Emerging models of environmentally sustainable enterprise: a comparative study of low-energy housing retrofit organisations in the UK and France.

Objectives: This paper examines emerging models that are being adopted by organisations engaged in the low carbon transition, with a particular focus on the role played by social enterprises. It presents a case-based comparison of recent efforts by industry actors in the housing retrofit supply chain to deliver low-energy retrofits (or refurbishments) of existing housing stocks in the UK and France. Prior Work: The study adopts a multi-disciplinary approach which makes connections between three broad strands of research: (1); energy policy, with a focus on energy efficiency in buildings (e.g. Fawcett and Mayne 2012); (2) social and sustainable enterprise (e.g. Blundel et al. 2013, Gibbs and O’Neill 2012); (3) socio-technical transitions (e.g. Geels and Kemp 2006; Smith 2007, Killip 2013). Approach: The issues are examined through a comparative study of the low-energy housing retrofit policy environment and of current organisational structures and practices in the building industries of the UK and France. Industry responses to recent policy signals are explored in case materials that are based around reviews of published evidence and a series of semi-structured interviews with designers and contractors who have direct experience of innovative, low-energy refurbishment projects in each country. Results: The case study evidence suggest that while the two countries have comparable long-term policy goals for CO2 emissions reduction, there are important organisational differences displayed in the more immediate initiatives being undertaken by industry actors involved in delivering retrofitting of the housing stock. The discussion section indicates possible explanations for these differences and highlights issues requiring further investigation. Implications: The transition towards a more environmental sustainable residential housing depends largely on social, as opposed to technological, innovation. Policy-makers need to address specific organisational constraints, including the longstanding fragmentation evident in this part of the UK building industry. The cases suggest that there is considerable scope for reconfiguring traditional networks and for giving greater emphasis to collaborative arrangements involving private sector firms, social and community based enterprise. Value: The study provides new empirical insights into the organisational dimensions of an important sustainability transition. It also makes a contribution to theoretical development by combining insights from several distinct disciplines, and by applying concepts from energy research, organisational studies, social entrepreneurship and socio-technical transitions to recent development in the UK and French building industries. It also identifies several implications for future research policy and practice

Products, practices and processes: exploring the innovation potential for low-carbon housing refurbishment among small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK construction industry

Scenario-based studies agree that the technical potential for CO emissions reduction from the housing stock is large. This paper explores how a market might be developed for the refurbishment activities assumed in these scenarios, taking the existing market for repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) as its starting point. Interviews with 16 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the construction industry reveal the interdependence of products, practices and processes in housing renovation activities. Conservative practice as well as innovation can be understood as the outcome of multi-lateral influences on firms from other firms, clients, the material buildings and products in their working lives, and from regulations and regulators. Contractors' openness to innovation is contingent on an informal approach to risk assessment, taking account of cost, time efficiency, client demands, and installer confidence in the reliability of the resulting work. The implications of the research are discussed in relation to the need for new practices and processes on refurbishment projects, raising questions for future research on key questions of quality assurance, performance over time, the application of standards, and vocational training. © 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Implications of an 80% CO₂ emissions reduction target for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in the UK housing refurbishment industry

The UK’s policy commitment to an 80% reduction in CO₂ levels over 1990 levels by 2050 has framed much recent research and debates between policy-makers and industry about whether and how a transition to a low-carbon future can be achieved. The technical potential for improved energy efficiency and installation of low- and zero-carbon generation technologies in the built environment is, in theory, large enough to achieve the emissions reduction targets in this economic sector but it requires a step-change in technology deployment, with less well studied implications for the industry actors who predominate in the existing markets for housing refurbishment.A socio-technical approach is taken to investigating this problem, drawing on the academic traditions of Actor-Network Theory and Transitions to frame the problem: how can a policy-driven change be brought about in a highly diffuse system of actors, where large outcomes emerge as the result of millions of small-scale decisions? Parallels are drawn with the history of Market Transformation policies that have achieved improved energy efficiency of stocks of electrical appliances over time. In order to explore how a Market Transformation approach might work in the rather different context of housing refurbishment, three key aspects of this particular socio-technical system need to be explored: the technical potential and workings of technology deployment; the operation of several implicated markets; the nature of innovation in the relevant industry sectors.A review of the practical, technical issues encountered in pioneering low-carbon refurbishment projects reveals certain risks of under-performance and unintended consequences of poor implementation. Managing these risks requires a level of underpinning knowledge as well as good-quality workmanship, raising the question of how such knowledge can best be introduced into the fragmented roles and contractual relationships that characterise the industry.The market opportunities for the work are complicated by the number and interdependence of the markets involved, including markets for property transactions and markets for refurbishment work and technology installation. Information systems already exist at the point of property transactions in the form of the Energy Performance Certificate, but the greatest potential for change exists in the mainstream repair, maintenance and improvement market.Interviews with mainstream SME construction managers explain the reasons why the industry’s custom and practice is essentially conservative, but also provide insights into the situations in which innovation can thrive, rather than being resisted or subverted.A proposal for systemic change has at its core the coordination of monitoring information and learning experiences from a range of innovative demonstration projects, with implications for change at an institutional level as well as within the practices of the industry itself. The findings of the research are discussed in terms of the strategic implications they hold for industry and policy-making

