Green Home Systems (GHS), members of Ayrshire Chamber of Commerce, are the National Winners of the Planet Saver award at the Chamber Business Awards 2023. 

Sustainability is at the heart of GHS. Its core business strategy and raison d’etre is to reduce customers’ energy use and lift families out of fuel poverty while reducing greenhouse gas emissions. 

This is demonstrated through its vision to create a carbon-free world, and through its mission to eradicate fuel poverty and end climate change, by making homes energy efficient and carbon neutral.  

GHS achieves this by creating warm, happy, and healthy homes, and its impact is wide-reaching. To date GHS has installed over 16,500 energy efficiency measures, lifted over 7,000 families out of fuel poverty, and abated over 500,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions. 

GHS’s motto is “save energy, save money, save the planet”. Their staff are passionate about delivering this, and their work is guided by their commitment to core values, which create a purpose-driven culture and sustainable best practice. 

• Service Excellence: GHS spares no effort in providing outstanding levels of service, delivering to plan and on time with quality assured. It maintains a complete knowledge of low-carbon construction through understanding, learning and attention to detail. Its projects involve a wide range of technical skills, and its accreditations show that it operates to the top industry standards, including PAS2030 and ISO14001. 

• Technical Brilliance: GHS recognizes the importance of developing a long-term, sustainable workforce to operate to the highest standards. Investment in people is important and GHS understands the value of training, upskilling and CPD. Through its Green Home Skills Academy, it provides routes into the green economy for new entrants, as well as upskilling pathways to ensure that staff receive tailored training solutions to meet their own development needs. 

• Low Carbon First: GHS prioritise low carbon solutions in everything it does. The primary components in its insulation systems are manufactured using 80% recycled post-consumer glass cullet, and GHS is committed to continuing to advance the use of circular materials within the construction industry. By choosing to install recycled materials, GHS can create high-performance housing with the minimum of environmental impact. 

In 2023, GHS completed an energy efficiency project trial for fuel-poor households located throughout Scotland. Each property had a complete retrofit boost with an air-source heat pump and a solar Photovoltaic (PV) system installed, alongside insulation upgrades. The project was funded with government ECO4 grants at no cost to the households.  

The resulting reduction in annual utility bills was £2,079 per household, and each home now has a top EPC rating of A or B, and a total of 120 tonnes of CO2 was abated. The project has since unlocked £25m of grant funding, to be spent over the next 12 months, which is being delivered by GHS. 

GHS is well-positioned to capitalise on the opportunities in the green economy as the UK transitions to net zero. Despite facing significant challenges throughout the pandemic years, it is now back on track to scale up and become the country’s leading energy efficiency business, and is a worthy winner of the Planet Saver category at the Chamber Business Awards.