Trust Housing Association is one of Scotland's largest housing, care and support providers, managing almost 4,000 homes across urban, rural and island communities. Over the past two years, Trust has made a significant contribution to decarbonising Scotland's built environment through large-scale retrofit, sustainable new build development, carbon reduction initiatives and the launch of its first Sustainability Strategy, A Greener Trust.

Between 2024 and 2026, Trust delivered over £6.6 million of ECO4-funded whole-house retrofit investment, upgrading 536 homes and improving every property to a minimum EPC Band B. The organisation has also continued to deliver highly energy-efficient new homes, with 100% of homes developed since 2022 achieving a minimum EPC Band B rating.

What makes Trust's approach distinctive is its commitment to delivering decarbonisation through a just transition. Alongside carbon reduction, projects are designed to reduce fuel poverty, lower household energy costs, improve customer wellbeing and strengthen communities. Through a combination of innovation, partnership working and customer-focused investment, Trust is demonstrating how social landlords can help lead Scotland's journey to net zero while ensuring that nobody is left behind

Prospecthill Court’s retrofit has transformed lives in Greenock. Ninety-one families now enjoy warmer, healthier homes with triple-glazed windows and improved insulation reducing drafts, condensation, and noise. Energy demand has fallen by 80%, cutting bills and easing fuel poverty.

Most importantly, all works were completed without residents leaving their homes, minimising disruption and maintaining community stability. This project shows how sustainable design can deliver comfort, dignity, and long-term savings for those who need it most.

Emily Braham has spent 18+ years driving the decarbonisation of the UK's housing stock, with a firm focus on unleashing true collaboration, embedding diversity and accelerating change through systems thinking. Her career spans delivering retrofit at neighbourhood scale, to building the market infrastructure needed to scale it regionally, to leading a cross-industry alliance designed to accelerate change.

At Nottingham City Homes, as Head of Sustainable Energy, she led hands-on delivery – making cross-tenure retrofit at scale a reality. At Energiesprong UK (ESUK), as Director of Strategy and Operations, she moved into market development, building multi-stakeholder partnerships to deliver innovative retrofit programmes. And as the driving force behind Transform-ER - now a CIC where she serves as CEO - she has taken that learning into a genuinely new delivery model: an alliancing approach designed to deliver retrofit at scale, speed and quality.

She has had tangible impact on the retrofit sector with her rare end-to-end view of what decarbonising homes at pace actually requires: tackling technical delivery, business case, supply chain, resident experience and policy together, rather than in silos. She’s helping build a thriving retrofit ecosystem that makes that joined-up approach the default.