Building Expertise

Au Royaume-Uni comme en France, le secteur résidentiel est un secteur fortement consommateur d’énergie et émetteur de gaz à effet de serre. Le Royaume-Uni et la France se sont fixé des objectifs ambitieux de réduction des consommations d’énergie dans les logements et ont identifié le secteur des logements existants comme un gisement important de réduction de ces consommations dans leurs programmes nationaux : le Grenelle de l’Environnement en France et le Climate Change Act au Royaume Uni. Ma..

Building Expertise : aperçus des enjeux de la rénovation énergétique des logements pour la filière construction en France et au Royaume-Un

International audienc

Shifting the focus: energy demand in a net-zero carbon UK

Our report takes the Government’s most recent statement on energy transition, the Clean Growth Strategy (BEIS, 2017), as a starting point and draws on current knowledge from the UK energy demand research community. We consider the Strategy’s goal of accelerating the pace of clean growth, and build on the comprehensive, quantitative analysis by the Committee on Climate Change (CCC, 2018). We agree that major improvements in energy productivity in businesses, transport and homes are crucial to achieving this goal. Our report sets out a broad vision for how this might be achieved, and shows that this requires attention to technical, social and institutional factors that drive energy demand. We argue that a stronger focus on demand will be required to address the greater action implied by a net-zero carbon target (CCC, 2019), and set out recommendations on the changes in policy required to deliver the energy-use related goals of the Clean Growth Strategy

Building expertise: renovation as professional innovation

This chapter begins with a review of some recent literature on innovation in the residential sector. The chapter takes up the challenge of discerning which institutions can successfully intervene in the total sociotechnical system of the built environment to steer it toward sustainable performance. In doing so, it moves from discussions of what needs to be done to reduce carbon emissions in the existing housing stock, and draws attention to who will do it and how. Specifically, it focuses on the role of so-called “intermediaries,”, their expertise, and their ability to enhance (or inhibit) the implementation of sustainable strategies in existing residential buildings

Building Expertise: Identifying policy gaps and new ideas in housing eco-renovation in the UK and France

renovation, residential buildings, policies and measures In order to meet national carbon and energy savings targets in both the UK and France, the housing stock needs to be renovated to a high standard of energy efficiency. However, current levels of activity are nowhere near sufficient to meet 2050 targets. The aim of this paper is to identify the policy gaps regarding eco-renovation in the UK and France, and to highlight some promising ideas which could successfully fill those gaps. First, different definitions of eco-renovation are presented, and these aspirational standards are compared with current policy goals. Then a brief description of housing and energy use in each country provides useful background information, and similarities and differences between the countries are identified. Summaries and comparisons of current policy are presented. The mechanisms the policy instruments aim to use to effect change are compared with what is known about ‘barriers’ to eco-renovation. Most policy focuses on reducing the cost to householders, much less is done to address other reasons for inaction such as lack of information, motivation or trust in professionals. Multiple gaps in current policy are identified, including lack of a roadmap to reach 2050 targets, lack of policy tackling non-financial barriers to action, and insufficient policy working with the building industry and other professionals. Case studies of a number of innovations in information provision and delivering eco-renovation are briefly presented. New policy ideas around eco-renovation are discussed, particularly ‘over time ’ eco-renovation. These new business and social enterprise innovations and policy ideas could help filling in some policy gaps, but more remains to be done to achieve the very challenging task of renovating the whole housing stock to a high standard