Winning the Debate

How do you create a building with low energy consumption?

Turn the heating off and wear a lot of jumpers? It’s a bit of a hard sell.

Natural Building Technologies (NBT) supplies building products made from natural materials.

Natural building materials.

The technology bit: how they work when they’re put together in a building.

The main point is that, if you build a building the right way, you don’t need as much energy to keep it warm.

The trouble was that when we were introduced to them, everybody wanted to incorporate things like
solar panels, heat pumps and wind turbines into their buildings.

Free electricity. If they made too much, they could sell it to the National Grid. Win win win win win.

And it’s techie. Creates magic electricity from the sun and the wind. Or makes heat from the ground or the air. Whizzo!

It’s called ‘renewable technology’. You see, tech. Miles more sexy than big, brown, building panels made from chopped up wood waste or insulation that’s hidden in your walls.

What did we have on our side:

A clever bloke who knew what’s what (the client) and loads of determination to make people listen.

Our campaign theme: ‘Fabric First’.

Consistent messages, high profile platforms, a client with the spirit of an evangelist.

Not just talking about buildings, talking about everything sustainable.

Greta might be the most famous, but she wasn’t the first.

We got a hearing, because we made sense, our arguments held up, our messages started to register.

Comment columns, opinion pieces, talking heads, round tables.

We talked about ‘U’ Values, Psi values, thermal bridging, moisture, energy, air-tightness, ventilation…

You name it, we covered it.

All – over – the – place.

It gathered momentum. Other ‘Fabric Firsters’ joined the debate.

The focus was shifting. And shifting. And bang!

Today, ‘Fabric First’ is universally accepted as the starting point for energy efficient buildings.

Thing is they look the same as any other building.

So, if you want to draw attention to your energy saving creds, stick a turbine on your roof.