Change to Survive: creating a 21st century sustainable built environment

		The recent event Change to Survive: Creating a 21st Century Sustainable Built Environment (http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/be/conferences/changetosurvive/index.html) not only highlighted the research of OISD (the Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development), but also the seriousness of the problem. Is Britain ready and willing to make the necessary transition to sustainable economic growth? Dr David Vincent, Director of Policy at the Carbon Trust, told the conference he doubted it – how will we meet the massive cut in emissions needed – equivalent a cut in household energy use to a tenth of current levels – to meet 2050 carbon reduction targets? he asked. Many are now turning to academia, working increasingly in industry/public sector partnerships, for answers. The Oxford Brookes University conference attracted over 80 delegates, including property developers Barratt Homes and John Laing, local authority planners and politicians, property investors, architects and others to hear what academic researchers had to offer. The Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (OISD) was set up in 2004 to pull together the various strands of sustainability focused research within the School of Built Environment at Brookes. OISD Director and Professor of Real Estate Tim Dixon outlined some of the questions his researchers were addressing: How can we make existing buildings energy efficient? Is it possible to influence people’s behaviour through design? What is the impact of major infrastructure projects? What makes healthy and sustainable communities? How can we reduce our carbon footprint? Measuring the energy efficiency of the existing housing stock Measuring the energy efficiency of the existing building stock is an essential first step towards reducing that energy use. Dr Rajat Gupta, co-director of the architecture unit at OISD, has developed the award-winning DECoRuM model for measuring carbon emissions on a large scale, street-by-street basis. The problem is stark. Cities are responsible for 70-80 per cent of global energy consumption, and nearly half of this comes from buildings. Two-thirds of the building stock we will have by 2050 has already been built and ‘some of it is absolutely appalling’ in terms of design and sustainability, said Dr David Vincent, Director of Policy at the Carbon Trust. DECorRuM is a GIS model, and requires no access to property. The level of emissions from individual dwellings in a street or neighbourhood can be pinpointed, mapped by colour to indicate high or low levels. This enables planners to measure the likely carbon emissions of whole neighbourhoods. In London, the DECorRuM model is being used in the Green Homes Concierge project, (http://www.greenhomesconcierge.co.uk/ ) which aims to measure and cut emissions from 20,000 homes in the capital. Green Homes Concierge is part of the London Development Agency's (LDA) Green Homes programme, launched on 4th December 2007. Dr Gupta is now leading an industry-funded project to develop a toolkit for the UK’s Code for Sustainable Homes. Homegroup has commissioned him to develop the first toolkit that will assess the carbon footprint and financial viability of achieving levels 4, 5 and 6 of the Code. For more about DECorRuM see http://www.decorum-model.org.uk Wellbeing in sustainable environments The conference heard that social sustainability is as important as environmental sustainability, and Professor Elizabeth Burton outlined research at the WISE unit (http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/be/oisd/sue/wise/index.html) into well being and the design of neighbourhoods. This identifies the features that make older residents feel they have a good quality of life. These features are summed up in Neighbourhoods for Life: a checklist of recommendations for designing dementia-friendly outdoor environments. (http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/be/oisd/sue/wise/resources/NeighbourhoodsforLife-Checklist.pdf) These recommendations include: A hierarchy of street types, from main roads to alleyways. Blocks to be small and laid out on an irregular grid. The urban form to be varied create distinctiveness. Local facilities such as a food store/transport stop to be within 500 metres. Obvious entrances to buildings. Footpaths to be separate from cycle paths. Professor Burton’s presentation can by downloaded from the Oxford Brookes website How are older people faring under urban renaissance policies? The OISD: WISE team have just carried out a study focussing on the implications for older people of urban renaissance housing and land use policies, in particular in terms of outdoor space, such as private and shared gardens and balconies. Research has disproved the notion that older people like living in the new high density urban neighbourhoods being created in city centres, said Professor Burton. ‘The findings do not support the urban renaissance argument. People like low density, green areas, such as villages and small towns, rather than high density urban areas.’ Results also show that older people prefer to go out into the neighbourhood than into a private garden. The challenge for urban designers is to make high density areas more attractive, such as by introducing greenery, and creating lively street ‘edges’ where there is at least some set back of the houses from the street, she said. Brookes is part of the I’DGO - Inclusive Design for Getting Outdoors (http://www.idgo.ac.uk/ ) - research consortium which focuses on ways to improve the design of the outdoor environment to enhance older people's quality of life. By doing so it also addresses issues that are relevant to a wider range of people in society.
Dr Rajat Gupta's slide: the DECoRuM model
Neighbourhood for life 1
Neighbourhood for life 2
Prof Burton's slide
Elizabeth Wilson's slide 1
Elizabeth Wilson's slide 2

Findings on urban form and design show that people went out in their local area more frequently if the neighbourhood had either a fine grain mix of uses or was mainly residential. Participants’ evaluation of their quality of life was higher in residential than in mixed-use neighbourhoods, with more positive perceptions of safety, air quality, and trustworthiness of neighbours. People in these areas also reported better health.

