‘Whole system thinking’ urgently needed to address challenge of climate change
Single-minded focus on zero carbon buildings could lead to perverse outcomes, warns David Strong
26 February 2008
The danger of the ‘zero carbon agenda’ that has gripped the UK construction industry is that it ignores social and economic sustainability and could result in highly perverse outcomes, leading architects, planners and property developers were warned today.
Speaking on the first day of the Ecobuild conference in London, Dr David Strong, chief executive of Inbuilt Consulting, called for an urgent reality check and a change to 'whole system thinking'.
“I am a strong supporter of zero and low carbon buildings. The drive towards zero carbon is very important – it has had a powerful effect in galvanising the UK housebuilding and property development community and in stimulating innovation. But there is much more to delivering exemplary built environments than zero carbon,” says David Strong, who recently won the 2007 Sustainability Leadership Award and is the founder of the UK Green Building Council.
Commenting on recent prototype dwellings that meet the highest levels (Levels 5 and 6) of the Code for Sustainable Homes, David Strong warned that:
“The single-minded scramble to design and build Level 6 homes gives out the message that this is the highest ambition and most worthy outcome we should aim for.
“However, if we end up with ‘zero carbon’, Code Level 6 homes that are uneconomic to maintain, are built on flood plains, overheat in summer, have poor acoustic performance, poor indoor air quality or other unintended consequences, then we have created a generation of homes that are unfit for people. We can’t call this sustainability. The so-called ‘best’ are in real danger of becoming the enemy of the good.”
Addressing the challenge of climate change requires a holistic approach to deliver genuine sustainability, explained David Strong.
“We need whole system thinking. This means collaborative, multi-disciplinary, integrated team working like we’ve rarely seen before.
“It also means working to find natural solutions to reduce our dependence on energy-intensive systems. There are so many opportunities offered by nature to ventilate, heat, cool and illuminate our buildings, and cost savings to be made by designing out unnecessary technical complexity.”
David Strong also questioned the reality of “zero carbon” as a useful label for buildings, and warned that it could offer consumers a false promise:
“The actual definition of ‘zero carbon’ differs significantly between various Government departments and agencies, and some of the definitions are based on completely unscientific formulas. And anyway, a home is only ‘zero carbon’ in the sense that it complies with a theoretical carbon requirement. It’s how we use that home that really matters.
“A home can only be genuinely zero carbon if the occupants’ lifestyles are prescribed and energy is rationed in order to balance onsite energy generation – which is entirely politically unacceptable,” he said.
David Strong reminded delegates of the need to avoid being distracted from the vital
challenges of reducing carbon emissions from the existing building stock, and of
securing investment and planning permission for large scale renewable energy
systems.
“In terms of pounds sterling invested per tonne of carbon saved, both of these objectives will provide a much greater and faster return than making all new homes ‘zero carbon’,” he explained.
He also sent a reminder to the Housing Minister, Caroline Flint MP, that an urgent interdepartmental Government review and strategic plan for improving the energy performance of the UK’s existing building stock was promised in November 2003. “It has never materialised”, he said.
Inbuilt Consulting is a major supporter of Ecobuild which takes place at Earls Court on 26 – 28 February. Inbuilt also has an exhibition stand at E830.
Contact
Dr David Strong, Chief Executive, Inbuilt
Tel. +44 (0)1923 277000
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