Scottish officials this week announced they will be offering a £1 million pound annual prize to encourage innovative new ways to improve home energy efficiency.

Applications for the Scottish Energy Efficiency Design Awards will be accepted starting in April.

“We already have a range of greener policies in place which, by helping individuals, communities and businesses live and work more sustainably will stand us in good stead,” said Minister for the Environment Michael Russell upon announcing the new awards. “However, we appreciate that more needs to be done. That includes improving the existing housing stock, particularly older properties.”

While Scotland sets strict efficiency standards for new buildings, it has many older homes that are considered difficult to improve. One estimate puts the figure of older, inefficient structures at about 28 percent of the total of 650,000 houses.

“Tackling energy efficiency in our existing homes will be critical if we are to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and help reduce the size of people’s energy bills,” said Maf Smith, Director of the Sustainable Development Commission Scotland. “However, it’s well known that many of Scotland’s older homes are hard to heat and measures to improve them complex or expensive. Action by the Scottish Government to look at this problem and encourage better solutions is therefore very welcome.”

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