About Us

Our mission is to provide the most cost-effective route to Net Zero for the UK’s homes.

Parity Projects uses data science, software and analysis to help its clients deliver energy efficiency efficiently, and effectively. We work with local authorities and landlords of every size to develop cost-effective retrofit programmes that meet their cost, comfort and carbon goals.

We are independent, working in partnership as necessary to meet our clients’ needs. To retain independence AND provide a joined-up service with trusted installers, Parity Projects is a member of RetrofitWorks.

Our Team

Our team is passionate about acting on the climate emergency, in a way that also makes homes healthier to live in and cheaper to run. We bring together experience from the building, finance, technical and policy sectors but we are also personally invested. Many of us have retrofitted our own homes, and some are involved in local community actions.

Equally we know that not everyone is able to act as an individual, which is why we want to help our clients bring every home up to the standards required by the 21st century.

Russell Smith

Parity Projects was founded in 2005 by Managing Director Russell Smith who was, at the time, planning a retrofit of his own home. Seeking advice he found it was either too generic or too biased. Understanding that every home is different, this experience set the principles for the business: independence, expertise and personalised service.

Chris Newman

Chris Newman leads our commercial development, ensuring our products and services offer what our clients need at the right price. His career started with ten years in the City, but pivoted to Parity Projects via a Masters degree at the Centre for Alternative Technology.  He is also a Non-Exec Director of Ecology Building Society and has undertaken a deep retrofit of his home.

David Shewan

David Shewan drives the development of our housing advice and analysis work. He originally trained as a geologist, but was inspired by his earth science background to abandon a career in petroleum exploration and act on climate change instead.  He joined Parity in 2008 and his particular interest is using analysis and technology to make the business case for retrofit work.

Megan Williams

Megan joined Parity Projects in 2012 after completing a MSc in Climate Change Management. She has a background in Environmental Science (BSc) and worked for the Electrical Contractors’ Association (ECA).  She brings a wealth of knowledge in low carbon government policy in buildings services, and experience in advising contractors on energy efficiency and environmental management.  Megan was the lead Project Manager in the set-up of the RetrofitWorks cooperative and leads implementation of project work.

Jo Coleman

Jo joined Parity in 2015 as an Energy Analyst after completing a degree in Ecology and Conservation at the University of Sussex, and now leads the analysis team delivering our Portfolio service. She has wealth of experience in designing analyses and providing retrofit advice for a range of housing associations, large or small!

Liz Lainé

Liz, our Business Development Manager, who identifies potential new applications of our services, using her experience leading sustainable energy policy advocacy for Citizens Advice, as a community energy champion, and her own experience of a renovation involving fabric, renewables and ventilation measures.

Josie Evetts

Josie is project managing the set-up of a new advice and installations service for householders, Ecofurb. She has worked in the environmental sector for 14 years in operational and project management roles, and is an Association of Project Management qualified project manager (APMP).

Keith Jackson

Keith has been working in the IT industry for over 20 years and is our Technical Architect, with a particular focus on emerging consumer-facing services. He is an expert in providing applicable solutions to technical problems using extensive experience from the key areas of software development; requirements analysis, code, testing and commercials.

Peter Griffin

Peter manages our Pathways team, supporting local authorities to model all the homes in their area to bid for funding, develop net zero strategy and target delivery of retrofit. Prior to joining Parity he completed a PhD, researching novel material structures for LED lighting. He has also worked in the House of Commons library as a policy researcher on environment issues.

Dafydd Cian

Dafydd is a Senior Energy Analyst who is driven by his passion for climate justice. Before joining Parity, he completed a master’s degree in physics, where he focussed on using his programming and mathematical modelling skills to conduct research in the fields of medicine and genetics. He also briefly interned as a data scientist at a renewable energy consultancy.

Philip James

Philip is a Senior Energy Analyst who joined us after 3+ years working in Nottingham with the council and social housing provider to deliver sustainable housing and energy supplies. Prior to this he worked as a researcher on CAT's Zero Carbon Britain project, and completed an engineering doctorate studying strategies for zero carbon homes.

Jamie-Louise Morrison

Jamie's passion for people and the planet led her to Parity where, as a Senior Energy Analyst, she enjoys helping housing associations and landlords deliver on their climate action plans and achieve real change. She has a degree in Environmental Science from UEA and worked for a large corporation as an analyst to identify catastrophe risk on properties across the world for reinsurance purposes.

Joe Cairns

Joe joined Parity Projects in 2022 as an Energy Analyst working primarily on our Portfolio service, where he combines his passion for sustainability and the environment with his background in data analysis to help clients achieve their decarbonisation targets. Before joining Parity Projects, Joe completed a PhD in Astrophysics, researching the formation and evolution of galaxies.

