The National Energy Foundation announces today that it has agreed with YouGen to take on its activities, thereby providing a secure, long-term future for YouGen members and website visitors.  YouGen will be a fitting addition to the Foundation's growing family of services that help householders and home owners to improve the energy performance of their homes through better energy efficiency and generation. 

YouGen was set up in 2008 by Cathy Debenham. While renovating her home, she identified that if people were going to go ahead with energy-saving home improvements they needed an accessible source of very practical advice and people they trust to answer their questions. Since then, YouGen has become a successful, multi-award-winning service, making it easy for people to learn about, invest in and enjoy the benefits of generating renewable heat or electricity.

During 2014, the YouGen website attracted over 1,138,000 page views. Over the years, the YouGen service has featured regularly in a number of national newspapers (including The Guardian and The Sunday Telegraph), on the BBC and in the trade press. It has also been commended for providing practical information and advice on all aspects of renewable energy - through its website, blogs, newsletters and installer database - and for helping people find and choose a local installer they can trust.

Having run YouGen on a shoestring with a small team, Cathy recently decided it would thrive better as part of a larger organisation where the service could develop and expand. Cathy looked for a suitable organisation that shared YouGen’s values of fairness, independence, passion and professionalism and invited the National Energy Foundation to take the service on.

The National Energy Foundation was delighted to be approached and will ensure continuity of the YouGen service so that users and partners receive an uninterrupted and high-quality service. Cathy Debenham has agreed to continue her involvement and will be an adviser to NEF to ensure that the YouGen service continues to benefit from her energy, enthusiasm and vast experience throughout the transition period and beyond.

Commenting on the development, Cathy Debenham said:

“I am very pleased that YouGen has found a home at the National Energy Foundation. It sits comfortably with the Foundation’s existing services such as SuperHomes. YouGen visitors will benefit from the vast wealth of expertise and knowledge within the Foundation, getting the same practical advice on an even wider range of energy-saving matters.

“The team at the National Energy Foundation also share my ambition to expand the services beyond those in the YouGen directory. Our members are predominantly renewable energy installers at the moment, but people also need help finding companies they can trust to install insulation and other aspects of energy efficiency as well as green builders and architects. I look forward to working with the Foundation to help many more people make their homes warm, comfortable and affordable to heat.”

Kerry Mashford, Chief Executive of the National Energy Foundation, added:

“We’re delighted to be welcoming the highly-regarded and well-used YouGen service into the National Energy Foundation. The move makes perfect sense as it complements the Foundation’s existing home energy information services such as SuperHomes, LogPile and MyGreenBuilder, thus providing a wealth of knowledge and information to help people make the right choices about energy improvements in their homes.”

For further information on this press release, please contact:

Cathy Debenham, Founder, YouGen
cathy@yougen.co.uk
01395 597879

David Dean, Communications Manager

david.dean@nef.org.uk
01908 256919

The National Energy Foundation is an independent charity that has been at the forefront of improving the use of energy in buildings since 1988. We aim to give people, organisations and government the knowledge, support and inspiration they need to understand and improve the use of energy in buildings.

We do this through:

· Providing practical experience and technical expertise, gained from a broad range of real-life challenges.

· Developing insights into closing the gap between expected and actual energy performance.

· Connecting stakeholders and creating forums to drive forward the frontiers of good practice.

· Conceiving, establishing and mainstreaming capacity-building initiatives.

· Helping people and organisations to succeed through the provision of impartial, comprehensive advice. 

Everything we do, we do to achieve this aim.