green buildings - SprintBio - Distibutors of environmentally friendly boilers, burners and heat pumps

We have a government target to cut our carbon emissions by 15 per cent by 2010, and far more stringent targets are being proposed. Patients don’t really appreciate how much energy and water we use. But in our trust, more people are aware of it - we’ve been banging the drum now for three years.

Read the rest of the article on the NHS goes green

The announcement by the Water Consumer Council a week ago that bills might rise by £30 per household and that more drought orders and hosepipe bans could be imposed, will pile pain on hard-pressed homeowners. But there are ways to harvest water for many of your needs and you could also be helping to reduce flash flooding.

Read more about how saving water can cut bills

Developers want to build a community with 5,000 homes and 2,500 jobs at the site of the former Rossington Colliery, alongside the M18. Under the proposals, a railway station and new road would be created to allow direct access for buses to Doncaster town centre, with the route forming the first link of a road between the motorway and Robin Hood airport. But to ensure the carriageways remained free-flowing for buses, private cars would be banned from using the road during the most congested periods.

Find out more about how motorists may be forced to give way to Eco-Road plans

The number of Gordon Brown’s flagship eco-towns should be slashed by two thirds because most of the proposed schemes are not green enough, senior civil servants have warned. They have advised ministers to cut the number from 10 to only two or three “exemplar” towns, The Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Read the rest of the article about the scrapped eco-towns

The man behind controversial plans to build an eco-town at a former Norfolk RAF base said last night he was prepared to move his scheme closer to Norwich after it emerged ministers were keen on the idea.

Read the rest of the article on the relocated eco-town

A top Government minister is expected to visit the county to discuss eco-town plans in the next two weeks. However, it has not been confirmed whether housing minister Caroline Flint will visit the actual site of the proposed eco-town, south-east of Leicester. It is believed she may be visiting Market Harborough on Monday, July 28, but the Government said this was not finalised. Campaigners are concerned the minister may not find time to visit the location of the proposed 15,000-home eco-town.

Read the rest of the article on the eco-friendly MP

The current Labour government is very keen on ecotowns as an ideal way of delivering a high volume of zero-carbon housing and satisfying the country’s demand for new homes. However there are some under-publicised points that rarely appear on press releases concerning the current proposals. Here are a few of them:

1. Many of the proposed ecotown sites lie partially on greenbelt land.

The Weston-on-the-Green site in Oxfordshire for example relies on such land for 12% of its total area. This means vast ancient woodlands and a nature reserve, protected for many years, would now be sacrificed to developers, as would be an even greater area of simply green (but not officially greenbelt-labelled) land. Farmland too will suffer; 2,046 acres would be lost at this site alone.

2. 12 of the 15 proposed ecotown sites are in Conservative constituencies (10 of which will be chosen for eventual development under current plans).

This is perhaps inevitable in the countryside, though it could also be argued that the measure has some degree of calculation to it - intended to minimise opposition (it has not really worked in that sense anyway, see point 9).

3. There is enough Brownfield land in the country right now to build roughly 1m new homes at medium density. In addition there are at least 600,000 empty habitable homes in England (according to Gordon Brown), plus, 9% of Commercial property currently lies empty.

In short, to build new homes in such a climate represents a lazy mismanagement of both land and resources. Granted it is more difficult to get brownfield sites converted than it is to uproot a few trees and build on already flat land - but it is also far and away the more prudent and efficient long term plan.

4. Ecotowns are supposed to be zero carbon. Except that they are in essence commuter communities which will inevitabely rely on more and more cars as their inhabitants make long journeys to work each day.

Ecotown press materials claim residents will use only public transport to commute - which must be either a shame-faced attempt at deception, or the view of a truly deluded and under-informed official. If we could instead convert existing brownfield land, most of which is in city centres, we would not only save greenbelt land - but also place workers closer to their places of work, thereby reducing car dependence.

