Stroma Certification and Community Interest Company (CIC), Yorkshire Energy Services (YES) have collaborated to prepare communities across the UK for the Governments new initiative – the Green Deal.

The Green Deal is the new Government Initiative, which intends to reduce carbon emissions cost-effectively throughout the UK. The scheme aims to offer consumers energy efficient improvements to homes and buildings with no upfront costs, but a payment plan through the consumers energy bill.

Stroma Certification Ltd, one of the UK's leading, award-winning certification providers, has been accepted to participate in the pilot accreditation project for certification of Green Deal Installers (GDI) and Green Deal Advisors (GDA) services – run by the Department of Energy and Climate (DECC).

Stroma are advocates of CICs, such as YES, as they are designed for people who want to run a business or other activity for the benefit of the community, not just for private advantage. As with other CICs, Yorkshire Energy Services are audited by the CIC Regulator, making them a trusted and reliable source – the ideal partner to work to bring the Green Deal to the consumer.

In preparation for the Green Deal, Stroma Certification have developed a training and development programme for YES, and are in the process of delivering the Domestic Energy Assessors (DEAs) and Non Domestic Energy Assessors (NDEA) courses for YES staff, which will be followed by Green Deal Advisor training when it becomes available in June. Stroma are also advising and supporting YES in establishing the company as a Green Deal Advisory Service. This will facilitate YES to undertake assessments of commercial and residential buildings, producing the EPCs required under the Green Deal, and also to support local independent Green Deal Advisors as an Advisory Service.


Stuart Oakes at Stroma said: "We wanted to work alongside YES, not only because of their strong sustainable credentials and ambition to drive the Green Deal amongst building occupiers; but also the worthwhile services they provide to local communities across the UK. Whilst our partnership with YES will create further business opportunities for Stroma, we believe YES' role in the Green Deal would enable them to provide another sustainable service that would certainly benefit the community, something that Stroma is proud to be a part of."

Yorkshire Energy Services, based in Huddersfield, West Yorkshire and Andover, Hampshire, offer affordable energy saving solutions and expert advice to help householders and organisations reduce carbon emissions and save money on fuel bills. The organisation have been a trusted provider of energy advice, products and services since 2000, delivering effective projects, that has helped hundreds of householders move towards a more sustainable low carbon living. The organisation supports local communities across the UK, regenerating a proportion of its profits into community initiatives.

Vince McCabe, YES Operations Director says: "It is important that we are ready for the Green Deal when it launches later this year, so we are in the best possible position to provide the community with the right advice and energy reducing measures. We know that aligning ourselves with a Government approved body, such as Stroma Certification, would guarantee high quality, expert training and on-going professional support throughout this initiative."

Stroma Certification deliver a variety of training courses nationwide, which relate to building, sustainability and compliance, such as Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH), energy assessment, renewables and electrical installation. We not only provide the training and certification schemes to support the Green Deal preparation, but we are also developing software solutions relating to the new Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) and Green Deal advice tools.

The Green Deal is due to be launched October 2012. To know more about the Green Deal and training available contact Stroma Certification on 0845 621 1111 or email www.stroma.com.