The standards explained
Code for Sustainable Homes and zero carbon building
This Code provides a national standard for the sustainable design and construction of new homes and drives improvements in home building practice. It ensures that new homes deliver real improvements, with the ultimate aim of moving towards low and zero carbon homes.
New developments are assessed in several key areas and assigned a performance measure of one to six, where level six is zero carbon, indicating that the design incorporates high levels of energy efficiency in the fabric of the building.
Step changes to building regulations, which started in 2010, will mean new-build homes will have to conform to ever increasing levels of energy efficiency. And Government plans to increase the housing supply will provide a great opportunity to significantly decrease the impact these new homes have on the environment.
For more information see Government’s Code for Sustainable Homes
BREEAM
BREEAM (BRE Environmental Assessment Method) addresses environmental and sustainability issues - and enables developers and designers to prove the environmental credentials of their buildings to planners and clients. It is the leading environmental assessment method for buildings, covering a number of elements, not just the materials used. The assessment is split into nine different sections and credits are awarded on a sliding scale for using building elements with particular ratings.
For more information see BREEAM website
PassivHaus low-energy design
The term 'PassivHaus' refers to a specific construction standard that can be applied to residential homes as well as commercial, industrial and public buildings. PassivHaus dwellings, which have been common in some parts of Europe for a number of years, typically achieve an energy saving of 90% compared to traditional housing.
The European Union plans to make PassivHaus and other extremely low-energy homes widespread by 2016, while the UK is working to the same target to introduce the even more challenging standard of zero carbon houses.
For more information see PassivHaus website
