The Government is committed to reducing the UK's carbon footprint dramatically over the coming years and one of the biggest challenges it faces is dealing with our ageing housing stock. Figures show that 70% of the country's existing residential property will still be inhabited in 2050 and that 91% of all UK homes would benefit substantially from improvements in energy efficiency. The country's least efficient properties were predominantly constructed prior to 1920 and these currently make up 15% of UK homes but actually account for 23% of total notional C02 emissions.

Delegates at yesterday's Retrofit 2012 conference, heard that while solutions to finance (through the Government's imminent Green Deal) and technology (though a plethora of innovations to make households more energy-efficient) are emerging, policymakers have yet to engage with the third key element in the retrofit challenge - human behaviour!

Apparently innovations can actually work against energy and cost-reduction objectives... Research presented at the conference showed how residents in energy-efficient houses were more likely to take resource-inefficient baths rather than showers, in the belief that anything they did would be energy efficient because of the type of house they inhabited!

There's still a lot to be accomplished then in terms of education, despite the technology being readily available...

And my goodness is it available!

My inbox has been swamped in recent weeks with details and images of the most energy-efficient, gorgeous items, all destined for launch at KBB Birmingham from March 4th -7th.

I hadn't planned to begin KBZine's rolling show preview for a few weeks but the conference programme has been finalised and such is the calibre of what is being showcased, that I couldn't hold off any longer and just had to share them. The first few - and the conference programme - are featured below.

If you're exhibiting at the Show and want to share your innovations with our readers, please send me your news without delay!