Zero Carbon Homes

In December 2006, the UK Government committed that all new homes would meet ‘zero carbon’ standard from 2016. This was a ground breaking announcement, which the UK-GBC fully supported, believing it to perhaps be the most ambitious environmental policy the Government has introduced. Zero carbon means that the home will have zero net carbon emissions from all energy uses in the home over the course of a year. The Government also introduced a stamp duty rebate for new zero carbon homes.

In 2008 the UK-GBC Zero Carbon Task Group (ZC Task Group) was established to review the definition of zero carbon as laid out in the Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH) Technical Guidance, and propose amendments where required in order to support effective implementation of Government’s stated targets for zero carbon homes and buildings in the future.

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The ZC Task Group report concluded that, according to all the available evidence, anywhere from 10% to 80% of new homes may not be able to meet the definition of 'zero carbon' as set out in the CSH. The report therefore recommended a revised definition of zero carbon that allows the use of off-site solutions in certain circumstances.              

Following the recommendations of the UK-GBC's ZC task group report, the Government consulted on the definition of zero carbon for both homes and non-domestic buildings between December 2008 and March 2009. The consultation document can be accessed here and the UK-GBC's response to that consultation is available here. 

In June 2010 Housing Minister Grant Shapps gave an update on the key elements of the definition of zero carbon, reiterating the coalition government's support for a robust minimum energy efficiency standard, a national benchmark for a carbon compliance standard in building regulations, and signalled the creation of a community energy fund, originally recommended by UK-GBC, as a key part of the allowable solutions to account for the remaining carbon emissions from new developments. Read our response to the announcement here.

CASE STUDIES
A few organisations have collated case studies and profiles of zero carbon housing projects, in particular:

• Zero Carbon Hub: profiles of zero carbon projects 
• BRE Innovation Park: information on the demonstration projects in the park and details of how to arrange a visit.  
• Building: a few low and zero carbon projects featured on the Building magazine website 
  

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