More major employers are signing up for Heat Scheme, the UK’s first ever home heating scheme, including FTSE 100 listed asset management firm Schroders and the global advertising and public relations company Havas.
The scheme is helping employers take positive steps to supporting their employees in the cost of living crisis while supporting the staff to reduce their carbon emissions, making it a win/win for ESG considerations and employee support.
Heat Scheme’s founder, Patrick Dougherty reveals what inspired him to set up Heat Scheme, its recent success and explains why the scheme can help employers assist their staff to reduce their energy bills – and reduce their carbon footprint at the same time.
Why did you set up the Heat Scheme and why did you initially receive funding from Government?
Employers are increasingly looking to support struggling employees while also seeking to reduce carbon emissions.
Around 22% of UK carbon emissions come from our homes – more than from all the cars on our roads. This statistic shocked me into wanting to do something about the problem, eventually leading to starting Heat Scheme.
The solution for our homes is to switch to clean energy by using electricity rather than gas and oil to heat our homes. However, there have been real issues holding us back in the UK from switching over, making us a laggard from a European perspective:
- Awareness: according to the Office for National Statistics in 2023, 30% of residents were not even aware of the ongoing emissions from their home.
- Handholding: among those that are aware, they are being asked to make the biggest change to their homes since the 1970s when the country switched from town gas and coal to natural gas. Many homeowners are nervous and or have an inaccurate understanding of what’s possible for their own home.
- Quality Installers: finding a quality installer is a real problem and creates uncertainty and risk for homeowners.
- Funding: switching to clean energy at home is typically a little more expensive than retaining your gas boiler, which slows down rates of adoption. Additionally, finding funding, whether from the Government, councils or elsewhere, can be hard.
The answer to all these issues was to set up Heat Scheme: an employee benefit providing home improvement consultancy that combines neat digital solutions through an online portal with a human touch through 1:1 assessments with staff for guidance, reassurance and ease of use.
The advantages of working with employers are clear: they provide a platform to drive staff awareness and offer financing to help them cover the upfront cost of switching to clean energy. This latter innovative aspect is what attracted the Government to provide funding to us initially, as the cost is a well-known barrier to green home retrofit.
Why is this an urgent problem?
Unwittingly, staff are perpetuating future carbon emissions from their home every single week. This is because currently each year around 5-10% of staff are replacing their gas boiler with another one, for the simple reason that the existing one has broken down. Each new gas boiler has a probable shelf level of 15 years and on the basis that a boiler for an averagely sized home emits around 2.3 tonnes of emissions each year, this means that 3,450 tonnes of carbon dioxide are locked in for each 1,000 staff each year by the simple action of replacing one gas boiler with a new one.
What’s the impact of providing 1:1 guidance with a consultant?
One of the best things about the 1:1 staff consultations is that it provides staff with the metaphorical “handholding” service that they want: we are all good at living in our homes but most of us struggle when it comes to maintenance or going about making home improvements. The consultations are a quick way for staff to understand what’s possible for their home, deal with any misapprehensions (eg “I live in an old home so it’s not possible to switch to a heat pump”) and above all it quickly brings together all the different points you need to be able to take action.
What’s the impact of helping to finance the adoption of green retrofit at home?
Switching from a gas boiler to a heat pump instantly reduces a home’s carbon emissions by around 80%. However, for a typical home, a heat pump installation is around £1,500-£2,000 more expensive than a new gas boiler.
60% of householders in the UK have said that the upfront cost of switching to clean energy at home is holding them up from taking action (Source: Santander Bank Survey, April 2024).
By providing an interest-free loan of between £2,000-£5,000 or a combination of a loan and a grant, employers can make the switch to clean energy more affordable up front for staff and increase adoption rates by over 30%. Some remarkable organisations provide even larger amounts to staff: for example, Zurich Insurance provides up to £10,000 interest-free loans to support green retrofit at home.
What’s the relationship between reducing emissions at home and the huge positive impact the scheme can have on wellbeing at home?
One of the reasons large, well known employers – such as Schroders, Havas, Clear Bank and NHS Professionals – have chosen to adopt Heat Scheme is the positive impact we can have on staff wellbeing at home.
One of the biggest issues currently in the UK is that 44% of households rationed their heating last winter (source Santander Bank Survey, April 2024).
Too little heating at home can cause well-known problems including condensation, moisture and mould and more importantly can have a significantly adverse impact on the health of those living in the home, especially for those who are more vulnerable or susceptible to health problems.
Heat Scheme supports staff wellbeing at home in two ways. Beyond the home improvement assessments provided, the scheme supports staff in reducing their heating bills by up to 50% by switching to clean energy at home. These savings can be used to reduce costs and also to increase the temperature to which staff heat their home.
For further information about Heat Scheme, you can visit https://heatscheme.co.uk/ and contact [email protected]
