More Green Homes Planned for UK - What Makes them Green?

In light of soon-to-be British PM Gordon Brown's announcement today of plans to be unveiled that will bring as many as 100,000 new green homes to the UK in the coming years, here's a great BBC News article about what makes a home green. The piece highlights building on brownfield sites and employing good solar orientation, as well as the use of natural or recycled materials in construction. It also talks about taking advantage of renewable energy sources like wind and solar, as well as ways you can cut your water use in half.




The article also talks about how an "eco-home has to fit into an eco-community." It suggests ways to make communities carbon-neutral through use of public transit and cycle-friendly design to help citizens cut their automobile use, and related CO2 emissions. Brown's plans are centered on the development of up to five such "eco-towns." The article points out the successful BedZED zero energy development in Surrey (pictured below). You can get more info on BedZED at the Bioregional Development Group website. There is a lot of great info on the site. It definitely encourages you to see something like this, already built with people living there. Better communities really are attainable.




I'll also say how inspired I am to see the UK taking such a proactive path towards green development and renewable energy. If you follow the news in this area, you'll have seen lots of announcements like this over the last year. I wish the USA would follow. We're getting there, but much more slowly. While Americans' attitudes have changed a lot in the last year (finally accepting that climate change is actually real, that it has consequences, and that we might want to make some changes) we still have a long way to go. Our leaders aren't exactly racing in the right direction, and we all need to start "voting with our dollars."

Probably what is different about the UK and the USA is that Britain is a good bit further along in their nation's loss of manufacturing jobs and manufacturing as the absolute basis of the national economy. Incomes are down, they aren't making any more land, the pollution from the industrialized past is still there. They see that they need a better way. They see green communities and renewable energy as a real part of the equation for a better future. I think the same is very true for the USA, we just don't want to believe that yet. But our time is coming.

Image credits - BBC article & Bioregional Development Group site