Ecobuild conference London, March 2010
Zero carbon homes policy ‘is becoming a fiasco’
n
The UK government’s targets on zero carbon
buildings are turning into a fiasco, according to eco-property developer Pooran Desai. The co-founder of the BedZED project in London said: ‘We are seeing unfolding a bit of a fiasco in terms of the zero carbon policy. It has not been led by practical, frontline, on-the-ground experience. ‘We found that exceeding the
Building Regulations produced no savings in overall greenhouse gases.’ Desai said building to a higher specification than level four of the Code for Sustainable Homes produced very small savings in greenhouse gases (GHGs). ‘By building homes beyond level
four of the code, we are producing diminishing returns. In the next few years we’ll find that level four is about right,’ he said. ‘The current zero carbon policy definition is problematic – it’s a tax on new homes. A lot of big house builders don’t know what they are signing up to.’ He added that, by focusing on
The current
zero carbon policy definition is problematic – it’s a tax on new homes
– Pooran Desai
The whole concept of zero-carbon homes needs to be remarketed to the public if there is any hope of meeting the government’s 2050 carbon reduction target in existing homes. UK property developer Stephen
Stone, chief executive of Crest Nicholson, said that part of the problem is the language we use. ‘Nobody really understands what tonnes of carbon reduction is,’ he
Paul King of UKGBC, a supporter of Ecobuild... Overall our emissions are going up, but government targets do matter.
CO2 emissions from buildings, the industry was ignoring the importance of ‘embedded’ carbon in products and services. However, a senior sustainability
official at the Department for Communities and Local Government defended the zero carbon buildings policy. Bob Ledsome said: ‘Yes, there are extra costs but we are putting in place mechanisms that will help cover that cost – such as feed-in tariffs, and the renewable homes initiative for developers.’ ‘The policy is also about
encouraging investment to bring
down the cost,’ he added. ‘This is a complicated business – there is no silver bullet. Therefore we need a balanced portfolio of responses.’ Paul King, chief executive of
the UK Green Building Council, which has been involved in the development of the zero carbon policy, insisted that ‘no other government policy has done so much in influencing so much’. But he conceded: ‘Overall we
aren't making any difference to CO2 reduction. Overall our emissions are going up. However, with buildings we can offer very cost effective CO2 reductions.’
Pooran Desai... Critical of targets.
Efficiency needs to be resold to the public – and drop the renewables
said. He added that the two key drivers for home buyers remains location and proximity to shops and schools, describing energy efficiency as a ‘nice to have’. ‘That’s why the second-hand
stock has got such a huge challenge facing them for 2050, because people just do not want to engage in the big agenda,’ he said. Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the Zero Carbon Hub (ZCH),
agreed that marketing of energy efficiency has to change, while one delegate told the auditorium that all talk of technology, such as photovoltaics and ground source heat pumps, has to stop. The concept of eco-homes
should also be dropped, according to Ed Brown, chief executive of Davis Langdon, who would like to see a move towards homes that are just ‘more sustainable’.
Another problem endemic in
the industry, according to Stone, is its fear of selling the credentials of more sustainable homes when not enough data has been collected to support the claims, as well as the fact that it has very little or no research and development activity. He suggested that perhaps
part of the solution is to create a ‘refurbishment hub’ to carry out similar works to that of the ZCH.
26
CIBSE Journal April 2010
www.cibsejournal.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84