By Kelly Edwards, Director, Green Issues Communications. Green Issues Communications is the UK’s leading political planning consultancy supporting the development industry.

In 2008 Green Issues conducted a wide ranging consultation programme on Middle Quinton, a proposed eco town south of Stratford-upon-Avon. The proposers of Middle Quinton still await to hear from Government if their plans will be included in their next swathe of eco towns.
www.middlequintonecotown.co.uk

The four short-listed eco towns, (Rackheath in Norfolk, Whitehill/ Bordon in Hampshire, North West Bicester in Oxfordshire and China Clay in St Austell, Cornwall), once they have been finalised and have successfully run the gauntlet of our planning system, have a huge part to play in demonstrating that living more sustainably can be an attractive and simple choice and one without compromise. This is the challenge for eco towns and the yardstick by which they should be measured.

Eco towns will also provide an important showcase and ‘proving ground’ for new technologies and the contemporary design of homes and communities. They should, and I believe do, attempt to tackle broader issues of community master planning and sustainability that span:  housing design; building techniques; non-car dependent transport solutions; ‘whole-life’ community integration, energy production and use; the food cycle; waste minimalisation, recycling and recovery, to mention a few of the complex issues they provide responses to.

Eco towns consider these issues and propose means of addressing them in both new, stand-alone communities, along with, in the case of NW Bicester and Rackheath, major new extensions. Importantly though, they will also be looking at providing sustainable solutions for retro-fitting existing homes and communities, as in the case of Whitehill in Bordon, and this has the opportunity to provide real-life examples of how we can alter and adjust existing homes in streets and villages across the country. Retro-fitting technologies that work and are easy to use will be vital in helping the UK achieve its ambitious carbon reduction targets - 60% of 1990 level by 2050.

So specifically, what sort of measures should and will the eco towns comprise of?

Looking at Middle Quinton, and the other four short-listed eco towns, one thing becomes clear, the acknowledgement and understanding that to produce a real eco community an approach that spans all aspects of a potential resident’s life is vital - where will they work, how will their homes reduce energy, where will their energy come from, what will happen to their waste and how will they spend their leisure time and how far will they travel?

By combining innovative solutions with practical and tried and tested methods, a number of eco town promoters have risen successfully and innovatively to the challenges these issues pose.
Let’s look at some specific suggestions:

Energy & Waste:
Many promoters are targeting zero waste & 100% recycling. Suggestions to make this a reality include making recycling easy by equipping each street with an underground vacuum waste system to transport waste to an energy centre for recycling or to create heat and power via Advanced Thermal Treatment.

Alternatively, biomass boilers are proposed (to be fuelled by woodchip, in Rackheath’s case, from nearby Thetford Forest), solar thermals also feature, as do wind turbines and ground source heat pumps and borehole cooling.

Homes:
Key to reducing Co2 emissions in the new communities will be how energy is used in the home. Smart-meters will be the norm. Some promoters plan basic measures such as incorporating rainwater recycling, low flush WC’s, high insulation levels and green roofs. Others recognise that homes do not have to include radical zedbed-style design solutions and promote the use of ‘Passive Haus’ principles as can be seen in use extensively across Europe. ‘Passive Haus’ places great emphasis on practical and tested methods that can be easily applied across building types. These principles mean energy bills 1/10th of the current UK average or just £100 a year. Super insulation reduces heat loss in the home by 80%; passive solar gain can provide up to 1⁄3 of the heating needs of a ‘Passive Haus’ home when utilised with triple-glazing and super-insulated frames; and high electrical efficiency in bulbs, appliances and connections, combines with smart metering to significantly reduce energy needs in new homes.

Transport:
Internal and external transportation are key issues considered by eco town promoters. According to the Eco Town Challenge Panel, some do it more successfully than others.  At the heart of reducing internal transport emissions, promoters, quite rightly, see creating places to work, to shop, to go to school and spend leisure time, within easy reach (meaning flat walking or within cycling distance) of residents as absolutely critical. If you can leave your home and within two minutes be collected by a clean, fast, modern and cheap rapid transit system that takes you 10 minutes to get to work, the alternative of a daily commute through heavy traffic and road problems, with the added peril of parking, becomes far less attractive.

Also central to the success of an internal and external transport strategy for the eco towns is the provision of extensive new employment on site. This is widely recognised by promoters.

External transportation creates more of a problem for promoters as it does society as a whole. Whilst promoters mention among other things car clubs, widespread electric charging points, goods delivered to local shops via rail and the promotion, as in the case of Middle Quinton and Rackheath, of new passenger rail/or rail/road transit systems, the issue remains one of the biggest challenges and risks for the success of the eco towns.

Setting aside the political, PR, and planning based challenges of the eco towns, of which there are many, promoters not only have to deal with the challenges of creating real, workable, and user friendly whole-life solutions to sustainable communities, but they also have to do this whilst delivering sustainability in a way that is saleable to their customers and commercially viable. In an industry dominated by ‘off-the-shelf’ house building this could be the toughest challenge of all.

We would like to thank Kelly Edwards, Green Issues Communications for contributing this fascinating and  insightful article.

For further information please visit www.greenissues.com