Environmental Sustainability Of Housing In Uk

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

2.1 Environmental

sustainability

of

housing

2.1.1 environmental

justice

and

sustainability:

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts (2002) defines the Environmental Justice in its

Environmental Justice Policy: "Environmental justice is based on the principle that all

people have a right to be protected from environmental pollution and to live in and enjoy

a clean and healthful environment. Environmental justice is the equal protection and

meaningful involvement of all people with respect to the development, implementation,

and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies and the equitable

distribution of environmental benefits." (Massachusetts, 2002)

While

Sustainability

is

"the

need

to

ensure

a

better

quality

of

life

for

today's

and

future

generations,

sustainable

development

is

development

that

meets

the

needs

of

the

present

without

compromising

the

ability

of

future

generations

to

meet

their

own

needs

(Evans,

2003)

(

the

World

Commission

on

Environment

and

Development:

Our

Common

Future,

1987)

In spite of the historically different origin of these two concepts, there exists an area of

compatibility between them. This overlap creates livable and sustainable communities .

(Evans, 2003)

2.1.2 Environmental

sustainability

of

housing:

The most common current environmental problem is global climate change as a result of

the emission of greenhouse gases, notably CO2, that temperatures in the is expected to

rise. This endures many hazards, for example it would increase the risks of flooding be

and cause severe damage to agriculture, weather will not be stable which could cause an

increase demand for energy. Housing is a main contributor to this crises, thus housing is

the most significant sector in achieving environmental sustainability.

Environmental sustainability of housing is a field that deals with the impacts of housing

on the environment, and the impacts of the environment on housing, it addresses the

relationship between housing activities on one hand and public health, energy, water and

material efficiency and CO2 emission, waste produced from households and recycling, on

the other hand. This relationship can take place on the level of the house itself, or even on

the community level, on the house level, sustainable housing refers to energy and

material resources used by houses, and waste produced from them, while sustainable

communities addresses environmental, social and economic sustainability of the built

residential environment in terms of connectivity, transport and land use, etc. Thus saying

that the housing is sustainable or not, implies assessing both levels.

Environmental sustainability is a fundamental need to protect the health, diversity,

prosperity and productivity of the environment not only for the benefit of today's

population, but also for the future generations (Bergman, 2008;UN Habitat, 2012).

Housing in particular is the most significant sector in sustainable development, first

because it contributes to a great extent in the quality of life, health, prosperity and even

employment, second because of the fact that it consumes great amounts of energy and

other resources during its whole life cycle, in fact housing is responsible for about a

quarter of the global operational energy demand (UN habitat, 2012), houses energy

consumption is mainly for water heating and cooling, lighting, cooking, and operation of

devises and electronic equipments.

Consequently, one of the most cost-effective ways to achieve quality in housing in the

long term is the implication of sustainability criteria into all phases of the housing

development process, starting from land use planning, design, constructing, maintenance,

refurbishment and end of life, in other words the whole life cycle of households (UN

habitat 2012).

2.1.3 Houses

life

cycle

and

sustainability

:

As mentioned earlier, it is important to consider the whole life cycle of houses in the

environmental sustainability development process. and developing urban areas which are

sustainable both in terms of their environmental impact and in their ability to be flexible

to adapt future changes.

For instance raising of awareness for all those involved could be the first step, and build

strong partnerships between authorities and the variety of community groups, and

conduct a learning process that increases people’s knowledge and awareness about the

environment and sustainable development ,and develop the essential skills and

knowledge to deal with the challenges, fosters impacts, in order to motivate the public to

take responsible action (Unesco, 1978)

the planning phase need to address a good allocation of the housing zones , and the

urban design system and its impact on the local environment in terms of its relation to the

city; its density; public transport and infrastructure, since the form and location of

development will affect travel patterns. Green open public space should lie within 15

minutes walk of every home; and trees and other plants should grow within sight of every

home. This will create an attractive environment . (Power, 2003)

