06/04/2005 – A WWF report
concludes that tougher house-building standards
need to be set by the Wales National Assembly
to help curb its C02 emissions.
The report — Building a Future for Wales:
A Strategy for Sustainable Housing — identifies
key practices for designers, planners and
developers to make energy efficient and low
impact houses the norm in Wales, and addresses
ways to minimize carbon and waste emissions
from homes, as around 27 per cent of all CO2
emission in the UK are produced through heating,
lighting and appliance use in our homes.
The report also highlights ways to make houses
more efficient in terms of their use of energy,
water and materials.
"Unfortunately most houses in Wales
have a negative impact on the environment
because of the way they are designed and built.
This guide offers key guidelines for ways
to make homes more environmentally friendly,"
said Haf Roberts, Policy Officer for WWF-UK
in Cardiff.
"Our current demands in Wales on the
natural environment are excessive. If fact,
if everyone in the world lived like the average
Welsh person we would need nearly three planets
to support our lifestyles," she added.
The report includes good examples of housing
developments built to high environmental standards
in Wales. One example is the Plas y Môr
building at Burry Port which is an innovative
care home that has many energy efficient features
properly integrated into the design from the
start to ensure affordability, which results
in cost savings for the home over the long
term.
Another example is in Butetown, Cardiff where
solar thermal panels and flax roof insulation
have been used on a new housing estate. This
demonstrates what can be achieved by incorporating
sustainability principles at a local government
level.
The report identifies the following as important
factors for building sustainable homes: energy
efficiency appliances for heating and lighting;
use of low allergy and environmentally friendly
material; water efficiency through better
sanitary fittings and drainage; provision
for recycling and composting; and materials
sourced from local or sustainable sources
"Housing is a key element towards building
a sustainable future, especially in terms
of reducing carbon emissions and material
waste,"said Professor Phillip Jones,
Head of the Welsh School of Architecture.
"We hope this guide will help pave the
way for sustainable communities to be built
in Wales."
Notes:
• The report was prepared by the Centre for
Research in the Built Environment of the Welsh
School of Architecture (WSA) and commissioned
by WWF-UK's office in Cardiff, Wales.
• According to the US government's Climate
Monitoring Diagnostics Laboratory, the atmospheric
concentration of the greenhouse gas carbon
dioxide has reached a new high. The figures
– 378 parts per million (ppm) is the highest
recorded since monitoring began in 1958.
• WWF launched the One Million Sustainable
Homes (OMSH) campaign at the World Summit
on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg
2002. The aim of the campaign is to move sustainability
from the fringes to the mainstream of the
UK housing and to facilitate the development
of one million new and refurbished homes by
2012.
