| For this month’s Member of the Month we interview Luis Adamson, Communities Officer for Home Energy Scotland. |
Tell us about your organisation.
At Home Energy Scotland we’re here to offer free advice and support to help you make your home warmer, reduce energy bills, and contribute to a greener, more sustainable future. Our service is funded by the Scottish Government and managed by Energy Saving Trust. We are committed to positively impacting the lives of people throughout Scotland.
Our primary focus is tackling fuel poverty and the climate emergency, by helping people stay warmer at home for less and reducing their carbon footprint; all critical priorities for the Scottish Government.
We run five advice centres across Scotland. Each one has a team of specialist advisors who can help with topics including home renewables and specialist heating. However, not everyone will pick up a phone in response to a national campaign, so our outreach specialists work with organisations in their areas to help them reach as many people as possible. Our role is to enable and support the work local and community organisations are already undertaking by offering initiatives such as upskilling and training resources to make sure people are aware of the support available through Home Energy Scotland.
My job is to support and coordinate the work the advice centres are undertaking with communities by developing new processes and tools. I also attend events such as conferences in order to engage with stakeholders and partners.
What inspired you to take your first step into community climate action?
I’ve always been interested in the environment and climate change. I started on the scientific side of things and studied conservation biology at university before going on to complete a Masters in sustainable food and natural resources. This was quite intense and some of the climate change aspects were quite scary. For me getting involved in community climate action is a way of making me feel more positive and that there is hope. I love going to conferences and hearing the amazing stories of people and communities who are taking action. This gives me a lot of hope.
Also, it’s important for me to be working in a role that is contributing. For me the community side of things is the most important part of my role. We need to support local and community at a national level. If communities aren’t involved from the start, it doesn’t work. People living in each community know the best solutions to their needs and have the passion and drive to make things happen. You have to bring them along from the beginning and act together to have a real impact.
What’s the one community climate action you’ve undertaken that you think had the most impact?
At Home Energy Scotland I think working with community groups is very impactful because it’s about creating long-lasting change. If you get a group on board that is trusted by people in their communities, it brings other people on board too. Talking about things like heat pumps and new technology as a community makes it all more normal and less scary. It’s more impactful if a whole community is doing it together.
For example, on the Isle of Raasay the Scottish Government gave Community Energy Scotland funding to undertake a carbon neutral islands project. Home Energy Scotland were about to support the initial stages of this project by giving the island data to use to write a carbon audit.As part of the project, each island had a Community Development Officer assigned to it. This post was a key piece of the puzzle as they knocked on doors on the island in order to raise awareness and drum up local interest in energy efficiency. Following this a team from Home Energy Scotland stayed on the island and organised a home visit for everyone. They covered 41 houses in a week which is a far more effective approach than someone visiting the island once every few months. Also, because everyone was talking about it, the home visits had a big impact and people were reached who otherwise would not have engaged. This proves the power of community involvement and the benefits of a coordinated approach. This approach also helps pull different pots of funding together and attracts contractors to hard to reach islands. They are more likely to travel to undertake installations in a number of households rather than just one. Plus, the community can bulk buy materials which saves money.
We are now looking to replicate this model elsewhere.
Read more about the Isle of Raasay project.
https://www.homeenergyscotland.org/net-zero-partnership-isle-raasay
What story from your community would you like to share?
There is such a variety – from the new tool called Community Analytics we’re piloting with community groups to provide housing stock data on their community; to our ongoing work with Greener Kirkcaldy and Cosy Kingdom to support households in Fife through a local energy advice service; to our work with East Ayrshire Women’s Aid, a charitable organisation dedicated to working towards ending domestic abuse East Ayrshire Women’s Aid.
What’s your advice/tips for other community groups wanting to start to take collective action against a changing climate?
Every community is different. The support Home Energy Scotland can provide ranges from sending leaflets detailing our grants and loans which community groups can hand out at events, to working with groups looking to undertake energy advice projects or looking at what training is needed to support with writing a funding application.
The first step is to get in touch with your local Home Energy Scotland Partnership team, or get in touch with me and I’ll make the connection.
Local partnership contacts:
homeenergyscotland.org/partner-with-us#getintouch
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
There is no one size fits all solution. It all depends on the stage of your journey from raising awareness to having your heat pump installed. People need advice on their home energy, home efficiency, retro fitting etc at different stages along the way.
Also, we are always interested in collaborations, different projects and learning, as well as finding new ways to work with communities. The reason we have local advice centres is because we all need local knowledge about different areas and what works and who the different groups are within them. You can’t achieve that at a national level. We have to recognise the power of communities to make change and that’s why we are super keen to work with community groups. We don’t have all of the answers, but working together is important in making a difference.
Keep in Touch
Website homeenergyscotland.org/
Communities page homeenergyscotland.org/community-groups
National and local partnership contact details homeenergyscotland.org/partner-with-us#getintouch
Contact Home Energy Scotland (for households) homeenergyscotland.org/contact-us
Facebook facebook.com/HomeEnergyScotland/