Training and events
Upcoming events
Retrofit Finance Workshop
25th February 2025
Showroom Cafe, Paternoster Row, S1 2BX
Welcome to our workshop where we'll explore existing and potential financing options for home retrofit projects.
Domestic energy contributes 39% of Sheffield’s total energy use- a huge contributor to climate change. With over 70% of South Yorkshire's homes built before 1980 and many being energy inefficient, there is an urgent need to retrofit our existing housing stock to create warmer, healthier and more energy efficient homes. However, we know that finance is a barrier for many people to getting retrofit work done.
This event is suitable for homeowners, policy makers and advocates, financial services professionals and community stakeholders.
We will explore new types of finance suggested by community stakeholders as well as ideas that have been trialled elsewhere. These include existing government and industry grants as well as ideas for financial incentives and tax opportunities, modified mortgage and soft loan products. We hope to develop proposals for new financial products, policy ideas to advocate for and ways of increasing awareness and uptake of existing offers.
Free light buffet and refreshments.
Note: while we know that retrofit of social housing and private rented accommodation is also vital, the focus of this workshop will be on owner- occupiers.
Past events
Workshops on home energy and retrofit for residents
SY Ecofit and collaborators ran two inspiring events in January 2025 focused on home energy efficiency and retrofit solutions. These events empowered local residents with practical knowledge and ideas to make their homes cosier and more energy efficient while reducing carbon footprints- from simple first steps to whole house approaches.
Sharrow and Nether Edge Cosy Homes Workshop with NEA
When: 20th January 2025, 5:30–7:30 PM
Where: Sharrow Community Forum, South View Road
Join us for an engaging evening designed for Sharrow and Nether Edge residents. Hosted in collaboration with fuel poverty charity National Energy Action, this event will include interactive activities, presentations, and stalls on key topics such as insulation, draft-proofing, solar energy, and heat pumps. Delicious food provided! Walk-ins welcome, but booking below helps us with planning.
FutureFit Homes Workshop with Grove Road Environmental Group
When: 25th January 2025, 10:15- 12:30am
Where: Holy Trinity Parish Hall, Grove Road
This workshop, in collaboration with the Grove Road Environmental Group, with Nick Parsons Sustainable Building and IMS Heat Pumps features presentations and interactive mini-workshops, plus a chance to learn from the experiences of people in your area who have taken energy reduction measures in their own homes.
How can we make our homes warmer and more environmentally friendly?
Monday 4th November, 6-7:30pm, Central United Reform Church, Norfolk Street, Sheffield.
According to South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, domestic energy contributes 39% of Sheffield’s total energy use- a huge contributor to climate change. In this workshop SY Ecofit introduced the concept of 'whole house retrofit', and practical ways to make homes warmer, cosier, and more eco-friendly this winter. We also have an interactive idea generation session, developing lots of ways to enable more people to make their homes more energy efficient and overcome some of the common barriers. We’ll be prototyping selected ideas over the next few months so your input can contribute to real change!
If you couldn’t make the date but are interested in being involved in exploring ways to engage more people on home energy efficiency and retrofit, drop Helen an email on helen.todd@ecofit.uk.
Penistone: Cosier, more eco-friendly homes for winter
Pop-up at All Is Good, Sunday 20th Oct 10-4pm
The Ecofit team hosted a drip in, where people could chat about their home energy, get some tips and information about energy efficiency and retrofit
measures, and learn how we can help.
Event at St John’s Community Centre Hall
Monday 28 October 6-7:30pm
At this interactive workshop, participants learned about the concept of whole house retrofit, and ideas about what they can do to make their home energy efficient. They also shared their current experiences warming their homes, and developed ideas to enable people in Penistone to make their homes more energy efficient.
Retrofitting Sheffield: a people based approach
In October 2024 we hosted an event at Rider Levett Bucknall UK Ltd, Sheffield City Centre to share learnings from our field research with housing associations, contractors and training providers which had been funded by the government’s Department of Energy Security and Net Zero.