Experts think that developing brown field sites is preferable to green field sites, building

at high densities is preferable to low densities and mixed land uses is preferred to single

use zoning, since this situation guarantee allocating housing close to employment and

services and also to public transport, so that to maximize accessibility and minimize car

dependency and consequently reduce CO2 imitations, In addition, High densities and

mixed use development can affect energy consumption in uses other than transportation,

especially in heating and power requirements. combined heat and power (CHP) and

district heating (DH) schemes (which are common in the UK ) become more feasible

with higher densities and mixed uses. while sprawls leads to a situation where more land,

resources, and infrastructure (water, gas, electricity, roads) is needed, and causes a rise in

energy consumption for heating and power . Nevertheless it should be emphasized that

compaction and densification should be moderate, or else this will exacerbate the unsustainability

(UN habitat, 2012).

high residential densities can reduce land needed for housing , reduce travel and improve

the feasibility of public transport, decrease non-transport energy consumption, reduce the

space required for roads and car parking and make development more pedestrian friendly,

enhance the viability of existing or potential facilities specially commercial facilities.

(Sustainable Housing Design Guide for Scotland)

Site selection: building on undeveloped lands and in environmentally sensitive areas

should be avoided, the convenience of the site should be assessed in terms of green

design criteria. It should be inspected if the site takes maximum advantage of solar

access, existing vegetation, and natural features, as well as investigate the site’s location

in relation to roads, and its accessibility from existing transportation, in other words to

select a site near public transportation options. (LEED 2013)

urban design plays a major role in accomplishing environmental sustainability for

housing projects, it addresses some point such as:

the quality of space : which can be achieved by attractive buildings with good

proportions, spaces that are maintained properly. and designed to encourage interaction

between man and nature.

framework of streets and squares: comprehensible network of streets and public squares .

mix of uses that can guarantee reducing the use of cars, density of uses to create

adequate activity and people to revive streets and public places and to sustain facilities

specially commercial facilities

Minimal environmental harm :waste recycling, combined heat and power, well insulated

housing, urban ecology, water saving and sustainable materials. (Sustainable Housing

Design Guide for Scotland 2013)

In terms of the design process, buildings should be designed for long life, with ease of

maintenance and flexibility to changing needs. and not to neglect the use of energysaving

measures, such as insulation of walls, windows and doors, green roofs... etc. in an

attempt to reduce energy demand and carbon footprint, another important issue is the

orientation in order to take advantage of passive heating, natural lighting and shading.

(UN habitat 2012).

Construction causes many environmental problems, such as noise pollution, air pollution

and toxic waste; on the other hand, building materials industry may increase deforestation

and thus cause soil erosion, salinization of watercourses, in terms of energy input

required to quarry, transport and manufacture these materials, and the energy used for

construction itself, contribute to the environmental hazards of the building activities. This

phase should take care of the energy and resource utilization, in order to insure

efficiency, safety, environmental standards and using local sustainable materials,

minimization of environmental impact from building activity. (UN habitat 2012) ,

Waste and pollution show inefficiency in the environmental system since they represent

resources that are no longer available for use. Thus building waste Management can't be

ignored when speaking of sustainability, its strategies are; waste reduction on the first

place, recycling construction and demolition materials, architectural reuse. (LEED 2013)

Accordingly, an environmentally sustainable housing community is the one which

contain well-integrated mix of uses, and considered a safe and a healthy local

environment, and the right design to provide basic services in the community and

minimize usage of resources, with well-designed public and green space, and whose

dwellings of appropriate size, scale and density and design through all its life phases,

applying these measurements set the stage for successful construction of environmentally

sustainable dwellings. Nevertheless, It should be emphasized that sustainable building

don’t have to cost more, nor are they more complicated than traditional

construction.(ODPM, 2003)

2.2 Environmental

sustainability

of

housing

in

UK:

Demand of housing: Demand for housing in the UK is growing. A published statistics for

household growth predicts there will be 155,000 more households annually. Many of

them will be one-person households, smaller households have higher direct and indirect

energy requirements per person than larger households. For example, one-person

households use 60% more products per capita (in weight) than 4-person or more

households, and their energy consumption is 138% higher (ODPM 2003) (INCPEN,

2001).

As mentioned earlier, housing is the most significant sector in sustainable development;

working on achieving sustainable housing can take a major role on reducing emissions

and creating a better environment, including cutting greenhouse gas emissions, reductions

in contamination and saving the resources.

