Financial crisis gives green builders a welcome boost

Government climate change targets and the financial crisis are giving green builders added incentive. Felicity Carus reports
Felicity Carus
guardian.co.uk, Tuesday November 18 2008 16.10 GMT

Morning light pours into the study of the completed Tree House Photograph: Will Anderson/Will Anderson
Will Anderson's home radiates warmth on a cold, clear November day. It's 10C outdoors, and a toasty 20.5C inside – but not a single degree of that warmth is generated by energy from the national grid.
When Anderson completed his house in 2006, zero carbon homes were few and far between. But since a government target announced in the same year by Gordon Brown to build all new homes with zero-energy demands as standard by 2016, dwellings like Anderson's will not be such a rarity.
Even the current financial crisis has given the zero-carbon initiative added impetus. As the conventional construction industry suffers, the sustainable building industry has seen an opportunity to grow. Early findings from a survey this week from the UK Green Building Council (UK GBC) indicate that sustainable building is a growth sector.
Asked whether the financial crisis has impacted on their organisation in tackling sustainability, 56% of its members said sustainability had become a bigger focus. Only 18% said the credit crunch has had an adverse effect on efforts to address sustainability.
Paul King, the chief executive of UK GBC, says: "I think we've seen an end to 'boom and bust' for sustainability. This time it's going to remain high on the political and corporate agenda because the climate change imperative is now so strong. This is reflected in what the building industries are facing in terms of government policy and regulation – not just in the UK but around the world. Failure to adapt and innovate will lead to obsolete buildings and obsolete companies. Those that grasp the opportunity will prosper, those that don't will fail. UK-GBC members recognise this and want to be among the winners not the losers."
Zero-carbon building focuses on renewable sources of power and reducing demand for heating, which accounts for around half of the UK's carbon dioxide emissions.
Electricity at Anderson's Tree House is produced on the roof by 30 square metres of solar photovoltaic panels supplied by Solar Century. Their output peaks at about 4.3kW and even on a late autumn day, his PV panels had produced more than 5KWh by mid morning.
The panels generate around 4,470kWh of electricity a year and is used to power the lights, appliances and a heat pump which provides underfloor heating throughout the house. The excess – 118KWh last year – is sold back to the grid.
As the energy bill nears the statute books, Anderson believes that feed-in tariffs, where the price of electricity exported to the grid is at a fixed rate, will stimulate greater interest in zero carbon homes.
"I can't wait for feed-in tariffs. It's an obvious way to stimulate the market and it's worked well in Germany. It just depends on what tariffs are agreed," he says.
Anderson's house is so successful at producing its own energy that over the year it is a net exporter of electricity, making it a carbon negative house.
But energy production is only part of the story, says Anderson. Tackling energy demand in the home is instrumental in achieving the government's target of reducing carbon dioxide emissions by 80% by 2050. Anderson calculates that he consumes around 4,400Kwh of power a year whereas the UK average is around 26,000Kwh.
"There is a lot of fretting in the building industry about how to achieve a zero spec, but it's all to do with demand. People get obsessed by the supply side. And the supply side, with all the technology is more visual, so fair enough. But the key thing is to get the demand down. Insulation and airtightness are key.
"Airtightness is a very big thing and that's what we're not very good at in this country. That was one of the biggest challenges because builders had never done it before. We actually used Canadian details for air tightness. So we have a draught-free house."
The house was pressure tested by experts who sealed the doors and windows and installed a huge fan to see how many air changes there were in an hour. They found there were around 2.3 air changes an hour - most buildings have more than 10 changes an hour.
Optimism in the green building trade is also supported by the government's apparent determination not to let its plans to tackle climate change become derailed by economic conditions.
A spokesman for the Communities and Local Government ministry says: "Our long-term priorities must not be forgotten. Climate change is one of the most pressing issues facing not only this country but the entire world. With buildings contributing more than a quarter of our carbon emissions, we must take our responsibilities in this area seriously."
While making new build zero-carbon is realistic, the challenge for the government is reducing emissions from its existing housing stock.
"We have already tightened house-building standards to deliver a 40% reduction in the level of carbon emissions from an average new build home since 2002, alongside a £1bn programme to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes. We will continue to increase the sustainable standards for new homes, and from 2016 they must be zero-carbon — the most demanding timetable in the world."