Georgie Burrows

Georgie is an Energy Analyst with a background in environmental sciences. Driven by the desire to reduce both emissions and bills across Britain's homes whilst improving living conditions, she works with local authorities, landlords and social housing providers to achieve these outcomes. Before Parity she worked for an energy supplier where she used data analysis to gain insights into domestic energy usage patterns.

Noah Upton

Noah’s interest in climate justice led him to joining Parity in 2022 as a Energy Analyst, helping our Portfolio clients reduce the environmental impact of their housing stock and improve living conditions for tenants. Prior to joining Parity, he studied Physics and Software Development, undertaking a project developing a tool for modelling renewable energy generation from weather forecasting data.

Jesal Pandya

Jesal joined Parity as a Junior Energy Analyst in 2022. He holds a Master's in Environmental Impact Assessment and Management with his dissertation focused on retrofitting in UK homes. He has also earned an undergraduate in Civil Engineering with Distinction from India. Jesal has always focused his academic work on understanding the reduction of carbon emissions in the built infrastructure and is also very conscious of his personal carbon footprint.

Michael Darling

Driven by the need to retrofit the UK's homes to achieve Net Zero, Michael joined us as an Energy Analyst in 2023. Working overseas for much of his career on a range of environmental and social projects, he has seen first-hand the effects of climate change on marginalised communities. He tries to keep his own carbon footprint as low as possible and lives off-grid on a narrowboat in London.

Thomas Lashbrooke

Thomas joined parity in 2023 to help tackle the UK's ageing housing stock and to work directly on combatting climate change. He has a background in Mechanical Engineering, business process automation and a passion for solving business problems with technology. As Business Development Executive, he assists clients with finding the best Parity solution for their housing problem. Outside of work you will often find him volunteering at his local climate charity Zero Carbon Guildford.

Your Questions Answered

How do we reduce the environmental impact of homes?

We help landlords, local authorities and others identify how to reduce the environmental impact of their homes. Do not get hung up on a single technology or a whizzy app – every home is unique. The biggest savings, for carbon and cost, often come from keeping heat in but it is worth taking a look at everything and see what works best for each home – we test 3000 options for each property, individually and in all relevant combinations.

Environmental improvements come from taking up recommendations that will:

  1. Reduce heat loss by improving insulation and plugging draughts.
  2. Improve air quality by installing extraction units in kitchen and bathrooms to remove moisture.
  3. Install smart heating controls so homes are heated only when it is needed.
  4. Add renewable sources of heat and electricity

Our software delivers Whole House Plans for our clients and we recommend the same for individual property-owners. An independent Retrofit Coordinator can take a Whole House Plan forward so that you have a full picture of the most cost-effective way to meet your goals, are able to shop around for the best local installers, and choose whether to undertake all measures at once, or over time, knowing the order in which they should be installed.

Why should landlords improve the energy efficiency of their homes?

We are in a climate emergency, as recognised by an increasing number of local authorities, and heat from housing is a significant contributor to the UK’s carbon emissions.

While targets remain uncertain, our social housing and private rental landlord clients are working now towards a minimum Band C by 2030, or more.

Their main motivation is to reduce regulatory risk, but other benefits are also claimed:

  • Reducing fuel bills cuts fuel poverty and improves tenant satisfaction
  • Lower fuel bills reduce turnover, void periods and rent arrears
  • Allows for better allocation of staff resource
  • Landlords with SAP 73-75 report costs 60% lower to those with SAP 66-68

How much does it cost to develop a retrofit strategy for housing?

Parity Projects service starts at £4,000 for landlords and local authorities and delivers not only a strategy but whole house plans for each of your properties.

Our workshops take you through strategic decisions on your objectives, opportunities and challenges and delivers a short report and our software populated with the relevant data so you can see what each home needs. You can then use that software for up to 12 months to refine your model and renew the licence to use our data analytics and manage and track the implementation of your strategy.

The final price for landlords is dependent on the number of properties, contact us for a quote and to find out more.

How do we include housing in action on the climate emergency?

Housing is central to addressing the climate emergency. It is responsible for 14 % of the UK’s emissions.

In declaring a climate emergency, local authorities need to consider the scope of their resultant action plans. Until there is national guidance, and potentially devolved responsibility, each local authority needs to determine its own scope.

The scope is often down to what is within the control of the local authority – it’s choices in energy provider, fleet choices, and procurement policies. Housing is a grey area – social housing may fall under direct control, or be arms-length; the private rental sector has responsibility to comply with minimum standards, but the local authority has few to no powers beyond this; and can it really make long-term plans for private housing?

We recommend inclusion of all homes. We cannot prepare in silos due to changes in tenure. Understand what is needed, what the barriers are, and what is needed from Central Government, and have the evidence to communicate it. More detailed planning and early action may be easier to develop in the social housing sector – indeed, many of our clients are already working up plans in response to local authority or Mayoral requests for information – but with our CROHM product you can cost-effectively understand the climate impact of housing across your area, from baseline performance, through the impact of current policies, to the full decarbonisation potential.

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