Equitable energy upgrades:
caring for people, caring for creation

By Trevor Brown and Rev Simon Hansford, Armidale Uniting Church

In Armidale, on Anaiwan Country on the Northern Tableland of NSW, winter is felt in cold bedrooms, high bills and hard choices about heating. Many homes were not designed for comfort in a changing climate.

For some households, the clean energy transition offers real opportunities: rooftop solar, efficient heating and cooling, induction cooking, batteries and smarter energy choices. For others, especially renters, seniors, people on low incomes, people with health or mobility needs, Aboriginal households, culturally and linguistically diverse communities, refugee communities and people in poor-quality housing, those opportunities can feel out of reach.

The Equitable Energy Upgrades for Vulnerable Households in Armidale project seeks to change that.

Funded through the NSW Government’s Inclusive Energy Outreach Program, the project is being delivered by Armidale Uniting Church and Electrify Armidale, with Armidale Regional Council, Energy Upgrades for Australian Homes, the Armidale Uniting Church Thread Shed, community service organisations, volunteers and other partners. Its aim is to reduce energy stress, improve home comfort and health, and help people make informed, affordable choices.

Some households need help understanding bills, choosing a better retail plan, heating safely, or making a rental home more comfortable without permanent changes. Others may need draught stoppers, lined curtains, or trusted referrals to rebates, services and further advice.

The work will be supported by trained local volunteers using an intake and triage process. Volunteers will listen carefully, respect household circumstances, and help people move from advice to action. Training and evaluation will be co-designed with Energy Upgrades for Australian Homes, with a focus on safety, cultural respect, consent and practical outcomes.

A distinctive part of the project is the textiles stream through the Armidale Uniting Church Thread Shed, which is a recent initiative arising from Congregation members. Using donated and deadstock textiles, volunteers will make lined curtains, draught stoppers and warm winter garments for priority households. This is practical care that churches have long offered, but here it is also climate and energy action. A curtain can keep a room warmer and remind a household that they are not forgotten.

For Armidale Uniting Church, this project grows directly from the mission of the Church.

The Uniting Church has long understood that faith is lived in public, local and practical ways. We are called to love and serve our neighbours, seek justice, care for creation and stand alongside people pushed to the margins. The climate and energy transition is not only a technical challenge. It is a justice challenge and inherent to our discipleship.
In the Uniting Church Statement to the Nation in 1977, we asserted:

We are concerned with the basic human rights of future generations and will urge the wise use of energy, the protection of the environment and the replenishment of the earth's resources for their use and enjoyment.

If the benefits of electrification, energy efficiency and renewable energy are available only to people who own their homes, have savings, or can navigate complex systems, the transition will deepen inequalities. A just transition must include people who are renting, isolated, elderly, unwell, financially stressed, or living in homes that are cold and expensive to heat.

Churches have buildings, volunteers, relationships, trust and local knowledge. In partnership with councils, service providers, researchers and community groups, churches can become places where care for people and care for creation are held together.

Armidale Uniting Church has been working on electrifying its own buildings and reducing reliance on fossil gas. Through Electrify Armidale, it has also been part of a wider conversation about household electrification, energy efficiency and local energy. This project extends that work by asking: who is being left behind, and what can we do about it?

The answer will be found in relationships, practical demonstrations, safe home visits and small improvements that make daily life better.

With consent, Armidale Uniting Church and Electrify Armidale will track outcomes such as improved energy literacy, confidence to act, winter comfort and reduced bills where data is available. These two groups will develop resources, case studies and a replication guide so other communities and faith networks can learn from them.

The project will be discussed as part of the Uniting Church’s 2026 Climate Action Roundtable 2: Practical Steps toward Net Zero by 2040, online next Tuesday 16 June at 2pm AEST.

This roundtable, led by Trevor Brown, will share what is being learned in Armidale and how similar approaches could be adapted elsewhere.

Our hope is that this project shows congregations can take meaningful climate action while strengthening community care, demonstrates that energy justice belongs at the heart of mission, and helps vulnerable households experience something concrete: a warmer home, a lower bill, a trusted conversation, and dignity in the transition to a cleaner energy future.

In the end, equitable energy upgrades are about neighbours. They are about living out the gospel by caring for creation and one another, together.