In 2019 the SIA expanded to form the SIA Retail Group of independent stove and fireplace retailer who support the SIA Retail Group pledge to promote the latest low carbon, low emission, Ecodesign compliant appliances, and to provide first class sales and technical advice to customers backed up with continuing after-sales support.

With an ever expanding list of members, the SIA is able to represent the stove industry with government departments such as Defra and BEIS, the Scottish Parliament and the Welsh Government. These government departments, local authorities and other regulatory bodies recognise the SIA as the voice of the industry. They now regularly contact the SIA for the industry’s viewpoint.

The SIA represents the UK in CEFACD, the European stove association, which communicates the European stove industry view to the European Commission. The SIA is also a member of BioEnergy Europe and works closely with HETAS and Woodsure.

The SIA has established strong contacts with the academic community covering a number of universities and academics across the UK.

From the outset, the SIA has sought to inform the public and the government about the carbon saving benefits of sustainable solid fuel stoves. The stove industry has successfully shown that modern, clean burning stoves can reduce particulate emissions (PM) from wood burning compared to open fires and older wood burning stoves, through the introduction of the SIA Ecodesign Ready scheme in 2017 and, more recently by supporting the launch of the clearSkies certification scheme, a fully independent appliance certification scheme that enables consumers to choose the very best performing stoves.

The SIA Mission

“To promote and explain the benefits and environmental advantages of stoves as heating appliances.”

The objectives of the SIA are:

• To represent to government the industry perspective on legislation affecting stoves and to promote the benefits and environmental advantages of sustainable solid fuel stoves.
• To emphasise that the members of the SIA commit to ensuring that their products meet the appropriate standards of quality, safety, efficiency and emissions.
• To independently promote the nature of SIA members’ products and services and to advise the public on how they can assess the quality, safety and efficiency of these products.
• To maintain an independently audited system to monitor stove sales trends in the UK.
• To work with industry advisory and accreditation bodies to advise them of any issues which fall within their remit and are necessary to fulfil the objectives of the SIA.
• To undertake any activity, including independent research, which will further the understanding of the advantages of sustainable solid fuel stoves and their context in government future strategies and media coverage.