ENDS Power List: Professor Rajat Gupta Recognized for Net-Zero Impact

Prestigious ENDS Power List recognizes Professor Rajat Gupta for empowering home-owners, communities, and governments in achieving net zero.

Your home uses a lot of energy. In 2022, the power, heating, and cooling of UK homes contributed a staggering 16% to 19% of the nation's total carbon footprint. This startling statistic, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), highlights that achieving the Government's UK Net Zero emission targets by 2050 relies on decarbonising our housing. However, retrofitting homes is complex. Homeowners struggle with technology, costs, and disruption, and without clear evidence of long-term benefits like bill savings, investment becomes a major hurdle.

Addressing this critical challenge, Professor Rajat Gupta, Director of the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development and Low Carbon Building Research Group at Oxford Brookes University, developed DECoRuM® (the Domestic Energy, Carbon Counting and Carbon Reduction Model). This award-winning energy mapping software can pinpoint energy use for individual homes and local areas, making it easier to communicate potential energy improvements and bill reductions to homeowners, communities, and governments. Through DECoRuM®, he's providing vital tools to meet net-zero targets, driving tangible improvements in energy efficiency, cutting household costs, and fighting fuel poverty, one home at a time.

For his impactful work with DECoRuM® and its influence on both policy and practical application, Professor Gupta has earned a prestigious spot on the 2025 Environmental News Directory Service (ENDS) Power List. He's one of just nine academics across the UK to be included on this highly respected list. Compiled by the ENDS Report,  it honors the 100 most influential UK environmental professionals for genuinely shaping policy, boosting the field, or driving real environmental improvements.

DECoRuM®: Pinpointing the Problem, Delivering the Solution to Homeowners 

The brilliance of DECoRuM® lies in its novel approach. Unlike traditional methods that rely on regional averages, DECoRuM® maps energy use house-by-house. Imagine building with LEGOs: the software starts with the smallest, individual "bricks" – data points for every single home, such as its building type, occupancy, heating systems and construction year – to create a comprehensive model of energy use. This granular detail allows DECoRuM® to pinpoint precisely which specific houses are energy-intensive and why.This level of precise, house-by-house analysis is crucial for developing targeted, effective retrofit plans that truly make a difference.

Tangible Impact: From Local Streets to Global Standards

The software's effectiveness was further demonstrated on three advanced, low-carbon home improvement projects through Innovate UK’s ‘Retrofit for the Future’ initiative. DECoRuM®'s insights directly helped cut carbon emissions by an amazing 80% on one project. It also played a vital role in Bicester (Oxfordshire), helping to secure funding for cavity and wall insulation in 42 homes, saving at least 50 tonnes of CO2 every year.

Future Plans

The future of DECoRuM® is equally ambitious. It is being adapted for use in India, supporting efforts to spatially map domestic energy use at a neighbourhood scale.

DECORuM has led to the development of the interactive Local Area Mapping tool (LEMAP), which is being used in the UK-funded Clean Heat Streets Project to map suitable homes for heat pump deployment in Rose Hill, Oxford, resulting in over 100 energy surveys and 31 heat pump installations.