Getting started – some reading and inspiration

In November last year I went to a conference put on by Changeworks and Edinburgh World Heritage on how old buildings could be adapted to use less energy. Howard Liddell of Gaia Architects gave a searing talk and promoted his book ‘Eco-minimalism’ as well as David MacKay’s book ‘Sustainable Energy, without the hot air’ (available free at his site). They are both good reading – David’s being exhaustive and authoritative but, as the title implies, straight talking also. Both Howard and David (who recounts some of his own experience with his own house in Oxfordshire) push three messages very hard – one, that there is quite a lot we can do as individuals to consume less, two that our own houses do matter, as housing produces a large proportion of carbon emissions and three that it is the simple things like stopping draughts and heat-loss, rather than the expensive gadgets that Howard calls eco-bling that can make the most difference.