Participants living in low density areas were much more positive about their quality of life than those in higher density areas: older people in villages and small towns rated their quality of life highest and those in major city/town centres lowest. The urban form features that can be beneficial regardless of location or density include small blocks, greenery, small setbacks of houses from street, and provision of facilities in residential areas.

In terms of detailed design, the following design features are important for older people:

• Wide and flat tarmac footways
• Easy transition at level changes
• Unobstructed navigation
• Controlled crossing points
• Clear, simple, easily visible and understandable signage
• Frequent, warm, supportive seating
• Sufficient bus stops with weather protection and seating
• Sufficient, well maintained, safe and open toilets.

Outdoor activity levels, good quality paths to local open spaces made a difference to the total time older people spent outdoors, as did good facilities in local open spaces and the presence of water. The most important aspects of local open space to participants were safety, having appropriate facilities, trees and plants and activities to watch, good maintenance, and no heavy traffic en route.

A presentation on I’DGO TOO: inclusive design for getting outdoors can be downloaded from the Oxford Brookes website. http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/be/conferences/changetosurvive/resources/dempsey_IDGO.pdf


Can design change behaviour?

In an other stream of research, Dr Carol Dair is running the Sustainable Lifestyles Plus project, trying to establish weather sustainable development actually leads to more sustainable behaviour in residents. For example, if better provision is made for cycling, will people be more likely to give up their cars? More details in her presentation at the Change to Survive conference. (http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/be/conferences/changetosurvive/resources/caroldair_workshop6.pdf)

This work comes under the umbrella of City Form (http://www.city-form.com/index.html), a sustainable urban form consortium which addresses a major research question: To what extent and in what ways does urban form contribute to sustainability? CityForm is funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council


Are we doing enough to plan for climate change?

Elizabeth Wilson is currently working on various projects with partners across Europe which will help draw up future planning policy. Her research focuses on ways of adapting to and mitigating the effects of climate change.

The SEEDA funded South East Climate Threats & Opportunities study 2004-05 concluded that many organisations were adopting a ‘wait and see’ policy with regard to climate change. Only very few were adopting a climate-proofing strategy, although all sectors needed to adopt adaptation strategies. Copies of the report, and other climate change related documents can be downloaded from the Climate South East website (http://www.climatesoutheast.org.uk/publications_reports.php?back=publications.php)

In a subsequent study, three case studies in the Growth Areas where examined as part of the DEFRA Cross-Regional research study 2005-07. The aim was to understand how Growth Areas are likely to be affected by climate change.

This concluded was that there was a general fear that adaptation would mean short-term costly changes to designs. Some measures such as better water-efficiency, distributed energy and space cooling benefit adaptation and mitigation There is a need to integrate adaptation thinking into: procedures for appraisal of policies and plans eg SEA design, construction and site management.


The ASCCUE (Adaptation Strategies for Climate Change in the Urban Environment) project 2002-6 examined the impacts of climate change on towns and cities through three ‘exposure units’ of human comfort, urban greenspace and the built environment. Conclusions included:
• Spaces to be designed to provide access to, or shelter from, sun, wind and greenery
• Higher urban temperatures increase the significance of green spaces for heat moderation
Finding from the work have been written up in special edition of the Journal of Built Environment (Lindley et al 2007) and Municipal Engineer (Gwilliam et al 2006 and McEvoy et al 2006). The work was carried out in two contrasting case study locations, a representative conurbation (Greater Manchester) and an extreme case (Lewes, Sussex).

ASCCUE was part of the £3.2 million EPSRC Building Knowledge for a Changing Climate (BKCC) (http://www.k4cc.org/bkcc), a consortium now being continued through network and workshop activities associated with Sustaining Knowledge for a Changing Climate (SKCC).


The Change to Survive conference also highlighted a wide range of other areas of research at OISD. All the presentations can be downloaded from the Oxford Brookes website. http://www.brookes.ac.uk/schools/be/conferences/changetosurvive/index.html

The themes covered are:

• Climate change and sustainability
• Corporate social responsibility and sustainability
• Sustainable technology
• Counting and reducing carbon
• Wellbeing in sustainable environments
• Planning, urban design and environmental assessment
• Sustainable real estate and construction
• Sustainable urban form and competitive cities