Climate Emergency

• Retrofirst is an AJ campaign to prioritise retrofit over demolition and rebuild.

• Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy Guidance: for Listed Buildings and Undesignated Historic Buildings is a Supplementary Planning Document produced by B&NES Council for use in conjunction with local planning policy regulations regarding listed buildings.
• Sustainable Construction and Retrofitting  is a more general Supplementary Planning Document produced by B&NES Council that discusses sustainable retrofit options alongside the sustainable construction of new-builds.
• Energy at Home is a B&NES Council-run website offering guidance and examples of energy-saving measures in homes within the Bath and North-East Somerset area. Grants and loans are also highlighted to help cover retrofitting costs.
• Find out more about B&NES LED Streetlight Upgrade, and trialled LED lighting in historic settings such as Sydney Buildings by Zeta Specialist Lighting.

• Bristol City Council commissioned A Bristolian’s Guide to Solid Wall Insulation in 2015 to promote appropriate energy efficiency improvements across the city, and focuses on the prevalent historic building type in the area.
• Energy Service Bristol offers advice and initiatives on energy retrofits for businesses and residents.

• CPRE Solar Design Tips offers advice on the sensitive integration of solar panels into a distinctive local, historic environment.
• More comprehensive guidance includes Ensuring Place-Responsive Design for Solar Photovoltaics on Buildings to enable the best compromise between energy-efficiency and vernacular character.
• Get Generating provides a starting-point for rural communities and local councils looking into community-based renewable energy projects.
• The latest updates on the CPRE’s position on the Climate Emergency.

• The Centre for Sustainable Energy is a national charity with a wealth of resources regarding general approaches to sustainable energy, tackling fuel poverty, and insulation solutions.
• Guidance tailored to historic properties includes The Sustainable Use of Energy in Traditional Dwellings published in conjunction with Historic England, and Love Your Old Home.
• Green Open Homes was originally set up by CSE in 2013 in partnership with Bristol Green Doors, aiming to support low-carbon open homes events across the country. Case studies include previous events in Bristol and Frome.

• Home Truths covers the ongoing impact of climate change on the UK’s buildings and what residents can do to decarbonise their homes.

NOTE: This guidance is not exclusively tailored to the needs or restrictions of historic buildings.

• Futureproof Energy Saving Measures offers free guidance for homeowners in the south-west investigating possible retrofit options within the home.

• Housing Retrofit: Developing a Strategy outlines the basics of the priorities of retrofitting measures, the limitations of historic buildings, and relevant planning restrictions.

• Energy Efficiency and Historic Buildings is Historic England’s formative guide for the retrofit of listed buildings. They also offer Practical Guidance to Energy Efficiency with an overview of different retrofit types and measures, and how changes can be planned and carried out.
• Specific advice for the installation of Solar Electric (Photovoltaics) is also available.
• Making Changes to Save Energy offers practical advice on how to make small, cost-effective alterations to improve a building’s energy efficiency.
• Know Your Home, Know Your Carbon is the most recent guidance released in 2020 as part of the Heritage Counts series, focusing on owner-occupiers of historic homes and how carbon emissions can be reduced in our pre-1919 homes.
• There’s No Place Like Old Homes was published earlier in 2019 regarding the potential contribution of historic buildings to the UK’s 2050 net zero carbon targets.
• Generating Energy in Older Houses provides guidance on types of microrenewables and installation in traditional homes.
• Filling in the Retrofits Gap provides further information about the energy performance of traditional buildings and how this performance may be changed by retrofitting measures.
• Historic England has issued its Joint Heritage Sector Statement on Climate Change, with commitment to the role of historic buildings in tackling carbon emissions.
• Research into Future Summertime Overheating Risk in Historic Buildings is ongoing in four Historic England offices across the country to assess how buildings can be kept cool in increasingly hot summers, as well as warmer in the winter.
• A series of Case Studies from across the UK are available as examples of good practice.

NOTE: Planning restrictions in Scottish guidance may differ from English legislation.

• Improving Energy Efficiency in Traditional Buildings is Historic Scotland’s formative guidance on the retrofit of listed and unlisted historic buildings and provides useful information about the treatment of historic fabric.
• Microrenewables in the Historic Environment offers more specific guidance about the installation of different types of microrenewables, such as solar panels, heat pumps, and biomass boilers.
• Fabric Improvements for Energy Efficiency presents a range of practical solutions to improving energy efficiency in traditional and historic buildings, whilst maintaining historic fabric, character, and natural material properties such as permeability and ventilation.
• A Guide to Climate Change Impacts was also produced to provide information about how the Climate Crisis will continue to affect our historic environment, and how we can mitigate environmental pressures on our traditional buildings.

• IHBC’s Retrofitting of Traditional Buildings Guidance Note offers up-to-date guidance on holistic retrofitting measures, as well as recommendations for appropriate maintenance and repair to ensure a building is performing well.

• Future of Our Pasts: Engaging Cultural Heritage in Climate Action is a report released by ICOMOS to tackle climate change within the historic environment globally. This provides a helpful overview as to the international historic context to which the Bath World Heritage site contributes.

NOTE: This guidance is not exclusively tailored to the needs or restrictions of historic buildings.

• See their guidance on fitting and maintaining Solar PV Panels for a cheaper, warmer home.
• Fuel Poverty Awareness Day is on the 3rd December to raise awareness of low income households in inefficient, draughty homes.

• Energy: Grow Your Own includes the National Trust’s approach to more sustainable energy options, including case studies from their own estate.
• Forecast Changeable is a later publication that documents the National Trust’s approach to the Climate Crisis, and the future of our material heritage.
• The National Trust’s Energy page has a wealth of resources about ongoing sustainability projects across their estates.
• The Climate Hazard Map forecasts areas of increasing temperature and extreme weather conditions due to climate change to which historic buildings need to adapt.

• Heritage Energy Efficiency Tool is an online tool produced by Oxford City Council to assess individual energy efficiency improvements for historic buildings.

NOTE: This guidance is not exclusively tailored to the needs or restrictions of historic buildings. Standard building restrictions may vary from listed building restrictions, or restrictions in protected areas (conservation areas, World Heritage Sites, Green Belts, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, National Parks, etc.).

• Interactive House offers interactive guidance on planning regulations and restrictions on certain types of retrofit, with options for different housing types.

• Energy Efficiency in Old Buildings is SPAB’s formative guidance for the collaboration of building conservation and adaptation.
• Energy Efficiency and Old Buildings: Principles and Priorities highlights the priorities of looking after and maintaining a historic property, and how this can be balanced alongside energy efficient retrofits.
• Their Knowledge Base provides a growing resource for common problems and maintenance in historic buildings.
• The Old House Eco Handbook provides an overview of retrofitting in different historic house types.

• STBA Guidance Wheel is a free, interactive tool to best enable a whole-house approach when considering possible retrofitting measures.
• Responsible Retrofit of Traditional Buildings is STBA’s definitive report on existing guidance and research with recommendations for retrofits that follow the ‘whole-house approach’.
• The Knowledge Centre offers specific guidance on particular retrofit measures.

• The Energy Group Projects page identifies renewable energy opportunities within the south west as well as offering advice to homeowners about retrofits.

NOTE: Planning restrictions in Welsh guidance may differ from English legislation.

• Renewable and Low Carbon Energy in Buildings is the Welsh Government’s definitive guidance for the production and use of green energy.