Insulation specialist Actis welcomes £1 billion carbon emissions boost for public buildings
The government’s announcement of £1 billion of funding to help schools, hospitals and council buildings across England and Wales cut their carbon emissions has been welcomed by insulation specialist Actis.
The funding announcement coincided with the launch of the government’s Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy, which aims to slash emissions by two thirds by 2035.
The £1 billion funding pot is focused on retrofitting public sector buildings and will be spent on insulation, low carbon technology and underground carbon emissions storage.
Hundreds of local authorities, schools, NHS trusts, government departments, emergency services and public bodies have been offered pots of funding of between tens of thousands and several million pounds to carry out the retrofit work.
Actis says the investment is vital to enable older, often very energy inefficient, buildings to leak far less heat.
UK and Ireland sales director Mark Cooper stressed the importance of a “fabric first” approach
“It’s important, whether retrofitting or carrying out a new build, to focus on the fabric of the building and ensure it’s thermally sound before investing in other measures. Insulation is generally among the most cost-effective and long-lasting way of achieving energy efficiency, and thus the best investment.”
Actis Hybrid products were recently used on an Ashford Borough Council-owned Victorian vicarage converted into flats for homeless people in Kent. The work, which saw the creation of an internal stud wall filled with honeycomb insulation Actis Hybris and the addition of insulating vapour control layer HControl Hybrid, lifted it from a Band E EPC rating to a band B.
As the products are flexible and can bend round corners and be gently moulded into gaps, they are excellent at creating a thermal envelope, free of gaps through which heat could otherwise escape.
Actis Hybrid has also been specified for a number of school roof refurbishment projects over the years.
Insulating breather membrane BoostR Hybrid Roof is a popular choice here, not only for its thermal efficiency, ease, speed and cleanliness, but because it can be installed without needing to disrupt the rooms below, a key consideration when dealing with a public building.