The Glass Hub Decarbonising Project

April 2025 Update:

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our crowdfunder!

We just wanted to let you know, we have some exciting news.

We recently made a successful application for a match funded grant from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, for two new kilns, which we will use in our hotshop as lehrs for annealing glass. Your contributions enabled us to match fund the UKSPF grant, and we bought two Rohde Ecotop 43S kilns. These are amongst the most energy efficient kilns in the world, using up to 40 % less electricity and therefore saving energy and money. Read about them for yourself - 'The future-oriented models from the Ecotop series are amongst the most recent developed kiln range of ROHDE. The Ecotop is currently one of the most economical kilns on the market and features a new and unique insulation concept that allows for very high energy efficiency'. This means we can use them as lehrs to cool your glass creations in the hot shop, and these will no doubt help us on our way to making our studio one of the most energy efficient in the UK. We will continue to explore new ways we can help improve our carbon footprint, and continue working towards our goal of becoming as carbon neutral as we can. So, once again thanks to everyone who contributed to this great success!

The Glass Hub Team

April 2024 Update:

Thank you to everyone who has contributed to our decarbonising project so far!

Some of you will have chosen rewards and will be getting an email about this if you haven't already and also, we have selected four lucky winners for our Glassy Prize Draw (see below).

Although we didn’t make the match funding grant that we were offered, the project is still alive and kicking and we are still raising funds to invest in our decarbonising works.  We are currently researching a scaled-down version of our original proposal and hoping to include heat exchange facilities to recycle our hot-shop heat throughout the building - good for us, great for the students and imperative for the environment.

So please keep sharing! 

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It has been a long-held aim of ours to reduce the impact of our glassmaking school on the environment by improving equipment and facilities. 

We are reaching out for support as we embark on a project to reduce our carbon footprint and future-proof our school. We have partial funding but not enough and this is where you can help.

The Glass Hub has been welcoming students into glassmaking since 2012. We were the first glass school to use smaller, portable glassblowing furnaces. They do not need to run 24/7 therefore use less gas, are cheaper to run and have a lower environmental impact. We want to do more, yet the huge increase in our energy costs have left us running on a shoestring instead of investing.

We have been given a lifeline by our local council in the form of a grant to improve our energy efficiency.

With it we can upgrade and improve our equipment, facilities, and technologies to reduce our fuel consumption and carbon footprint.  We will combat material wastage and inefficiency, reduce heat loss and re-use waste heat from the furnaces to heat our studios. This much needed investment will lead to better teaching facilities, more educational opportunities, and improvement in learning outcomes. It will help us continue doing what we love – teaching glassmaking and spreading the wonder of this ancient material and skill.

Why do we need your help?

This incredible grant from 'Invest in Wiltshire' is only available to us if we can match the funding. Despite putting everything we had into it we still have a shortfall, so have started this campaign to raise the remaining funds.

We really hope you can support this project and our school by making a donation, any amount, large or small. There are several choices of donation, it can be public or private and we have organised some rewards too. If you would like more information about the project and our plans then please get in touch.

Help us make a difference.

Helga Watkins-Baker, KT Yun & The Glass Hub Team

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THE GLASS HUB GLASSY PRIZE DRAW

All donations of £20 or more were entered into our prize draw to win:

• 1 x One-Day Glassblowing Experience Voucher
• 1 x Glassblowing Experience (Morning or Afternoon) Vouchers
• 1 x £100 Glass Hub Gift Voucher
• 1 x £50 Glass Hub Gift Vouchers

FOUR LUCKY WINNERS have been picked!

Winners will be contacted by email and we will announce the winners on our Crowdfunder project page, on our website and social media. Winners who wish to remain anonymous may do so.

These prizes will be in the form of a voucher that can either be redeemed on our website or gifted to somebody else to use. Our usual terms and conditions of booking using vouchers will apply - view terms here.