executive of NEA. Jenny is responsible for the general and financial management of the charity, as well as its relations with government and policy development. A language graduate of the University of Newcastle upon Tyne, Jenny worked in Norway and in youth and community training programmes prior to joining NEA. She is a member of:
- UK Government's Fuel Poverty Advisory Group
- Ofgem's Sustainable Development Group
- North East Energy Leadership Council
- Advisory Board for the Energy Institute at the University of Durham.
She is a Board Director of National Grid Affordable Warmth Solutions Community Interest Company and sits on RWEnpower's Customer Services Council, and Centrica's Corporate Responsibility Group Jenny is a trustee of Energy Action Scotland, and the Chesshire Lehmann Fund. Having helped to establish a grant-making fund at the Community Foundation for Tyne & Wear and Northumberland to assist women to achieve their full potential, Jenny served on the Women's Fund Committee for five years from 1999-2004. She served as a trustee of the British Gas Energy Trust for six years until October 2010 and is Chair of a local community group in Newcastle.
Workshops
Workshop A: Green Deal - How do we make it work?
Facilitator: David Lynch, National Energy Action (NEA) and Cliff Duff, Durham County Council
Download Green Deal - How do we make it work? Workshop slides (pdf: 1.12 MB)
This workshop provided a brief update on Green Deal and ECO inviting participants to present their views forward for discussion. NEA also provided feedback based on its consultation with stakeholders and householders as we make the transition to the new Green Deal and ECO environment. NEA is also launching a ‘Green Deal/ECO Pilot’ in partnership with Durham County Council which they highlighted during this workshop!
David Lynch, Research & Policy Officer, National Energy Action (NEA)
David completed his B.A (Hons) in Marketing Management at the University of Northumbria at Newcastle in June 2002. As a result of a sponsorship deal awarded during his placement year, David went on to work for research and consultancy company Understanding & Solutions based in Bedfordshire.
David took up the post of full time Research Assistant at NEA in June 2004, progressing to Research Officer in 2005. Whilst working within NEA's Research Team David has been heavily involved in designing, developing and delivering a whole plethora of research projects. David's core research interests are:
- Assessing the economic impact of area based initiatives such as CESP.
- Assessing grid load impacts following the installation of new technologies
- Understanding and evaluating the social implications of renewable technologies
- Assessing efficiencies of community based heating schemes in alleviating fuel poverty.
As part of his career development plan, David is currently completing a Masters by Research at Durham University in collaboration with the Durham Energy Institute and is due to complete this course in April 2013.
Workshop B: Dearne Valley Eco-Vision Demonstrator
Facilitator: Paul Maplethorpe, East Pennine CAN & Rotherham Council and Andy Clixby, Project Manager, SIG management
Download Dearne Valley Eco-Vision Demonstrator Workshop slides (pdf: 1.12 MB)
Local Government has set out their vision for a new future and a new identity for the Dearne Valley in South Yorkshire as the first Eco Park in the UK. This proposals would see the Dearne Valley acting as a pioneer in the region, aiming to reduce the community's CO2 emissions to enable it to become the lowest carbon community of its type in the UK, with the local authority in order to ensure that this vision can become a reality. As part of the vision for the region, an initiative was launched in Brampton Bierlow Rotherham using a local community centre as a demonstrator property for energy efficiency measures to demonstrate what will be required to achieve this goal.
Paul Maplethorpe, East Pennine CAN & Rotherham Council
Paul has worked for Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council for 13 years as the main energy adviser for housing energy efficiency. Paul has worked in this field from 1988 and brings a wealth of experience to sustainable energy.
Andy Clixby Project Manager, SIG management
Andy has been with SIG Energy Management since 2012 but has worked in the energy industry for over 20 years. He was an insulation surveyor for five years and has been an insulation and renewable project manager for the last seven dealing with local authorities, social landlords, construction companies and utility companies.
Workshop C: Hills Fuel Poverty Review
Facilitator: Fern Leathers, Senior Policy Adviser, Department of Energy & Climate Change
No slideshow used
An opportunity to discuss the findings of the review and the practical application of the framework for measuring fuel poverty put forward in the final report.
(See above for biography)
Workshop D: Covenant of Mayors and European Funding
Facilitators: Jackie Williams, Kaye Welfare, Severn Wye Energy Agency & Sara Grimes, Bath & North East Somerset (BANES) Council;
Download Covenant of Mayors Workshop slides (pdf: 777 KB)
Covenant of Mayors Workshop BANES Council slides(pdf: 205 KB)
With local authority budgets getting increasingly tight over the last few years work on sustainable energy and carbon emissions reduction can get squeezed out in favour of statutory commitments. However, significant long term cost saving and income generation opportunities can be lost this way, both for the authority, local citizens and businesses - don't let this happen in your area.
