In November 2021, Glasgow played host to the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) at the Scottish Event Centre. COP has been taking place yearly since 1995, occurring in a variety of countries since then, including Germany, Morocco and Japan. Each gathering of the conference is used to examine the reports and emission inventories submitted by each party, reviewing how each country is progressing in their commitment to tackling climate change.
As part of this event, which took over one of the biggest cities in Scotland, our team, in partnership with ng homes, had the privilege of running our own event.
This enabled delegates to visit our district heating project, which is having a momentous impact on the lives of social housing tenants in the Springburn area of Glasgow.
Throughout the two-week event, we spent time welcoming over 100 guests onboard our fully electric Mercedes-Benz eCitaro bus to visit our project in North Glasgow.
The Springburn Project
This sector-leading energy-saving project is situated in one of the most economically disadvantaged areas in Scotland, with high levels of fuel poverty and its overall poverty levels sitting at 40% as of 2021. Our work in the area is providing a revolutionary difference to the way that tenants live in and heat their homes.
The work in Springburn is currently seeing six, 25-storey tower blocks undergo a £25 million retrofit project to upgrade the heating systems and improve fire safety.
The project so far has seen the installation of six independent District Heat Networks that use Air Source Heat Pumps that are mounted on a bigfoot system on the roof of each building. Ensuring compliance with EESSH2 standards is one of the key deliverables of this large-scale project, which aims to provide residents with warmer homes and lower heating bills upon completion.
We are thrilled to see that the ongoing project aims to achieve savings of between 40-60% in heating costs for tenants once completed, which will work to reduce fuel poverty levels and increase quality of life for all. In one case, one resident is now saving over £400 per quarter on her energy bills and told our team that her house is warmer than ever before.
The Bus Tour
The aim of our COP26 delegate tours was to showcase how integral this project has been in contributing to Scotland’s net-zero journey, and to highlight the opportunities for projects like this one to be rolled out in the future.
Once out on site, our delegates were invited on to the roof to view the Air Source Heat Pumps in situ and to gain a full understanding of what it was like to install them using the largest mobile crane in Europe. Guests were invited to ask questions throughout the visit, giving a unique opportunity to find out first-hand from our site teams what it feels like to work on such a significant and beneficial project.
The event was a huge success, and our team loved being able to take time to show off the incredible work that has been done so far. We believe that if works like this can be funded and replicated across the country, we will begin to see life-changing alterations in both social and public housing and the way that energy is used.
