In a move hailed as a UK first, homeowners who install insulation, heat pumps, or solar panels will soon be able to generate and sell carbon credits based on the emissions reductions achieved through their energy-saving upgrades.
The initiative, known as Carbon Cashback, has been developed by home energy efficiency platform Snugg and is intended to help households make a stronger financial case for retrofitting. By installing eligible measures such as insulation or replacing fossil fuel boilers with low-carbon technologies like heat pumps or solar panels, households can track their emissions savings using smart meters.
These verified carbon savings will then be converted into credits and sold via the Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM), with validation provided by global standards body Verra. Snugg estimates that participating households could earn up to £2,000 over a ten-year period through the sale of credits.
Currently, built environment projects represent only a small portion of activity within the VCM, which is dominated by initiatives such as forest conservation, clean cooking technologies, and renewable energy schemes in developing nations.
Carbon Cashback launched in beta with selected partners, with a full rollout planned later this year. The platform has been funded by the UK Government’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ), under its Green Home Finance Accelerator programme. This initiative supports the development of innovative financial tools to promote energy efficiency, complementing wider government support packages such as the Boiler Upgrade Scheme and the Warm Homes Plan.
George Wilson, Snugg’s carbon markets lead, said: “Carbon Cashback represents an important step forward in incentivising home energy efficiency improvements by tackling the biggest barrier homeowners face – cost. By offering financial incentives, we believe this innovative approach will result in many more homeowners upgrading their homes.”
According to a 2024 survey by the HomeOwners Alliance, one-third of homeowners in the UK have delayed energy efficiency improvements due to prohibitive upfront costs.
In related developments, climate tech firm Hyphen Global has launched what it claims to be the world’s first digital module capable of calculating direct greenhouse gas impacts from nature-based projects in real time.
Developed in collaboration with sustainability standards body Social Carbon, the open-source tool offers continuous atmospheric measurements of carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide emissions—offering what the developers describe as greater accuracy, transparency, and timeliness than traditional estimation-based methods.
“This is our industry’s tipping point – we can now offer the market a verification system based on atmospheric measurements and hard data,” said Maxx Dilley, director of atmospheric monitoring services at Hyphen Global.
The innovation is expected to strengthen trust in the VCM and potentially increase the value of credits issued under this system by reducing concerns over greenwashing.
