Retrofit
Improving homes that already exist.
Focus — Housing, Materials & the Built Environment — Green and energy-efficient homes
GREEN AND ENERGY-EFFICIENT HOMES
IDEAS WE SUPPORT.
World Seed Fund supports people whose ideas improve how much homes cost to run and how they feel to live in for the households paying the bills and living with the heat or cold.
Why this area
GREEN AND ENERGY-EFFICIENT HOMES
IN CONTEXT.
Efficiency is felt in a household's monthly costs and in whether the house is bearable in heat or cold. Ideas qualify when the saving is measured, not modelled.
Scope of the area
WHAT THIS AREA
INCLUDES.
Illustrations of scope, not a fixed list. If your idea belongs here but is not described below, introduce it anyway.
Passive design
Comfort achieved without running cost.
Efficient systems
Cooking, lighting, cooling, and water heating.
Indoor environment
Air quality, damp, and heat inside the home.
Criteria to qualify
WHAT A GREEN AND ENERGY-EFFICIENT HOMES
IDEA MUST SHOW.
All five criteria apply. An idea does not need to be complete or proven — it needs to be specific enough that we can judge it, and grounded enough that a next step is possible.
A defined problem, in a defined place
We need to understand exactly who is affected, where, and how they cope today. General statements about a global challenge are not enough to qualify.
- Names the place, community, or system where how much homes cost to run and how they feel to live in fall short.
- States the situation today in plain terms — energy used, indoor temperature, monthly cost, or health complaints.
- Explains what the households paying the bills and living with the heat or cold do now, and what it costs them.
Human insight behind the idea
The idea should come from knowledge of the situation — technical, scientific, operational, cultural, or lived — rather than from an assumption about it.
- Draws on direct knowledge of how much homes cost to run and how they feel to live in in that place.
- Accounts for why earlier efficiency retrofit programmes did not hold here.
- Was shaped with the households paying the bills and living with the heat or cold, not only for them.
A credible next step
There must be a specific thing that can be attempted next, at a scale that can be observed honestly, with a stated way of judging whether it worked.
- A defined pilot with a stated size — homes retrofitted or built in a first phase.
- A stated measure of success — energy used, indoor temperature, monthly cost, or health complaints.
- A timeframe within which the result can be judged honestly.
Value for people and place
The benefit should be meaningful to the community or system the idea serves, and describable in terms they would recognise.
- Improves running cost, comfort, and health for the households paying the bills and living with the heat or cold.
- The benefit is described in words the community itself would use.
- Does not shift cost, risk, or harm onto neighbouring people or systems.
A path to keep working
Ideas qualify when someone can plausibly own, operate, fund, and repair the result after the first phase of support ends.
- A named housing provider, cooperative, or installer able to carry the work after the first phase.
- Running costs, materials, and skills obtainable near the work.
- Ownership, permission, or agreement that lets the work continue.
Evidence & boundaries
WHAT HELPS,
AND WHAT DOES NOT.
Evidence can be modest. A careful account of a small trial is worth more than a projection.
Evidence we look for
- Any observation, record, or measurement of how much homes cost to run and how they feel to live in in that place.
- Costs, materials, or time recorded from a small trial, however modest.
- Notes, letters, or agreements from the households paying the bills and living with the heat or cold or the housing provider, cooperative, or installer.
Usually outside this area
- Broad proposals about green and energy-efficient homes with no named place and no named people.
- Equipment or funding requests with no operator and no running cost.
- Work that transfers cost, risk, or harm to neighbouring people or systems.
Submit an idea
INTRODUCE YOUR
GREEN AND ENERGY-EFFICIENT HOMES IDEA.
There is no application window and no required format. Answer these four questions in your own words and we will read them.
Who is affected, where, and how do they manage today?
What do you know about how much homes cost to run and how they feel to live in that others working on it may not?
What could you attempt next, and how would you judge whether it worked?
Who continues the work afterwards, and what keeps it running?
Human potential is everywhere. Opportunity should be too.