BuilderScrap.com believes in making construction as sustainable as possible.  This article from the Building website looks at the government commitment to making new homes zero carbon after 2016. But, as the article discusses, a lot depends on how you define zero.

01 / redefining zero-carbon homes
You might think that it would be relatively straightforward to define a zero-carbon home, but the construction industry has spent the past 18 months tying itself in knots over the issue. The government’s recent consultation provides an insight into where the debate is going; this article provides an overview of some of the key issues.
• The current position: The government is committed to reducing UK CO2 emissions 80% by 2050. With housing representing about a quarter of those emissions and with 35% of our 2050 housing likely to be built after 2008, it is understandable that much policy emphasis has been placed on low and zero-carbon buildings.
It was back in December 2006, that the government made the first proposals that all new homes would be “zero carbon” after 2016. At the time, zero-carbon status required that over the course of a year, a development would emit no CO2 from its heating, hot water, lighting and appliances. All of the carbon reductions had to be achieved using local “off-site” technologies connected to the development by a direct physical connection (e.g. a private wire arrangement).
Analysis was undertaken to determine the costs of delivering this policy.  As might be expected, costs and benefits vary depending on the scale and location of development and the mix of housetypes. Analyses highlighted concerns regarding the deliverability of zero carbon using exclusively on-site solutions. These include:
• The impact on capital cost and project viability
• The technical feasibility of delivery
• The over-reliance on specific technologies, notably biomass and biomass combined heat and power.
In addition, recent proposals to revise the SAP assessment method by which domestic CO2 emissions are modelled (specifically, revisions of the emission factor for electrical generation on site) would reduce the amount of carbon reduction achieved through on-site generation by about 25%, further exacerbating concerns over deliverability and cost.
Consequently, the government recently consulted on alternative definitions of a zero-carbon home. These comprise minimum standards of energy efficiency, a defined level of carbon savings to be achieved on site and the reduction of residual emissions through a range of potential “allowable solutions”.

BuilderScrap allows builders and contractors to source and dispose of building materials in a more sustainable manner, and we believe that this could be of great benefit to the future of zero carbon home.