Sero joins Green Finance Institute’s Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings

The Green Finance Institute has announced the formation of the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings (CEEB), and Sero is excited to have been invited to be a founding member and have the chance to influence this important issue.

Sero (including Sero Homes and Sero Energy) is one a handful of Welsh organisations that will be represented on the coalition, alongside Welsh Government and Monmouthshire Building Society. The aim of the Coalition is to develop the market for financing net-zero carbon and climate-resilient buildings in the UK by accelerating the pace of financial innovation and scale-up.

Formed of global experts from financial services, local and national government, energy and construction industries, academia and civil society, the CEEB will collaborate under the chairmanship of Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, chief executive, Green Finance Institute.

Speaking at the COP25 climate change conference in Madrid recently, Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, chief executive Green Finance Institute, said: “Financial markets need to play a leading role to meet the needs of our society, and to mobilise capital to address the climate emergency. The Green Finance Institute’s role is to convene innovators, sector specialists and policymakers to harness their creativity to identify and overcome the barriers to the deployment of green funding.

“The Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings brings together a breadth of experience behind a clear goal: to accelerate capital flows towards retrofitting and developing UK homes to net-zero carbon, resilient standards through the development of real-world finance solutions that appeal to home-owners, landlords and investors.”

Over the next 12 months, the CEEB will design, develop and launch a portfolio of scalable demonstrators of new financial solutions that unlock investment into the low-carbon and resilient building sectors. To ensure the demonstrators appeal across all residential building tenures, the CEEB will conduct a comprehensive review of the UK residential retrofit market identifying the barriers to widescale upgrading of existing housing stock.

Graham Sumsion, lending operations manager, Monmouthshire Building Society, commented: “Monmouthshire Building Society is very pleased to be part of the Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings. We are confident it will deliver tangible, scalable new solutions which will enable our members to make their homes radically more energy-efficient, reducing their fuel bills and contributing to a greener climate for the future.”

Julie Hirigoyen, chief executive, UK Green Building Council (UKGBC), added: “There are 29 million homes in the UK which must be made low-carbon, low-energy and resilient to our changing climate. Decarbonising and adapting the UK’s housing stock is critical for meeting the net-zero emissions targets and tackling the impacts of climate change. We welcome the formation of the Green Finance Institute’s Coalition on the Energy Efficiency of Buildings. We look forward to working together to enable the property and finance sectors to jointly seek opportunities for innovation, new business and job creation from improving the efficiency of homes.”

The outcomes and recommendations of the Coalition’s market review will be published in Spring 2020, while the portfolio of pilot ‘demonstrator’ projects will be presented at the 2020 UN Climate Change Conference (UNFCCC COP26) in Glasgow, in December. In recognition that efforts to decarbonise buildings are global, the Coalition will also work with international partners to adopt and share best practices.

Coalition for the Energy Efficiency of Buildings Members
Abundance
Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS)
BNP Paribas
Building Society Association (BSA)
Carbon Trust
CMS Law
Coutts
E.On
E3G (Secretariat)
Ecology Building Society
Energiesprong UK
Energy Efficiency Infrastructure Group (EEIG)
Energy Systems Catapult
Engie
Eversheds Sutherland
Green Deal Finance Company
Green Finance Institute (Chair)
Leeds City Council
Legal & General
Loan Markets Association (LMA)
Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Governments (MHCLG)
Monmouthshire Building Society
Nottingham City Homes
Phoenix Group
Reading University
Residential Landlords Association
RICS
Sero Homes
Transport for London (TfL)
TrustMark
UK Finance
UK Green Building Council (UKGBC)
UK Regulated Covered Bond Council
Welsh Government