Greener buildings can help lift us out of recession

3 February 2009 – Press Release

Building greener can inject jobs and money into the local economy, helping boost recovery for local communities and helping achieve national carbon targets.

Results of new research by The Prince’s Foundation for the Built Environment will be announced today (3 February 2010) at The Prince’s Foundation’s 7th Annual Conference entitled “Building – A new green economy”. The conference will be held at St James’s Palace in London and will be attended by the President of The Prince’s Foundation, HRH The Prince of Wales.

“A sustainable community built from green buildings is an economic gift that keeps on giving,” notes keynote conference speaker, Hank Dittmar, Chief Executive of The Prince’s Foundation. Its research: “Sustainable Supply Chains that Support Local Economic Development” found that small changes in construction material can produce a big effect. Simple, regionally produced materials, which can be assembled on site, supports local jobs, regional industry and help achieve greater carbon reduction. (For detailed results see below).

The Prince’s Foundation research analysed the impact of using regionally produced clay blocks as part of a large housing scheme. The study found that clever selection of locally available materials could achieve both environmental goals and economic ones.

“House building accounts for nearly a third of UK carbon emissions and needs to be a major part of the solution,” Mr Dittmar continues. “Complicated, high tech solutions that require a specialised workforce can achieve energy efficiency, but add little value to the local economy. Selecting natural materials, which are produced nearby, retains value and strengthens relationships between firms. Simple building solutions such as the clay block allow local builders to be employed instead of importing specialised workers from outside the community. The report found that this is better both for the environment and for local economies.”

“This is a creative way of greening the construction pound by devolving manufacture and jobs more locally. The result is a win-win – the house builders achieve good returns and local economies benefit from jobs and long-term investment,” suggests Hank Dittmar.

Download the Report:
Sustainable Supply Chains that Support Local Economic Development [764 Kb]

Notes 

The research examined the capital, labour and transport impacts of four different house-building scenarios, using aerated clay block construction instead of more high tech solutions. The first scenario was based on a single house, The Prince’s Foundation’s ‘Natural House’, which is currently under construction at the Building Research Establishment’s Innovation Park in Watford. The second scenario examined its impact on a larger community, using a group of urban development projects currently under design in South Wales. The final scenarios examined industry-wide and national impacts if higher volumes were produced.

Detailed findings include:

• An estimated economic gain of over £12,000 per house for the local community if locally assembled clay blocks were to be used.
• An estimated impact of over £4.27 million pounds per year for the larger region in Wales (under Scenario 2, above), employing over 150 people for 20 years in direct and indirect industries.
• Up to £2.6 billion and 90,000 jobs supported per year if all new homes were built using this approach (based suggested Government targets of approximately 230,000 housing starts per year).

Other non-economic impacts include:

• Training for a new generation of building industry workers
• Long-term job security over the life an entire development
• Increased self-respect, well-being and community pride
• Up to 2.8 times less CO2 emissions

Terms Used 

By ‘green’ building, The Prince’s Foundation means:-

• Using natural materials (such as clay, timber, lime, and hemp) which have low embodied-carbon properties, involve lower carbon production methods and yield lower site waste.
• Re-using existing buildings and materials wherever possible.
• Using a local workforce, near the development site, trained for the longer term.
• Creating sustainable supply chains with manufacturing sites as close as possible to development sites to save transport emissions and limit transport disruptions.

By ‘sustainable’ neighbourhood The Prince’s Foundation means:- 

• Building homes close to local amenities and public transport so people can use their cars less – or manage with fewer cars
• Incorporating affordable housing into a good mix of different house types and prices
• Embedding shops and amenities amongst houses so that people can get their daily needs on foot rather than using their cars for every single trip
• Reflecting distinct local character and good craftsmanship in buildings so they’re durable and stand the test of time

Policy Context

The UK Government has committed to reducing CO₂ emissions to 34% of 1990 levels by the year 2020. The built environment will play a major role in this effort. Housing currently accounts for nearly 30% of all CO₂ emissions in the UK, and the Government estimates that about 15% of necessary cuts in emissions will have to come from housing and the built environment. The policy mandate for more efficient homes is clear, and the demand for more efficient housing is also strong.

The UK Code for Sustainable Homes mandates that by 2016, all new homes must be built to Code 6 certification, i.e., have zero carbon emissions. This ambitious challenge requires a step change in how British homes are built, with significant consequences for both the building trades and the industries that they support.