United House and SEA scoop Gold at Ashden Awards for ‘revolutionary’ interior wall insulation system

13/07/2023

A collaboration between United House and the Sustainable Energy Academy was announced last night (Thursday 20 June) as winner of the Ashden 2013 UK Gold Award for its WHISCERS™ internal wall insulation process. The partnership was commended by the Ashden judges for its revolutionary low-mess, low-cost insulation process which can insulate homes in a matter of hours, reducing fuel bills by up to 40%.

The Awards were presented by co-founder of Forum for the Future Jonathon Porritt at a prestigious ceremony at the Royal Geographical Society in London, hosted by broadcaster and cultural commentator Emma Freud.

United House and the Sustainable Energy Academy were recognised for the safe, low-mess interior wall installation process they have developed which is breaking down the barriers to insulating the 7 million solid-walled homes in the UK. The process uses laser scanning to measure the internal dimensions of a property, offsite cutting of insulation board, and installation with the residents remaining in their homes. WHISCERS™ reduces costs by around 25% and avoids the need to decant residents, while fuel bills are cut by up to 40% and carbon emissions by 77%.

Jeffrey Adams, Group Chief Executive of United House, said: “Fresh, green thinking is at the heart of all we do at United House and it’s a true testament to our hard work alongside the SEA that WHISCERS™ has been recognised by Ashden. We are at the forefront of sustainable refurbishment and we want to use our expertise to help the social housing sector to reduce the carbon footprint of its current stock, whilst alleviating the severe fuel poverty that many thousands of people find themselves in nowadays in the UK.”

John Doggart, Chairman of the Sustainable Energy Academy said: “The Sustainable Energy Academy with United House is delighted to have won an Ashden Award. This is the second time SEA has won an Ashden Award, a great honour in itself, and we have also found the Award helps us massively to reach opinion formers and key players, whose buy-in is so critical to successfully insulating the 7 million solid wall properties in the UK.”

The Ashden Awards were set up in 2001 to champion practical, local energy solutions that cut carbon, protect the environment, reduce poverty and improve people’s lives. Since then we have rewarded and supported more than 140 winners across the UK and the developing world. Ashden’s Patron is HRH The Prince of Wales. Find out more at www.ashden.org