Enabling people to work together for common goals in busy lives and challenging economic times is a challenge that our speakers and guests shared and one that we have been working on through the development of a Skills Task Force.
Speakers from SY Ecofit, Rider Levett Bucknall and South Yorkshire Housing Association discussed progress within our region relating to retrofitting and how we can work together to fill gaps - and there was a LOT of networking.
The role of natural materials in retrofit of traditional buildings
Wednesday, 2nd October, 10am-2pm at Whiteley woods OAC.
Simon Hollis shared many fascinating insights into how moisture moves (or gets trapped!) within the fabric of traditionally constructed buildings. We particularly enjoyed the practical examples and photographs from Simon's own professional damp surveying experience.
A large proportion of UK houses suffer from damp-related issues (often unwittingly created by us!). Crucially, building defects like this must also be resolved before retrofit work can take place.
Following some lively networking and a spot of lunch, Simon took us on a journey into the history of the Whiteley Woods Estate and gave us a tour of a heritage cottage that had undergone extensive renovation work using natural/breathable materials.
This event was kindly sponsored by Architects Climate Action Network (ACAN) and held at the amazing Whiteley Woods Outdoor Activity Centre in Sheffield.
Rethinking retrofit- communities, construction and you
SY Ecofit at Festival of Debate, May 2024
To retrofit our homes and achieve net zero, we need to deliver at scale and pace. This event involved a lively discussion on how we can engage communities and the construction industry in: rethinking our relationship to the house and integrating retrofit, developing a community-led approach to retrofit, changing the nature of the construction industry, building local skills and developing a circular economy.
The event also included interactive visual elements where participants shared their perspectives on some of the enablers and barriers to retrofit, what inspired them and what they would like to see in South Yorkshire.
About the panel:
Hafsa Omar is the Training Manager at People Powered Retrofit, a not-for-profit based in Manchester offering clear, independent advice and support to help householders plan, procure and deliver their retrofit projects to a high standard. With over 10 years in the education sector and 4 years in supply chain management, Hafsa has extensive experience in skills gap analysis and building and engaging supply networks. She has experience of projects in the private, public and third sector focusing on engagement strategies for a wide range of diverse and underrepresented communities. Not only has she developed these strategies, she’s also played a key part in implementing them and has experience of what works in practice.
Alice Grant is an architect specialising in conservation retrofit at a neighbourhood scale. She is dedicated to developing archetypal solutions and teaching retrofit skills. Currently, she is engaged in Conservation Retrofit projects focused on addressing fuel poverty and energy concerns at the charity Nottingham Energy Partnership. She is the architectural lead for Nottingham Energy Partnership’s Green Meadows project, focused on the strategic retrofit of the Old Meadows Conservation Area- producing tailored retrofit plans and an open source archetype retrofit study. Alice is also an architect at UK Hempcrete’s design practice, Studio Bio, and a board member of Sheffield Community Land Trust.
Eleanor Radcliffe is a Senior Researcher at the Centre for Local Economic Strategies, conducting consultancy, research and policy work to implement community wealth building approaches to local economic development. Her work has, among other things, focussed on how energy transition can be used as a catalyst for greater economic democracy – ensuring wealth generated by, and investment driven into, transition activity is retained for the benefit of local people and places.
Workshop on air and windtight structures- 18th April ‘24
This workshop, delivered by ParteL (www.partel.co.uk) in collaboration with SY Ecofit, offered a hands-on learning experience about creating structures that are air and windtight.
During this in-person event, participants had the opportunity to interact with industry experts, ask questions, and gain practical knowledge that they can apply to their projects.
Building a future together: retrofit implementation- 23rd February ‘24
This stakeholder engagement event brought together around 60 people working on retrofit implementation including architects, consultants, installers, and involved public sector staff. The event was focused on a consensus building process, based on the question ‘What are practical ways we can work together to grow
and serve the market for retrofit in South Yorkshire?’.
The event report is available here.