Reported on Guardian Unlimited today:
Housebuilders are trying to persuade the government to ditch a key policy designed to cut carbon emissions through constructing green homes.
Britain’s renewables industry and many local authorities are concerned that intense lobbying may have persuaded the government to rethink.
It is assumed the housebuilders in question do not include those commiteed to the 2016 Commitment to zero carbon housing (see Communities and Local Government website)
Recent reports that trees may not be the solution to carbon offsetting appeared a few days ago in Grist (Their bark is worst for our blight) and in Live Science (Trees may not fix global warming) may prompt a rethink of the carbon offsetting appraoch to addressing carbon reduction. This is based on 10 year research by scientists at Duke University, North Carolina
So those projects and facilities looking to achieve carbon neutral or zero tragets through off setting need to be very confident the route they are taking is sound.
Although critical of carbon off putting, this report in WorldChanging, Rural Biogas, Global Carbon Market of a grass roots initiative gives inspiration, along the lines of a contraction and conevrgence approach which looks to be a more appropriate alternative to carbon off-putting
It was nice to receive an email from 10 Downing Street, in response to an e-petition I signed recently on the theme of personal carbon disclosure of ministers. Whilst the response from Number 10 did not directly respond to the petition, the response is none the less very interesting:
Following an initial scoping study conducted by the Centre for Sustainable Energy, the Government is now undertaking a work programme designed to assess whether or not a personal carbon allowance is a realistic and workable policy option.
The work programme will address high-level questions such as public acceptability, technical feasibility, cost, and whether/how such a scheme could interact with other emissions reduction policy instruments. It is being designed to complement the work being undertaken by researchers and academics, such as The Tyndall Centre for Climate Change, the Environmental Change Institute and the Royal Society for Arts.
The Climate Change Bill contains enabling powers that would allow the government to set up trading schemes to either limit activities producing greenhouse gas emissions, or to encourage activities leading to the reduction/removal of greenhouse gas emissions from the atmosphere.
In theory it should be possible for government to introduce a personal carbon trading system using these powers. However this would be right on the edge of what these powers are designed for and, in practice, it is unlikely that government would do so. What is clear is that a personal carbon trading scheme could not, and should not, be introduced without a comprehensive period of public engagement and debate.
2016 Commitment
Housing minister Yvette Cooper has urged house-builders, councils, and others to sign the 2016 Commitment to zero carbon housing.
More details on the Communities and Local Government website
List of signatories can be downloaded from here. A quick scan shows some 100 plus signatories to date – but none from the north west??
Time to make that commitment to working together and addressing the 2016 target challenge
Excellent article in today’s Guardian reports on the innovative approaches being taken by G24 Innovations in Cardiff to revolutionise solar power panels.
This is just the innovation that the drive towards green, self generated energy for the built environment needs.
… those behind the Welsh operation think they may have made a crucial breakthrough. Their solar cell works in a different way from most, and is not based on silicon – the expensive raw material for conventional solar cells. G24 Innovations (G24i), the company making the new cells, says it can produce and sell them for about a fifth of the price of silicon-based versions. At present, it makes only small-scale chargers for equipment such as mobile phones and MP3 players. But it says larger panels could follow – large enough to replace polluting fossil fuels by generating electricity for large buildings.
and the applications could be wide ranging, with many safety related uses on building sites…
Design students have also been involved with the development process. Earlier this year, the company ran a competition with 45 product design students at St Martin’s college of art and design in London, who were asked to think up new uses for the Cardiff solar cells. The winning entries include portable safety lights mounted on life buoys, and lamps to mark scaffolding and hoardings around roadworks and on building sites. They also featured solar-powered security lights, fire exit signs, and window blinds, which could cut electricity use.
and addresses the social, global need for energy
The first commercial uses are likely to be in the developing world, where access to electricity is difficult. The firm is working with mobile phone companies including Nokia and Motorola to test whether the G24i cells could charge handsets in rural Africa. For £6-£8, he says, the company can supply a flexible strip of solar cells that can produce 0.4 to 0.5W of power. It’s a relatively meagre output, but more than enough for at least 10 minutes of phone calls a day. And that, says Betzel, can make a big difference. “Over two billion people live without access to energy. This isn’t about providing expensive, Rolls Royce- quality solutions. It’s about improving their quality of life.” Similar solar chargers made of silicon cost about £30.
