Home run
The places we live in have everything to do with sustainability. Giles Crosse discovers why.
Often industrial processes grab the headlines when it comes to our future planet. Alternatively, eco crimes in the Amazon or mass corporations can hijack the agenda in terms of getting us moving in the right direction. But that’s no reason to ignore how we can do more with one of the obvious things most of us are lucky enough to have, a place to live in. Sustainability in the home is grabbing more and more attention, and rightly so. With the right ideas, any modern home can be turned into a carbon neutral, beautiful creation, stuffed full of gizmos that actively care for and help the planet, rather than the other way around.
So what’s the best way to discover the solutions, or turn your pad into something a bit more special?
Home is where the heart is
All kinds of fertile new ideas are coming to light. These include concepts like vegetation decked flat roofing, or in home water reuse systems. A lot of this is being driven by legislation, as global governments look to force embedding of eco homes through law.
Campaigning groups too are having their say. The WWF runs its ‘One Planet Homes’ programme, saying, ‘Our homes account for 22 per cent of our ecological footprint and up to 30 per cent of our carbon emissions.’
And in London, the ‘World Green Roof Congress 2010’ is taking place from 15/16 September 2010. There’s a remarkably close link between engineering and biodiversity. For example, building green roofing in cities encourages the natural environment, insects, birds and plants. This makes for a more beautiful habitat for humans to live in. There are federations out there like the European Federation of Green Roof Associations (EFB), that want to ‘help address issues related to climate change, ecosystem services, green infrastructure and lack of green space in the built environment.’ Elsewhere, livingroofs.org is a UK based organisation promoting living roofs in the UK. Apparently the practice is already widespread in mainland Europe, and it’s not limited to the EU. In the US, Kenmore Mercy Hospital has just established a rooftop garden on September 1, 2010. The garden will produce fresh, locally and organically grown herbs and tomatoes for use in recipes for patients, visitors and staff.
“Because the hospital uses substantial quantities of food, we have made a commitment to sustainable cuisine,” said Kathy McAlpine, Food Services manager at Kenmore Mercy. “The herb garden serves as an extension of the hospital’s Go Green program.”
Exactly the same kind of concept could help you grow your own produce at home, or might help out flat owners who haven’t access to garden space, but who often live in massive apartment buildings with huge, unused roof spaces.
www.livingroofs.org offers a DIY guide to what you can do to create a green roof. And some cities are going even further.
Living roofs web portal quotes Bo Asmus Kjeldgaard, explaining: ‘Copenhagen has set itself the ambitious target of becoming the world’s first carbon neutral capital by 2025. To meet this ambitious goal we need ambitious measures. Therefore we have now decided to ensure the City adapts to extreme weather conditions by making new requirements for getting grass on top of as many buildings as possible,’
It seems that, ‘Today about 20,0000 m2 of the roofs in Copenhagen are flat and at least 30 buildings have green roofs. It is envisioned that new development should add 5000 m2 per year – though this is only aspirational as it will depend on the development cycle and economic factors.’
Moving together
Many places are extending the concept of sustainable homes to sustainable communities. These include the ‘BedZed’ development in the UK, or the Forests Forever programme in China. BedZed has achieved some impressive results, according to its webdata: ‘Energy: 81 per cent reduction in energy use for heating, 45 per cent reduction in electricity use (compared to local av). Transport: 64 per cent reduction in car mileage 2,318km/year (compared to national av).Water: 58 per cent reduction in water use 72 litres/person/day (compared to local av). Waste: 60 per cent waste recycled. Food: 86 per cent of residents buy organic food.’
The point of all this is that’s it’s actually very possible for us to radically alter the way our living impacts on the environment. And often there are all kinds of associated benefits too. More sustainable communities generally involve more shared land and facilities. This leads to more sociable and interactive lives for those people who live among them, rather than heading out to work, returning, closing the front door and switching on the television. It’s also not complicated to understand how looking out of your city centre office window over a urban district covered in green roofs, rather than grey asphalt or tiling, might make your mid morning coffee a bit more relaxing too.
With the energy saving benefits illustrated by BedZed, these options needn’t be more expensive either. It’s another example of how things aren’t impossible to achieve, we’ve simply become accustomed, for whatever reason, to building our homes in a way that’s neither complementary to the environment, nor in many ways to our happiness.
That’s actually not so very difficult to change when you think about it.
What are your views? Not sure? Read the resources below for more information. Add your comment below. We welcome your thoughts and proposals. Not a Planetary Citizen? Sign up to Our Future Planet today!
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Resources
Sustainable Homes: Case Studies
A Guide to Developing a Sustainability Strategy and Action Plan
