Supply chain dynamics in the UK construction industry and their impact on energy consumption in homes

Panel: 3. Local action

This is a peer-reviewed paper.

Authors:
Alice Owen, Sustainability Research Institute, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, United Kingdom
Elizabeth Morgan, Sustainability Research Institute, United Kingdom
Gavin Killip, Environmental Change Institute

Abstract

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) are particularly important in the delivery of repair, maintenance and improvement (RMI) activity, especially in privately owned housing. The RMI market provides multiple opportunities for integration of energy efficiency improvements, and SMEs could have the scale and reach to influence energy demand at scale, through influencing the myriad individual decisions that are needed for each building project. This paper offers a contribution towards understanding why that potential is not being achieved and how a different perspective on the supply chains for renovation may offer ideas for changes in policy and practice to unlock that potential.

The paper sets out key aspects of how SMEs operate within their own networks and limitations to prepare the ground for a different analysis of the RMI system that could deliver energy retrofit in housing. The supply chain that supports SME RMI activity includes material design and supply, retail – including wholesale and merchants, training, maintenance and warranties/aftercare. There is also a strong local dimension to how the supply chain for renovation operates, encompassing both local policy or incentives, collaborative networks enfolding the SMEs and technical /design constraints and opportunities. By using the idea of a potential “co-evolving” set of systems, we offer a way of identifying new linkages and influences that might change the energy efficiency outcomes of refurbishment works.

Ideas for how the existing supply chain could be updated and amended include: How might product-service offerings to construction SMEs be changed to increase the likelihood of their adoption? What skills and capacities need to be developed at what points in the supply chain? What appear to be the most effective channels to share information about innovation? How might the perceived risks, and costs, of early adoption of innovations be reduced?