The Cooperative Bank has teamed up with Living Space 21 to provide a new green solution to housing. From the press release (7th August):
Co-operative Bank sponsors ground breaking green housing initiative
Tackling climate change and providing affordable housing for first time buyers are the biggest challenges facing the British housing market today. With this is mind; the Cooperative Bank has teamed up with Living Space 21, a new housing developer, to offer homes that are not only eco-friendly but, also within reach of those starting out on the property ladder.
This exciting new partnership directly addresses the Government’s promise to increase the UK’s house-building programme by 20%, which would provide an additional 3 million homes by 2020. Furthermore, with the Housing Green Paper 2007 setting targets to reduce property carbon emissions by 25% by 2010, these new homes, which have inbuilt eco features will be well placed to help meet this objective.
The eco benefits of these homes include timber frames, sourced from sustainable forests, rain water capture and recycling, plus sloped roofs which maximise solar efficiency. However, these features do not in any way comprise the quality or design of the build. The contemporary apartments have been designed by Living Space 21 and their pioneering building techniques enable them to be tailored to almost any location, leaving the lightest environmental footprint possible for the price.
A recent post to the worldchanging site (Non Energy Benefits …in Buildings) reminds us of the other, arguably more important, benefits that arise from improved environmental performance of our building and built environment. It has long been recognised that improved envionments lead to improved performance, comfort, health and well being, yet some how this has been lost in our head-on rush to address carbon, carbon and more carbons.
There is always the need to balance our approaches, ensuring a balanced triple bottom line – ie that of environmental, social and economics, or as was in common use a few years back, fit for people, planet and purpose. (I do still like the Patrick Geddes triptych of Folk, Place and Work, he agrued amongst other issues, that all design and particulary planning should benefit folk, place and work in equal measures)
“We live in a culture in which developers and the construction industry are allowed to plunder the present, leaving everyone else to pay for tomorrow’s mess.”
Alan Simpson. MP (lab) for Nottingham South, writing in the Guardian (pour response) yesterday makes a strong case for our ‘built environment’ industry to learn real lessons from the floods, particulary from european practices.
He cites examples such as:
In the Ljburg district of Amsterdam, floating houses have been built. Not far away, on the floodplain of Maasbommel, the Dutch are building permanently floating and amphibious homes. Anchored to mooring piles rather than fixed into foundations, the concrete-based homes rise and fall with flood water levels. Wiring and sewage is ducted through the mooring piles. In the newest, changes in water level are used to generate electricity to make the houses energy self-sufficient.
Looking forward to the construction of the 3m homes, many of which will be on flood plain areas…we do need a radical, not step change, approach to housing design, and in doing so using lessons from the recent floods as a catalyst for delivering the sustainable home of the future.
The government has launched an inquiry into dealing with the existing hosuing stock and its contribution to climate change. (The UK’s domestic building stock is responsible for around a quarter of all carbon emissions in the UK)
It will be considering the extent to which current measures to adapt existing housing, whether owner occupied, rented privately or social, have been successful and how improvements might be achieved. Evidence is invited from interested individuals and organisations on a range of topics, including:
More details and information on submitting evidence at www.parliament.uk
The Committee invites to submit written memoranda addressing these topics by Wednesday 26th September 2007.
Lancashire Economic Partnership (LEP) are hosting a free green breakfast networking event, Profit the Environment and your Business, aimed at construction and manufacturing businesses on 12 Sept. From the LEP website:
– Are you taking effective measures to reduce your carbon footprint?
– Is your competitiveness stalling on environmental performance?
– Are you buying energy at the best time and price?
– Are your green credentials strong enough to win new business?
– Is your business exposed to energy risk?
– Are you in full control of your water supply and wastewater?
– How much profit are you throwing out with the waste?
– Are you ready for new environmental legislation coming your way?
more info and registration at the LEP website
Fairsnape 