Leadership needed on eco-friendly homes

Apr 9 2008 by Kevan Carrick for The Journal

A COUPLE of news reports caught my eye this week. The first is that a party of scientists has started a five-week biological survey of the Ross Sea in Antarctica, partly to gather data to measure the impact of climate change.

The second was a RICS report on the Government’s target to make homes eco-friendly. Experts are questioning if the target is achievable and if it has been properly thought through – for the sake of Antarctica and the rest of us, I hope so.

The Code for Sustainable Homes calls on developers to make all new homes ‘zero carbon’ by 2016. The Code rates houses from one to six on a range of criteria including materials, pollution, energy/CO², water, surface water run-off, health and well-being, management, ecology and waste.

Currently, the most advanced homes in Europe are about a Level 4. They are ‘passive houses’ which don’t have a conventional heating system, relying instead on insulation, heat-recovery systems and an airtight construction.

Level 5 buildings will incorporate features such as rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling. At Level 6, they will use only zero-carbon rated energy sources.

Technically, there is no reason why we cannot achieve this – and the North East is leading the way with examples such as the Rivergreen Centre at Aykley Heads, Durham, winner of the sustainability category at last year’s RICS property awards.

‘Smarter’ materials and equipment already exist, such as cement which produces 50% less CO², low emission glazing, organic light emitting diodes, sun tubes which use mirrors to bring sunlight into the home and micro-CHP (combined heat and power) plants.

There are, however, a few significant ‘buts’.

Some experts say the energy saving between Level 4 to Level 6 is very small and not worth the huge cost per home that it will take.

Others believe we don’t have the skill levels to meet zero carbon in just eight years or indeed the manpower, given the demands of the 2012 Olympics and the Government’s desire to increase production of new homes from 180,000 to 240,000 per year.

RICS also points out that the real focus should be on improving the many thousands of draughty old buildings in our existing housing stock. Perhaps we need a more balanced approach – and a reduction in VAT on improvements to the existing building stock.

I have read that the ground- breaking low-carbon housing develop- ment named BedZED (Beddington Zero Energy Development) in Sutton, Surrey, has proved successful, but what cut carbon emissions the most was the car-sharing scheme operated there!

It seems there are still more questions than answers and what we need is clear leadership on such issues, with guiding principles on what is and what is not worthwhile.

Kevan Carrick is head of JK Property Consultants LLP and policy spokesman for RICS North East.