Eco-renovation guidance from someone who’s done it!
Following the recent Warm Your Home! season at Lewes Climate Hub, we were delighted to receive these resources from Judith Leary-Joyce, drawing on her own ‘eco-renovation’ journey. Valuable for anyone looking to make their home warmer, greener and cheaper to run.
Judith emailed Lewes Climate Hub: “I’ve just been sent information by our local sustainability group about the great work you are doing on ‘making your house warm’. I thought the resources I’ve worked on over the past four years might be of value to you.
“It began with retrofitting our own Victorian home and realising just how little is known about the process, certainly by the regular building profession. Given that 21% of UK emissions comes from ‘leaky’ homes, I wanted to help people be better informed so they could work with the builders and achieve all the benefits – both for their bank balance and the environment.
As a result, the following resources are now available and I hope they might be a good addition to your work.”
Beginner’s Guide to Eco Renovation – Having retrofitted my own Victorian home and saved 75% of our energy usage, I wrote an easy-to-read guidebook book to help others do the same, supported by an eco architect throughout. All the money I earn from the book goes to Friends of the Earth to increase the impact the book can have. The book is available on Amazon (https://amzn.to/3EOBHjM) For those who don’t want to use Amazon, it can be ordered from bookshops.
Eco Renovation Home Blog – I have a regular blog where I write about additional work we do on the house and share what I learn (https://ecorenovationhome.com).
Stay Warm for Less – A booklet for tenants and those who can’t do major work on their homes. This free download is a compilation of every energy hack I could find on the web. It is easily available on my blog (no need to sign up) and can be given out to any individual or organisation that can use it. It is on the site of a number of town councils in the UK, used for food banks, sent to schools and voluntary organisations. In St Albans we have printed it out to give away and used a QR code so people can download it.
https://ecorenovationhome.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/Stay-warm-for-less-Print-2023.pdf
TEDx talk – I recently presented a TEDx talk ‘How you and your builder can help save the planet’, to promote the importance of collaboration with the building profession so they understand the need and business opportunity of retrofit (https://bit.ly/47gctpQ).
Judith adds: “If there is any way I can support you, please let me know. Retrofit in all forms is such an easy win – good for the climate and no sacrifice needed. I am passionate to get the word out there, so thank you for all the work you are doing.”
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