What is ‘ECO’?

The Energy Company Obligation (ECO) is a new programme designed to reduce Britain’s energy consumption by funding home improvements worth around £1.3 billion every year.

Although the ECO will be a wholly new scheme, with a different scope and set of priorities to CERT and CESP, it does share the same basic underlying mechanic – that being to require energy companies to meet targets through actions to encourage energy efficiency.

Working in conjunction with the Green Deal, this funding support is being targeted at specific households (eg. the poorest and most vulnerable) and those types of property (i.e. more expensive to treat properties such as of three storeys or more or requiring remedial works prior to fitment of cavity wall insulation).

There are three key elements to ECO for the UK’s big energy suppliers:

  • Affordable Warmth Obligation
  • Carbon Saving Obligation
  • Carbon Saving Communities Obligation

ECO funding is delivered to customers either directly from the supplier or by organisations working together, who have made special arrangements, such as Green Deal Providers.