Home builders respond to sustainability agenda, says report, but much more needs to be done...

Communities and Local Government Minister Angela Smith has welcomed the progress that has been made in increasing the sustainability of buildings as acknowledged in two Parliamentary reports published last week. However, the industry has made less progress in reducing buildings' carbon emissions, which increased by 1.1 per cent in the two years to November 2006. At the Ecobuild and Futurebuild conferences held in London last week, however, it was clear that many built environment professionals and companies have carbon-neutral plans and solutions that go way beyond those of the volume housebuilders and developers.

According to Sir John Harman, chairman of the Environment Agency, developers must radically alter building design to cope with climate change or face commercial extinction, the  has said. Harman told the EcoBuild conference that while energy efficiency is improving, the UK has yet to equal European countries' achievements in this area. The construction, occupation and operation of buildings represents half of the UK's greenhouse gas emissions, Harman said.

Harman, who is also co-chair of the Sustainable Buildings Task Group, said builders must:

• design out the need for home heating;
• avoid the need for air-conditioning;
• design specific onsite and renewable systems to meet energy requirements such as solar hot water.
  

He said efficiency must also be improved for existing buildings. This would be easier to undertake when the buildings were resold or refurbished. He also noted the need to avoid building in areas of high flood risk.

Reports suggest sustainable success
The reports on the highlight action that Government has already taken such as the Code for Sustainable Homes and outline ambitious future plans including the Review of Existing Buildings, which will examine how to improve energy and water efficiency as well as looking at the impacts on climate change of all existing stock.

Further work is also underway to determine how the bold timetable for all new homes to be zero carbon within a decade could potentially be applied to other types of new buildings, public buildings and the existing homes which will still make up the majority of buildings.

Angela Smith said: ‘There is overwhelming evidence of climate change and a broad consensus that urgent action is needed. As buildings account for around half of the UK’s total carbon emissions, it is vital that we take action to make them as sustainable and energy efficient as possible. These two reports highlight the progress which has been made but there is still a long way to go.

‘Tougher standards such as Part L of Building Regulations are a start, but we must do more. The Code for Sustainable Homes is set to help us achieve zero carbon new homes by 2016. The challenge for Government and industry is now to work together to push even harder to extend improvements to all other types of buildings too.’

Consultations are currently taking place on the draft Planning Policy Statement on Climate Change, a joint Communities and Local Government/Defra study of water efficiency standards and the timetable for implementation of the Code for Sustainable Homes. All are due to finish next month.
Notes to editors

The changes to Building Regulation Part L: Conservation of fuel and power, which came into force in April 2006, aim to improve the energy efficiency standards of new homes (and major building works on existing stock) by 40 per cent.