After many years working in the area of 'sustainable' buildings, it has become clear to me that one of the biggest obstacles to change is that most industry and tradespeople don't recommend products that will have a positive environmental outcome. There are many understandable reasons for this, such as a lack of knowledge about the products, the perceived risk of installing a new product or unwillingness to suggest an alternative to their customers for fear of losing the job.

The Neco Home and Commercial Assessment services and Trade Cash Back scheme provide a great opportunity to get the message out to industry and tradespeople that they are ideally placed to make a real difference and support them while they do. We are able to demonstrate that they can use off-the-shelf products that are cost competitive and will save their customers money at the same time as helping the environment – and all without compromising the outcome for their customer.

Geoff Milne