5. After the ecotowns will come more out-of-town supermarkets and in turn more car journeys.

How else would an ecotown population (of between 5,000 and 20,000 people) get supplies? We cannot be foolish enough to think they will all be served by a local baker and butcher (the farmland has been destroyed to build the town remember). In a large ecotown we are looking at 20,000 extra car journeys per week - just for the weekly shop.

6. The architecture of the proposed ecotowns is quite frankly very uninspiring, if not plain drab.

Parkridge Holdings (involved in the Oxforshire proposals) is a fairly typical example. Visit www.parkridge.co.uk and click ‘residential’ to see for yourself.

7. In a recent excellent Guardian article Jonathan Glancey estimated that by converting current Brownfield capacity for housing the 200,000 new homes figure, which is the target of the ecotown initiative, could be not only met but exceeded.

The numbers speak for themselves - in essence we could achieve the goals of increasing housing capacity - and in a zero-carbon manner, without sacrificing any precious greenbelt or farming land. The only obstacle is cost (it is more expensive to convert land than to build on virgin land) - but surely short-term concerns such as this should not trump the long-term considerations on this issue (sustainability is sort of the point isn’t it?).

8. Ministers involved in the issue seem a little uncertain of exactly what they are doing.

Lady Andrews, Undersecretary for Housing, recently responded to a question on the matter saying ‘the five or ten ecotowns which will be built’ - suggesting somewhat of a confused reduction of scope for the plans. Similarly Caroline Flint, Minister for Housing and Development, has on occasion ignored the question of how much of the required land would be on greenbelt sites (http://tinyurl.com/5jxxqg).

9. Opposition to the plans is growing.

The Weston-on-the-Green site for example is being vehemently opposed by the Weston Front - a group led by Anthony Henman (father of tennis player Tim), while numerous other protests have also occurred in Warwickshire over the proposed Long Marston site.

10. Labour has pledged to build 3m new homes in England over the next 12 years. The current crop of ecotowns would contribute only 7% of this figure (200,000).

In terms of meeting our requirements (and Labour fulfilling their pledge), the current ecotown proposals involve sacrificing a lot, to meet only a very small fraction of our needs. We must question if this is an adequate return for what will be lost.

This is not to say that the proposals do not have any merits at all. They would of course increase housing capacity in the UK, and would increase the number of zero-carbon homes on the market (though it is hard to see how, once inhabited, these would then become zero-carbon households with the more than likely car dependence).

At the moment the only group genuinely happy with the plans are the developers set to reap large profits from the project, by being presented with the dream scenario of building on undeveloped countryside land (with no expensive clearing costs).

It is a shame that it is environmentalists who are most opposed to these ecotowns - and developers who are most keen, and also surely a clear indication that the current proposals are inadequate and misguided by quite a considerable measure.

Credit to the government for trying - but now it is time to listen to the very serious concerns of both experts and the public, and come up with another plan.

Dejan Levi

Not another story about the eco towns, but this is an interesting article on the Telegraph website about straw bales being used in insulation. The technique is not new, but it still carries a joke stigma about with it. This article follows Carol Atkinson while she attempts to build a two story straw bale house.

read the article on the straw houses

Hi-tech companies are competing on a new front - to become the greenest business. A year after pledging to become the greenest company on the planet, computer maker Dell has introduced measures aimed at claiming the “green crown”. In a further effort to live up to its green pledge, Dell says it aims to make its desktops and laptops 25% more energy-efficient by 2010 by tweaking the circuitry, fans, and power management systems.

read the article on BBC about the IT green efforts

Prospective residents of the proposed eco-town at Long Marston, should the site make it into the government’s shortlist, could pay less than £100 per year in domestic heating bills according to a leading authority on energy conservation.

Ian Ward, one of the directors said “I would go as far as saying that it will be possible to heat a family home for less than £100 per year, perhaps as low as £50 in the best circumstances.”

read the article on the Long Marston site

Lord Coe , the chairman of the London Olympics organising committee, is in talks with the National Grid over a deal intended to make the London 2012 games carbon neutral.

