In Birmingham, BwB’s Rufus Grantham spoke at the Retrofit Reimagined Festival on the panel “Retrofit Reimagined: Systemic Challenges & Opportunities - The Finance Question”.
“Retrofit Reimagined was a great example of how powerful community action can be and how deeply communities care about the places that they live and the energy systems that support them,” Rufus Grantham shared. “There is clear demand to engage with the kind of systemic neighbourhood funding approach we have been championing with the Cities Commission on Climate Investment”.
Co-panelists included Rebecca Lane (West Midlands Combined Authority), Melissa Mean (We Can Make), Indy Johar (Dark Matter Labs), and moderator Daniel Hill (Dark Matter Labs).
The 3-day festival was organised by CIVIC SQUARE and explored all elements of retrofitting homes for the future. This included discussions on the links between homes and physical and mental health, how the impact of poor-quality housing continues to lead to inequality in our society, as well as the broader place of the home as a strategic site for decarbonisation. ️
The overarching message was that the home is the nexus where energy, health, racial and climate justice are inextricably linked, and we should use the opportunity offered by the current energy crisis to adopt a courageous interconnected approach to retrofitting our homes, streets and neighbourhoods.
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