A step-change in sustainable home building practice
As the Stern Review highlighted, there is now an overwhelming body
of scientific evidence showing that climate change is a serious and urgent
issue. In 2004, more than a quarter of the UK’s carbon dioxide emissions –
a major cause of climate change – came from the energy we use to heat,
light and run our homes. So it’s vital to ensure that homes are built in a
way that minimises the use of energy and reduces these harmful emissions.
Construction and use of our homes has a range of other environmental impacts,
created for example through water use, waste generation and use of polluting
materials, which can be significantly reduced through the integration of
higher sustainability performance standards within the design of a home.
More sustainable homes can also provide us with improved overall wellbeing
and quality of life.
The Code for Sustainable Homes has been introduced to drive a step-change
in sustainable home building practice. It is a standard for key elements of
design and construction which affect the sustainability of a new home. It will
become the single national standard for sustainable homes, used by home
designers and builders as a guide to development, and by home-buyers to
assist in their choice of home.
It will form the basis for future developments of the Building Regulations in
relation to carbon emissions from, and energy use in homes, therefore offering
greater regulatory certainty to developers. And in this era of environmental
awareness amongst consumers and increasing demand for a more sustainable
product, it will offer a tool for developers to differentiate themselves.
If we build the homes we need, then by 2050, as much as one-third of
the total housing stock will have been built between now and then. Current
house building plans therefore offer an important opportunity to build high
standards of sustainability into the homes we will use in the future. The
Code for Sustainable Homes will play a key role in enabling us to seize
this opportunity, and to build a future housing stock which both meets
our needs and protects the environment.
This booklet explains what the Code for Sustainable Homes is and how it
works. It also includes tables showing the criteria that assessors will use to
measure achievement of sustainability performance under the Code.
