Nick has been with Navetas since October 2008 and is the company's Strategic Communications Director. Nick has worked for a number of years in the Public Affairs and Communications Industry, providing advice to names such British Airways, John Lewis Group, Prudential and Sainsbury's on a range of issues.

Blog > RE:NEW demonstrates the power of energy efficiency

RE:NEW demonstrates the power of energy efficiency

Thursday 16th February 2012

Last week the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, announced a significant milestone for his RE:NEW home energy efficiency programme, which has helped 40,000 London households to save an estimated £4 million on their energy bills.

As well as helping homeowners save on bills, the scheme is also designed to reduce London’s carbon emissions. With 80% of emissions coming from homes, the £7.8 million RE:NEW programme aims to ‘retrofit’ homes with a range of energy saving measures, from energy saving light bulbs to cavity insulation - installed for free by a trained assessor.

These results are a great advert for energy efficiency initiatives and demonstrate why we are seeing an increasing focus on efficiency from Government, industry and energy users themselves.

Energy efficiency is not just a complement to other green technologies like renewable energy sources - it needs to be seen as an equally important measure. And the Mayor’s RE:NEW schemes dramatically shows the significant benefits that can be derived from wide-ranging energy efficiency schemes.

Not only does it prove the savings that can be made on energy bills, the RE:NEW results offer compelling evidence of how educating energy users can have a measurable impact on lowering energy demand. This is not even mentioning the Mayor’s other aim - stimulating the green economy and developing ‘green-collar’ jobs.

Perhaps of most interest, the results have been achieved without the aid of the most significant energy efficiency scheme - the smart meter roll out. And when this key initiative becomes mainstream, we could see even more notable changes in energy usage.

Smart meters have the potential to encourage lasting changes in the home, by providing real-time information about how energy is being used, so households can monitor how their behaviour relates to their bill. The result is far more intelligent and reasoned changes over how to use appliances.

RE:NEW has made great strides and the smart meter rollout looks set to accelerate this success, dramatically lowering our long term energy demand and driving up energy efficiency.

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