Name: Marc Brammer
Job title and brief description of your work: I am the Senior Retrofit Coordinator for the EcoCosi retrofit service. This means my role is to work with all the stakeholders in the process – householders, assessors, installers – to get the best possible result on time.
Tell us more about your background and how you came to work at Changeworks? For a long time I worked in the sustainable finance field working on research to help investors deal with climate change, bad labour practices and other societal and environmental problems. I then reached a cross-roads in my career when I moved to Scotland to get married.
I trained as a domestic energy assessor and started a solar PV and battery installation business. After seven years and bit of commercial success I realised that I wanted to have a bigger impact in this area and to do that I would need to work with a bigger team. So Changeworks seemed like an obvious choice given their extensive experience delivering for the social housing market.
Why is retrofit important to you?
I am a passionate practitioner for decarbonising the built environment. There are so many ways that we feel powerless to make real permanent change in our society, but retrofitting our homes is one way we can make a permanent, positive change. It’s one that has a win-win element to it because we are making better homes that are more comfortable and cheaper to operate, while at the same time permanently reducing their impact on the environment.
How would you describe your colleagues within EcoCosi and the skills they bring to the team?
My colleagues are enthusiastic, talented, smart and dedicated. We have such a wide range of skills in the team, from supply chain management to business systems and development. One thing that stands out to me is that everyone is a good communicator and we are all working towards the same objectives. I’m really excited by what we are building and I know my colleagues share this feeling.
Creating a warmer home, lowering energy bills and tackling the climate emergency are just some of the reasons to retrofit. What do you think is the best reason to be retrofitting homes in Scotland and why?
As the question indicates there isn’t just one best reason to retrofit your home. The best reason is the one that most fits the outcomes you want to see. We should, however, let people know that in order for Scotland to meet its commitment to climate change targets and ensure our children’s future, we need to be renovating tens of thousands of homes a year into low and zero carbon buildings and we are nowhere near that target.