The push from central government is as strong as ever with Feed-in Tariffs and the Renewable Heat Incentive in place and the Green Deal imminent but there are increasing opportunities to look further afield for support - Europe.
There are a wide range of EU support and funding streams that are available for local authorities in the UK that are trying to be greener - Intelligent Energy Europe, Interreg and the European Investment Bank to name a few.
Severn Wye Energy Agency have a long history in accessing EU funding and working on transnational projects - join in a interesting and interactive workshop that discusses the different opportunities and shows how one particular initiative, the Covenant of Mayors, can offer a low cost, effective route to gaining access to these funding streams.
3,728 authorities across Europe have now signed up to the Covenant of Mayors - see www.eumayors.eu/index_en.html
Kaye Welfare, Assistant Chief Executive, Severn Wye Energy Agency
Kaye joined Severn Wye Energy Agency in 2000, after three successful years as Energy Efficiency Coordinator for Stroud District Council and previously working in the private sector. Kaye manages a team of senior project staff, and leads Severn Wye's Advice and Affordable Warmth Services.
Kaye has played an important role in Gloucestershire's HECA Group, and Affordable Warmth Partnership, which she chaired until 2010. This partnership of seven local authorities and NHS has achieved national recognition for its work, and Kaye has also assisted the development of similar strategic groups in other areas.
Under her management, Severn Wye's energy advice service has achieved maximum activity and quality levels with an impressive range of outreach activities, and partnerships with housing, health, caring agencies, the Pensions and Benefits Agencies, installers and suppliers of energy efficiency products and local media.
Kaye manages the successful Warm and Well programme, which has delivered improvements to over 33,000 homes to date. She is Chair of Energy Advice South West (joint venture between Severn Wye, CSE, CEP and DEA) which currently delivers the Energy Saving Trust Advice contract in the Greater South West.
Jackie Williams, Project Manager (Sustainable Energy), Severn Wye Energy Agency
Jackie joined Severn Wye in September 2008 and has been working on a variety of community sustainable energy projects for schools and village halls across Gloucestershire; as well as village hall audits, she has undertaken several Project Development Studies under the Big Lottery funded Community Sustainable Energy Programme (CSEP). Jackie has also helped to promote local renewable energy grants to householders, and organised and run training and seminars to promote energy saving to businesses and local authority staff.
Jackie is currently managing the implementation of REnewabLe energy for tourist ACcommodation buildingS (RELACS), an Intelligent Energy Europe and Forest of Dean District Council project, delivering a range of services to the tourist accommodation sector to help businesses improve energy efficiency and install renewable energy technologies.
Before joining Severn Wye, Jackie was managing the Energy Efficiency Advice Centre for the Thames Valley area, having started her career in sustainable energy as an Energy Advisor in 1997. As well as advising householders on saving energy in the home, Jackie has been involved with a range of projects, including communicating climate change to Thames Valley Police employees, helping schools to achieve the Energy Saving Trust's Energy Certification for Schools and co-ordinating a range of outreach and promotional events.
Workshop E: The Home Energy Conservation Act (HECA)
Facilitators: Louise Sunderland, Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE)
& John Kolm-Murray, London CAN
No slideshow used
Government has announced that HECA will be revitalised and a new HECA Guidance to Local Authorities is currently being drafted. This workshop was an opportunity to discuss the role HECA could play in helping Local Authorities to deliver housing energy efficiency and fuel poverty alleviation.
Louise Sunderland, Parliamentary Campaigner, Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE)
Louise has worked at the Association for the Conservation of Energy (ACE) for three years, in both Research and Parliamentary Campaigning roles. ACE's aim is to reduce overall energy demand to ensure a secure sustainable energy future. Louise holds an MSc in Environmental Technology (Dist) from Imperial College London where she wrote a thesis on barriers and drivers to sustainability in the housing stock. Given her previous roles in community development, for Horsham District Council, and in international development Louise has a strong interest in the intersect between social and energy policy, in particular the issue of fuel poverty. The Home Energy Conservation Act Workshop will be jointly run by Louise Sunderland and John Kolm-Murray, Seasonal Health & Affordable Warmth Co-ordinator at the London Borough of Islington and Chair of the London Carbon Action Network.