Blue-ng, a joint venture between National Grid and the Bath-based clean-energy company 2oc, has developed a technology to exploit the unused energy created when natural gas pressure is reduced at various stations around the gas grid.

read the article on the London Olympics

The first plans for one of Gordon Brown’s flagship eco-town sites have been submitted – but without the environmentally friendly features the Government has promised.
Planning documents seen by The Sunday Telegraph reveal that the proposed 5,000 homes development near Lichfield, Staffordshire, does not include some special measures required to reduce its impact on the environment.

read the article on the Lichfield eco-town here

The eco-town issue is really hotting up, this week in an article on thisisexeter.co.uk we see that the Government is putting up more than £6.5m to support the development of a “prototype eco-town” near Exeter, a minister has announced.

Housing Minister Caroline Flint: “We are obviously working with the local authorities and partners in the Cranbrook area to support the delivery of the housing and of the necessary infrastructure.“To support that, we have provided £1m in 2007-08 and £5.5m for 2008 to 2011.”

read the article on the eco towns article on  this is exeter.co.uk

Under current UK government legislation all new-build homes must be zero-carbon after 2016. However, some of the major builders are trying to get a head-start on this deadline and have begun developing designs and prototypes already.

One such company is Barratt Developments - one of the UK’s largest firms - which this week unveiled designs for what will become the country’s first zero-carbon house built by a volume builder. The first examples of these homes will be available from 2011, in a 200 unit batch at the site of Hanham Hall hospital, near to Bristol.

All of this sounds great, except for one snag - the cost of the homes. Though Barratt have not specified the exact value, their chief executive, Mark Clare, has said that it will be ‘difficult to reduce the cost of the current prototype to commercial levels’.

Now, it’s all very well having lots of zero-carbon homes, but not so great if they all lie empty because nobody can afford to buy one… The question is; what can be done to avoid this situation from developing?

Well the simple fact is that such projects will require quite a degree of government assistance to succeed quickly. No doubt Barratt and other developers will do what they can do drive building costs down - but ultimately there is only so far this can be taken before we are left with a zero-carbon, but ugly and low quality home that nobody wants to live in.

In the first few years after 2016 (maybe even before) it will be crucial that the government subsidises the cost of such homes so that they can compete with the older properties on the market. Some measures have already been introduced, such as a stamp duty waiver until 2012 on zero-carbon homes worth over £500,000 (homes under that value are eligible for a £15,000 stamp duty discount).

This is a start - but hopefully only the beginning of a series of similar moves.

Barratt’s prototype for example utilises solar panels, rain-water harvesting, and an air source heat pump. It is these features, along with its super-insulation and triple-glazed windows, that have earned it the best possible energy use rating of grade 6 (signifying a completely zero-carbon home). Perhaps the industry sectors producing this technology could do with a few tax cuts, or incentives in return for helping reduce costs.

It is true that a zero-carbon home will face only very minimal running costs and hence a case for the higher asking price could be made on these grounds. The problem is that, if would-be buyers cannot even secure a mortgage for the house, the rest becomes irrelevant.

This is where banks have a part to play - by introducing a different mortgage option for buyers purchasing such homes they could be instrumental in the success of zero-carbon housing. With the current credit problems many banks have reigned in their mortgage options of late - but those buying a zero-carbon home in the future will have a greater ability to repay a big mortgage - due to the lack of gas and electricity bills. A bigger loan could therefore be repaid in the same time as a smaller one on a non grade 6 property.

There are many other potential measures currently being discussed - but the main point is that the government needs to seriously consider further legislation (or funding for buyer-assistance schemes) in order to ensure that the initial mandate of zero-carbon by 2016 is the success it has the potential to be. If this can be effectively managed then the (positive) consequences could be far reaching indeed - from the inherent environmental benefits, to reducing the cost (while raising the standard) of living in the UK. Let’s hope those involved can get it right, for we all stand to reap the rewards of this effort.

(A detailed image of Barratt’s design can be found here).

Dejan Levi