Charlie Phillips is the operational manager of Earthworker Smart Energy Cooperative (ESEC) and board member of Earthworker Cooperative, a worker-owned cooperative in the energy efficiency and smart energy sector. He is passionate about providing high quality and long-lasting upgrades to a home’s thermal envelope and empowering households to take control of their energy usage. Charlie's experience in high quality draught-proofing has seen him complete home retrofits across greater Melbourne, including projects with Moonee Valley, Merri-Bek and Hume City Councils.

Charlie can provide advice on:

• Long-lasting thermal envelope upgrades
• Insulation for air leakage prevention
• Ways to improve thermal comfort
• Energy efficiency

Implementing Smart Energy measures in your home or business can have a range of benefits including;

• Driving down energy costs and C02 emissions,
• Increasing energy resilience when exposed to climate change, grid failure, extreme weather or other crises,
• Improving local health, through thermal comfort and reduction in energy poverty
• Job creation for local workers
• Building of a local energy economy through local energy trading and the broader grid

Who we are

Earthworker Smart Energy Cooperative (ESEC) is a full-spectrum, integrated energy services cooperative focused on socialising benefits of the energy transition. ESEC’s goal is to help customers save money by giving them more control over their energy and to ensure that the energy transition’s employment and economic benefits go to those who deserve it, the workers.

ESEC is a worker-owned and managed cooperative. We are committed to democratising the workplace and making sure workers are rewarded fairly for the value they produce. Each member has equal voting rights and decisions are made collectively and democratically.

What we do

Assessing and Auditing

ESEC’s team of experienced assessors will audit your home or building, recommending improvements to energy efficiency and thermal comfort.

Retrofitting
ESEC’s team of experienced retrofitters will retrofit buildings with a range of measures to improve thermal efficiency and comfort.

Smart Energy Services
ESEC will assess homes, apartment complexes and commercial buildings, recommending and installing smart energy measures that maximise savings and energy efficiency.

Why we do it

The importance of household energy efficiency in reducing CO2 emissions and improving thermal comfort is well understood. Discussions with government agencies and welfare and energy organisations have confirmed that what is particularly lacking is the ability to increase the scale of energy efficiency provision, to ensure the work is carried out to a high standard by reputable companies, and to ensure wider social benefits in terms of jobs and training. We are committed to economic democracy and worker-ownership. Our priority is to offer employment to those from backgrounds typically marginalised from energy and construction industries, such as women, asylum seekers and First Nations peoples.

 Our vision is to ensure the benefits of the energy transition is distributed democratically to local communities, through our own cooperative and the broader cooperative movement.

We believe social and environmental exploitation are intertwined, and that the problems of climate change, job insecurity and growing inequality must be tackled simultaneously, through greater grassroots economic ownership.