Insulate Against The 'Greenlash'
First let's establish the facts. Widespread disgust is going to erupt now the full scale of the 'bad actors' in insulation have been called out by government.
Low quality, sub par insulation work, paid for by the public purse is bad news.
It's bad news for the efforts of good quality insulation companies, retrofit companies, the government GBIS scheme but most importantly - the home owners affected.
The ripples of this will be acres of sensational, poor quality journalism, grounded in opinion writing. Be prepared for noisy, angry indignant keyboard warriors, many who won't be affected, using the scandal to justify anti net zero rhetoric.
The report issued by government lands blame squarely against installers and aims to ensure repairs are shouldered by those companies.
Department for Energy Security and Net Zero
Why Net Zero Is Bad
The headlines from the insulation scandal will go away. But the feeling for many Britons remains.
Confidence in efforts to harness public support for net zero policies are already in trouble.
The Social Market Foundation report issued in January 2025 stated that although the public supports net zero policies they don't support how they are being implemented.
Niamh O Regan
So what can be done to counteract this next wave of disinformation and negative coverage?
Keep Calm - Use Facts As Your Shield and Emotion As Your Sword
If you are in retrofit then your livelihood is at stake. Government inertia has meant there is not enough positive messaging about retrofit and clean energy. So you need an aide memoire of action.
Inspiration can come from strange places.
Instead of falling prey to the easy position of a polarised social media onslaught. Do this.
Go Local IRL
Wherever your business is, get moving on an in person, In Real Life (IRL) campaign to meet the people you are supporting. Listen to their grievances, concerns and needs. And then write down the lessons learned and publicise them. Over. And over again.
Do case studies of success, but do not shy away from admitting points of failure. Just tell people what your doing to improve.
Identify PITA Characters
If you are on social media channels. Your social media managers need to be aware of PITA people (pains in the arse).
Here's an important point - of you are not producing content which is filling the vacuum of information on that particular channel, close your profile down.
Don't be on X, there's no audience to win over on Facebook, even Instagram is a dumpster fire.
PITA characters are noisy trolls who want to distract people from the good work you do. Here's how you neutralise their behaviour.
Make content consistently which uses real people talking about their experience. It is very hard to argue with someone's lived experience.
Use Less Force
If you challenge people they will resist. It's a fact. Nobody likes reliving the Parent -Adult-Child (PAC) relationship by being scolded for doing something wrong. Work on people slowly using listening skills and the deadliest weapon in your armoury. Humour.
@viral.video591 Key and Peele S5 E10 🥸#keyandpeele #funny #viralvideo #tiktok #fypシ #fypシ゚viral
♬ original sound - Viral Video - Viral Video
You can gently encourage anyone to see the point of view your trying them to see by making them laugh first.
Once you made them smile then hit them with high value content.
High Value Content
Content you should be using to persuade your waivering audience can be sourced from credible, authoritative, fact based sources.
The Centre for Sustainable Energy, Citizens Advice, Which, The National Energy Foundation, The Renewable Heating Hub, The MCS Foundation all produce great work which you could embed adapt and most importantly link to on your website and social channels.
Oh and this magazine too!
The reason why this content is going to be gaining in value, is that AI generated, low value content is being targeted by the GA4 algorithmn, and you don't want that.
Get Market Intelligence - Then Use It
There are organisations like CAB and the Social Market Foundation which are gifting you the opportunity to create excellent informational content that both informs and influences your audience.
Oxford University and other academic institutions are actively funding research into why retrofit is getting friction.
Don't parrot their papers, use the information to create content which is fun, fact based and then linked out to their high value academic pages by URL that will score highly in search engine and AI based enquiries.
Build Networks - Champion The Brave
It might seem counterintuitive, but your commercial competitors are your friends. Linking to their social profiles and repost the posts of your competitors, it creates a network of authority which is essential to counter the tranche of anti net zero keyboard warriors.
Find the voices of authority like Sara Edmonds and Rachel Owens at the National Retrofit Hub. Repost their content. Every single day.
Act Now
If you act like a company or organisation in a human voice, with your non AI based attitude voiced. You can react, counteract and neutralise the biggest threat to retrofit we have. Inaction.