Experts and researchers think that it is evident that the residential sector in the UK shows

unsustainability from various perspectives, they even tend to believe it is locked in to

present practices with resistance to change (Bergman, 2008), while sustainable

development have high priority on the political and planning agenda, there is no

guarantee that the proposed measures will create sustainable communities. (Rydin Y. ,

2006)

Emissions :According to (Climate Change - the UK Program , 2006) approximately 27%

of the UK’s emissions result from direct energy use by the domestic sector. Despite the

fact that energy consumption for heating and cooking is decreasing, consumption related

to electronics and lighting is increasing, using indirect energy for travel and goods and

services is increasing too (Bergman, 2008),The UK has an ecological footprint of 3

planets- with some variations between cities- , which means If everyone in the world

lived as the people in the UK do, they would need three planets to support them if

everyone in the world used resources and released emissions at the same rate as the

average resident of UK (WWF 2013). Nevertheless, As a result of the Kyoto Conference

and the following meeting in Buenos Aires, the UK Government has agreed to a legally

binding global obligation to decrease emissions of the six main greenhouse gases by

12.5% compared to 1990 during the period of 2008-2012, and to cut 1990 level

CO2 emissions by 20% by 2010, and by 60 % by 2050. (Climate Change - the UK

Program, 2006)

With the large increase of population and transportation, and increasing amount of

factories in the UK, green houses resulted in great amount of emissions causing

environmental problem in increasing climate change. Managing housing sector will help

in reducing the energy consumption and emissions, starting with constructing the house

produce 10% of UK CO2 emissions, and between 26%and 33% of UK CO2 emissions

related domestic sector (Stevenson and Williams 2000)

Land: Another issue is that over many years new housing developments in UK have been

too wasteful of in terms of land, green field were being used and causing the emergence

of sub-urban sprawl, in spite of the fact that the previously developed land can

accommodate the needed development, even developing for housing on green field land

where it is needed has not always been managed efficiently, thousands of hectares of

previously developed land are now abandoned, Many people leave the town to suburbs

and rural areas which are considered attractive. This has caused a large scale house

building on green field sites. Between 1997 and 2000, over 50% of new dwellings were

built on green field lands.(ODPM, 2003)

This is problematic, given the UK’s limited available land (ODPM, 2003) (Bergman,

2008). Nevertheless, as the ODPM states; there are some attempts in the UK to encourage

housing development on brown field land or previously developed land, and to make sure

that where green field land is needed is will not be used in a profligate way, and to

propose and designate greenbelt land

building material: UK needs six tons of building material per person annually, housing

has the largest share in consuming materials, hence institute and organizations should

encourage consultants, engineers and clients to reconsider using material more

economical in order to reduce the demand of raw material, as recycling and reusing

material, and the most important, restoration and renovation existing building is the better

way for reducing the consumption of raw material. (Stevenson and Williams 2000)

Improvements in the technique of building our houses create opportunities to use

materials more wisely. At the end of a building’s life, recycling and re-use would reduce

the need for quarrying and ,and also the amount of landfill needed.

Quality of built environment: A survey was conducted in 2001 shows that over two

million households suffer major garbage problem in their surrounding environment, and

about one and a half million households are vandalized by graffiti, most of the

interviewees did not consider the existing housing developments well-designed (ODPM,

2003) apparently there is a need for UK higher quality households and communities.

(Power, 2003)

The authorities need to take into consideration through the design and planning phases

delivering a sustainable, well-designed, well-integrated mix of uses, yet attractive and

high quality places for the inhibiters to improve the quality of the living space. (ODPM,

2003)

Energy efficiency: Houses in UK consumes a great amount of energy since it has sever

climate, which lead to pollution and waste of resources, UK's dwellings majority don’t

apply the energy efficiency standards in buildings principles, however meeting energy

efficiency standards, result in higher quality of life and health, especially poor inhabitants

who can't afford heating their houses appropriately, affect their houses in condensation

problem (Stevenson and Williams 2000).

