The National Retrofit Hub, which is hosted by the Sustainable Development Foundation in its development phase, has this summer welcomed Rachael Owens and Sara Edmonds as co-directors to lead the team and further its progress towards enabling the delivery of housing retrofit at scale in the UK.
Rachael and Sara bring a fantastic set of skills and knowledge to the Hub with a wealth of retrofit experience. Both are experienced architects who have actively collaborated to improve climate literacy and collective action in the drive to decarbonise the built environment. The job-sharing arrangement puts into practice the Hub’s commitment to inclusive working environments, and enables them both to continue with the important work they are already doing in the retrofit sector. Rachael maintains her role as Head of Sustainability at Buckley Gray Yeoman and Sara maintains her role as Head of Citizen Engagement at Built Environment – Smarter Transformation (both on a part-time basis).
In a joint statement, Rachael and Sara comment on their appointment:
“We both feel passionately that the hub should support and uplift the action that is already being taken towards retrofit at scale, rather than duplicating work. The hub will be an approachable space for collective engagement. We cannot wait to speak more with the people embedding retrofit within their activities and hope to facilitate clearer routes for the work that needs doing.
The Hub has the potential to build trust across the industry and beyond, creating a shared, co-written consensus of how to tackle retrofit at every scale and level.”
Discover more about the work of the National Retrofit Hub, including its working groups and knowledge hub, at nationalretrofithub.org.uk.