Highlights
- Use a combination of technical and social data to assess the impact of energy efficiency measures on both building performance and residents’ lived experience.
- Gather evidence on a wide range of outcomes, including householder comfort and satisfaction, healthy indoor conditions, energy bills, and carbon reduction.
- Create insightful, evidence-based recommendations for collaborating organisations.
- Capture lessons learnt from each project and use this continuous learning to improve and maximise the impact of future projects
Changeworks, Scotland’s leading environmental charity based in Edinburgh, drives transformation in energy efficiency and tackles fuel poverty, in collaboration with partners, organisations efficacity and householders. Changeworks' Impact Evaluation service assesses the effectiveness and early outcomes of energy efficiency and renewable technology measures in domestic retrofit projects.
Their 2022-25 strategy aims to decarbonise Scotland’s homes to tackle the climate emergency. They work with households and organisations to accelerate decarbonisation. They are committed to reducing their carbon footprint, they monitor this annually and have been ISO 14001 certified for over a decade. They are committed to an annual 14% reduction in carbon emissions and to being true net zero by 2040. To assess their progress and identify areas for improvement, the Carbon Reduction Team conduct annual carbon footprint analyses.
Changeworks’ innovation is to monitor outcomes and evaluating of the measure they delivered. They developed monitoring tools that can be used to gather robust data which covers householder experiences, energy consumption variations, SAP analysis, household comfort levels as it relates to residents’
health and wellbeing.
Over the last 25 years, Changeworks has saved over 3,874,983 tonnes of CO2e. Impact Evaluation service ensures learnings are maximised from each project. This continuous learning and improvement mean that each project is more impactful than the last in all respects, from reduced energy consumption and increased resilience, to improved wellbeing for householders and increased satisfaction with the delivery process.
£4.06M saved for householders through energy bills or income maximisation – a 116% increase from last year. 82% of clients felt that the energy efficiency of their homes had improved. 67,000 households taking decarbonisation action with Changeworks’ support, with 4,400 insulation measures installed – a 22% increase from last year.
“We are delighted to have been commended for the VIBES Service Scotland award. It is a testament to the importance of learning and improvement for reducing our impact on the environment. With our strategic goal to decarbonise Scotland’s homes, through our work we aim to enable, encourage and inspire others to follow our lead to tackle the climate emergency. The VIBES awards have been a great space to share our work with a wider audience.” Joanna Long, Senior Impact Evaluation Consultant
The Service Scotland Award recognises businesses that have developed a service that brings environmental and business benefits. At the time of the application the service must have been developed and in the marketplace.