Retrofit Balsall Heath has a vision to cut people’s fuel bills AND make homes warmer. We would love to share with you what we have achieved in one year alone. 

Open Day Friday 30th June 2-6pm

Supper and Speaker Event 6-9pm

Zero Carbon House, 103 Tindal St, Balsall Heath, B12 9QU and other venues

We warmly invite you to a celebration open day followed by a free community supper and talks from a panel of incredible pioneering speakers. All free, all welcome.

Speakers

Rupert Read

Rupert is an Associate Professor of Philosophy at the University of East Anglia in Norwich, UK, former spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion and co-director of the new Climate Majority Project. He authored several books, including This Civilisation is Finished, Parents for a Future and Why Climate Breakdown Matters and has been many times on the Today programme, Question Time, Newsnight, Politics Live, Al Jazeera, and more.

The Climate Majority Project launches on 29 June, the day before our event, so his talk will be very topical. The Climate Majority Project’s open letter “Time’s Up” is signed by several people with links here, Fazlun Khalid (founder, IFEES Islamic Foundation for Ecology and Environmental Sciences), Kate Raworth (author, ‘Doughnut Economics’), as well as well-known people including Chris Packham (BBC presenter), Mike Berners-Lee (author, ’There is no planet B’).

Sara Edmonds

Sara is an architect and activist, Head of Citizen Engagement at Built Environment – Smarter Transformation, whose mission is to accelerate the built environment’s transition to zero carbon emissions. She is director of Studio seARCH, a consultancy that advocates for systemic change around low carbon domestic retrofit and co-founded Home Energy Action Lab (HEAL), a framework test bed for community based domestic retrofit services. She also hosts the Accelerate to Zero Podcast. For the last 3 years she has been a coordinator at the Architects Climate Action Network, an organisation formed to empower individuals within architecture and related built environment professions taking action to address the twin crises of climate and ecological breakdown. 

Sara has just been appointed Co-Director of the National Retrofit Hub.  This is a new non-profit programme, hosted by the Sustainable Development Foundation, working collaboratively across the retrofit sector. The Hub launched on 1 March, 2023, to enable the local delivery of UK housing retrofit at scale.

Kamran Shezad

Kamran is based at the Bahu Trust in Balsall Heath.  He’s a qualified environmental professional with practical field and managerial experience in the sustainable development sector. He is a strong advocate of using faith-inspired approaches in promoting the message of environment and guiding behavioural change. Kamran is a grassroots environmental activist and social justice campaigner, he has worked with a diverse range of community and faith groups and has produced toolkits, practical guides and mobilised communities for climate action.

Kamran holds a Master’s degree in Environmental Sustainability (Strategy & Management), he has been awarded Chartered Environmentalist status by the Society for the Environment and is a full member of the Institute for Environmental Management and Assessment. Kamran served on the Civil Society & Youth Advisory Council to the Presidency of COP26, he is an advisor to the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and has recently been appointed to the Multi-Faith Advisory Council to the United Nations Interagency Task Force on Religion and Sustainable Development (UN IATF). Twitter: @climatekam 

Travel

Please try not to travel by car. If you can, please use public transport – for zerocarbonhouse and Al Abbas Islamic Centre, the number 50 bus stops at junction with Clifton Rd on Moseley Rd/A435, 20 mins ride out of Birmingham City Centre; for Saheli Hub, the number 45 or 49 bus stops at the junction with Edward Rd on Pershore Rd/A41 – or use active transport: walk or cycle.

All events will be free, and all are welcome! 

All are warmly invited to RETROFIT REIMAGINED mini-festival in Birmingham, 13-16 July! 

zero carbon house is collaborating with: Civic Square, New Economics Foundation, Dark Matter Labs, Architects Climate Action Network ACAN  and a galaxy of Retrofit stars to explore the question:

“What if the climate transition and retrofit of our homes and streets were designed, owned and governed by the people who live there?” 

Retrofitting means proper insulation to walls, floors, roofs; new windows and doors; ventilation with heat recovery, heat pumps, solar panels etc. The different measures will vary as every house is different. 

zero carbon house is proud to be UK’s first zero carbon retrofit, now 13 years old.  But by now there should be millions of others too….

Our old leaky homes seem to be the forgotten Cinderella, haemorrhaging massive amounts of heat. It’s really important these homes – and the people who live in them – are not left behind.  People’s physical and mental health is badly affected by poor housing with mould, damp, condensation – and massive fuel bills.

Retrofitting our old homes properly, carefully, and to really high standards, we can make dramatic savings, with huge benefits to people’s lives. 

We’re using so much energy now that, as David Attenborough, the UN and others have shown, we’re destroying a liveable planet.  Our homes generate a massive chunk of CO2, and at the same time push people into fuel poverty.

But cutting home energy use (by 80%+) we can help those most in need, cut bills, improve people’s health and well-being, create high skilled local jobs, and help the planet at the same time. 

Come along to the festival find out more…

The first day of RETROFIT REIMAGINED is at zero carbon house 

103 Tindal Street, Birmingham B12 9QU. 

10 minute cycle from Birmingham city centre, or 20 minutes on No.50 bus. 

Wednesday 13 July, 10am-6pm. 

Free admission.

Child-friendly. 

Ground floor wheelchair access. 

Accessible wc. 

Activities, presentations, displays, talks. 

All are welcome, but places are limited.

Please sign up here: zerocarbonhouse open day registration form

We won’t be holding an open day in the usual format in 2017.

We are, however, happy to show people around our home if we can find a mutually convenient time.

Do get in touch and tell us why you want to visit and the size of your group. We can then discuss the dates and times that would be suitable.

Please remember this is a private family home with no government funding, but we will try to accommodate visits when we can.