10:29am Friday 4th December 2009
TWO weeks ago, I offered this column to the bidder of the highest donation to Children in Need. Not that the winner had to write it – (perhaps another year for that one?) but that he or she could choose the topic.
I can announce the winner is Mark Austin, the marketing director of Hazlemere Windows, a family business, currently celebrating its 25th anniversary as a local, independent manufacturer and supplier of windows and conservatories; and independent and local are both good in my book!
Mark is known to many as ‘Marky Sparky’ and I discover he and I have many things in common. He too is a ‘failed manager of the Universe’ (his own words) – he has daughters of a similar age to mine, has three cats and presumably a fondness for Wycombe Wanderers, having once worked in their sales and marketing department. He has a passion for energy conservation. I am only able to demonstrate this by going round turning the lights off and central heating down; Mark does much more. Anyone wishing to reduce their energy consumption should take a look at http://www.hazlemere.co.uk/blog/category/ savingenergy where, for instance, there are details of the campaign to introduce a national window scrappage scheme, recommending a grant of £1,000 to encourage homeowners to replace energy inefficient glazing with environmentally-friendly windows.
Home heating costs can be dramatically reduced by good loft insulation and the filling of wall cavities, which attract grant aid, but the expense of appropriate double glazing still makes it difficult for some homeowners to consider. A similar single glazing scrappage incentive from central government could result in considerable savings in fossil fuel depletion, emissions and waste, offering immediate potential savings of 10 per cent as a result of this initiative alone.
As a school governor, I am aware that most schools have massive areas of ageing, single glazing which must be costing the Education budget millions of pounds nationally, while adding to carbon emissions. Capital expenditure budgets in education are currently minuscule, but replacing these windows would pay for itself in a comparatively short time in terms of the legacy we leave just the next generation, let alone those after. It’s a no-brainer, so why don’t they do it?
Thanks ‘Marky Sparky’ and Hazlemere Windows for prompting me to visit this topic! I’m just off to turn the landing light off and my daughter’s CD player. Well, it’s a start!
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