2.3 Laws

and

policies:

The next section is about laws and policies which will be used for creating a framework

for the assessment of environmental sustainability of homes,it consists of laws and

policies proposed by researchers, environmental agencies and bodies or governments

since policies specially the governmental play an important role in changing the behavior

of users and parties in the building sector, some of these policies are about the house

itself, other about a whole community :

2.3.1 Code

for

Sustainable

Homes

The Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) is an environmental assessment method for

rating and certifying the performance of new homes. It is a UK Government owned

national standard intended to promote continuous improvement in sustainable home

building, it was developed in an attempt to reduce carbon emissions, The code provides 9

measures of sustainable design: energy/CO2, water, materials, surface water runoff

(flooding and flood prevention), waste, pollution, health and well-being, management,

ecology, yet this code is still voluntary not mandatory.(gov.uk 2013)

2.3.2 department

for

communities

and

local

government

According to the department for communities and local government in UK's

government, some measurements were proposed in terms of planning for the

environment, these policies are:

• protecting green belts, sites of special scientific interest and sites with other

environmental protections

• protecting valued landscapes, trees and woodlands

• protecting open space and creating a new Local Green Space designation

• helping to improve biodiversity

• using natural resources prudently

• reducing pollution

• reducing the environment impact of extracting minerals and of managing waste

• locating new developments away from areas at risk of flooding where possible,

and making sure that developments in areas at risk of floodingare safe for their

lifetime

• managing development in coastal areas

2.3.3 BREEAM

BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) is the

oldest building assessment system in UK. Developed by the Building Research

Establishment (BRE)

BREEAM assesses the performance of buildings in the following areas:

· Management: overall management policy.

· Energy use: operational energy issues

· Health and well-being: indoor and external issues affecting health

· Pollution: air and water pollution issues

· Transport: transport-related CO2 and location-related factors

· Land use: green field and brown field sites

· Ecology: ecological value conservation and enhancement of the site

· Materials: environmental implication of building materials, including life-cycle impacts

· Water: consumption and water efficiency

(BREEA M manual, 2006)

2.3.4 LEED

(Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design): an internationally acknowledged

green building program, that provides certification of green buildings,LEED-certified

buildings are designed to:

• Minimize operating costs and increase asset value

• Lower waste produced

• Conserve energy and water

• Be healthier and safer for occupants

• Reduce harmful greenhouse gas emissions

2.3.5 EPBD

(Energy Performance of Buildings Directive) A legislation has been developed by the

European Union to reduce the energy demand in the built environment, it was designed in

order to promote cost-effective measurements for the buildings energy performance, and

it takes into consideration the local circumstances and requirements. Its promotes for a

comprehensive approach on energy performance of buildings:

•a methodology for calculating the integrated energy performance of buildings

•standards on the energy performance of new buildings and existing buildings that are

subject to major renovation

•systems for the energy certification of new and existing buildings and, for public

buildings, prominent display of this certification and other relevant information.

Certificates must be less than five years old

•regular inspection of boilers and central air-conditioning systems in buildings and

an assessment of heating installations in which the boilers are more than 15 years old.

(EPBD2008).

2.3.6 Hui

Sam

Hui

Sam

(2002)

thinks

the

following

concepts

are

fundamental

in

the

environmental

architecture

design

• Healthy interior environment: the used building materials and building system

must be chosen on the basis of its toxicity, which means it should not emit toxic

substances and gasses into the interior atmosphere.

• Energy Efficiency: building’s use of energy should be as minimum as possible,

and the use renewable energy as much as possible.

• Ecologically being materials: the materials and products used for building that

minimize using scarce materials, and maximize using recycled and recyclable

materials.

• Environmental form: harmonious relationship between the inhabitants and

surrounding environment

• Good design: an efficient and long lasting arrangement of spaces, circulation,

building form

2.3.7 GB

Tool

GB Tool is a building assessment development that was developed for the

biannual international Green Building Challenge (GBC) that has been held 3

times. GB Tool’s output provides an assessment of the building in the following

categories: Resource Consumption, Environmental Loadings; Indoor

Environmental Quality; Service Quality; Economics; Management; Commuting

Transport. (GB Tool manual, 2006)

2.3.8 Scottish

Office

guidance

on

planning

and

sustainability

(Sustainable Housing Design Guide for Scotland)

• Working to compromise between housing densities and transport provision

• mixed use development

• the development in the countryside is preferred to be infill development or

extensions to existing villages, or transforming of existing buildings

• the reuse of urban land, using existing infrastructure to the maximum.

• taking into consideration the energy efficiency of the neighborhoods patterns

• where new settlements are necessary they should be serviced by public transport

in advance

• applying the maximum, not minimum parking standards

• the design for car free developments.