Entries for July 2009

Almost three quarters of UK home buyers said they would seek discounts on less energy efficient properties, signalling that sustainable homes are becoming more important to consumers and more valuable to home owners. 

Ministers have launched the much anticipated Low Carbon Transition Strategy, comprising a dozen reports that are dealing with a range of issues, including more sustainable buildings and community development, production of electricity and fuels, industrial planning and manufacturing.

Residents of the Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED), “the UK’s best-known eco village”, have a social side that is “spectacularly good”, according to a report of the village seven years after it was built. 

The Government has announced the definition of ‘zero carbon’ to be used when setting out the requirements for new homes built from 2016 and new non-domestic buildings from 2019, following a seven month consultation on the definition. 

The Government has announced that four of the proposed sites for new eco towns are to go forward for further planning, public consultation and local planning approval, under the terms of the eco towns Planning Policy Statement.

England and Wales have some of the highest ambitions for low carbon housing in the world, a report put together by the National House Building Council Foundation, Zero Carbon Hub and PRP Architects has revealed. 

Hospitals, leisure centres, local authorities and even central government departments will be able to save money and reduce their carbon emissions by taking up new energy efficiency loans.

The Government has published plans for meeting the challenge of reducing Britain’s carbon emissions by 34% of 1990 levels by 2020, including measures for householders to pay for energy efficiency improvements with the savings they make from lower energy bills.

A new Regional Agricultural Centre has been designed to blend in with the green showground it sits beside, both inside and out. 

As it takes up the rotating presidency of the EU’s Council of Ministers, Sweden has prioritised climate change in its workplan of the policies it wishes to implement in the coming six months. 

The European Parliament has put in place an eco-management and audit scheme to determine what exactly can be done to reduce its carbon footprint by 30% by 2020, a target it set itself last November. It has 736 elected members but also some 6,000 staff in 27 countries. 

The European Commission has prepared a synthesis report of the complete assessment of all 27 National Energy Efficiency Action Plans (NEEAP), required by the Energy Services Directive on energy end-use efficiency and energy services. 

The European Commission has adopted a template for National Renewable Energy Action Plans (NREAPs) which are required under the recent Renewable Energy Directive. 

Construction has begun on new homes in London which will be both affordable and built to meet Code for Sustainable Homes level 5 standards.

Ministers and officials in DECC and BIS have developed the Government’s low-carbon industrial strategy, and will work with employers, unions and training and education providers to address key skills gaps in the transition to a low-carbon economy