Championing women in the energy transition
Recent graduate Jolie Revitt collaborated with Her Retrofit Space, a community platform for professional women and homeowners, on an inspiring workshop about women and home retrofit.
The event on 3 October 2025, titled “Women, Homes and Retrofit: Powering Change Through Relationships and Research,” explored how women retrofit professionals can support women homeowners to choose and complete retrofitting.
Retrofit is the process of making buildings more energy efficient through changes such as improved insulation, heating systems, smart technology and solar panels. It’s an essential part of the UK’s transition to net zero, but despite government initiatives and policies, not enough people are choosing to retrofit their homes.
Women tend to be environmentally conscious, but face specific barriers to home retrofit. This workshop brought together professionals and tradeswomen to explore how they could support women homeowners to make beneficial changes.
The barriers to home retrofit
The workshop grew from Jolie’s undergraduate dissertation, in which she explored women’s unique motivations for retrofitting, the barriers they face in making their homes more energy efficient, and the facilitators for successful retrofit projects.
She conducted the study through surveys with professionals and homeowners in two online communities – Her Retrofit Space and Her Own Space – led by Ellora Coupe. In these platforms, women access resources and tools to undertake retrofit projects and share their journey in a community.
Jolie's research found that women are primarily motivated by the health, comfort and environmental factors of retrofit. However, they experience barriers like poor experiences with tradespeople due to gender bias, as well as lack of clear information, funding, and resources for retrofit.
The study participants emphasised the need for better support, including trustworthy professionals.
Jolie said: “Social support groups and relational networks significantly enhance women’s retrofit experiences, highlighting the need for initiatives that provide trusted information, positive industry relationships, and alignment with women’s distinct motivations.”
Ellora said: “Jolie’s research was really valuable to validate the motivations behind the work we do and ensure it is more than just instinct that drives our work moving forward.
“Hosting the seminar was a great way of showing how academic insight applies to our practical day to day work and whilst supporting Jolie as a member at the same time on her journey as a professional in the industry.”
A relational approach to retrofit
Professor Lucie Middlemiss, Jolie’s former supervisor, also spoke at the workshop with Jolie and Ellora, about her current work on the ‘retrofit reimagined’ project. This is all about understanding how to design ‘people-centred’ policy: policy which works best for people's needs, priorities and interests. Jolie’s work fits very well into this approach.
Professor Middlemiss said: “When Jolie started her dissertation, she wanted to work on women and energy, and I put her in touch with Ellora as a result. I am really delighted with how this partnership turned out for them both. It is testament to the quality of Jolie’s work that she has been able to turn her undergraduate dissertation into a hugely insightful research piece for Her Retrofit Space, and that she is sharing it with colleagues in the professional retrofit world today.
“We are lucky at Leeds to have highly motivated and hugely competent undergraduates, and we are really proud Jolie is now out in the world working on energy and environment in the EDF graduate scheme.”
