Eco Projects Go Green At Home

Date Published:

29/05/2008

The UK's 21 million homes are responsible for a staggering 27 per cent of the country's carbon emissions. Turning eco-friendly can save you money.

Laura Brady reports

Ethical and Financial Incentives

Things have got so bad lately that earlier this year even George Bush acknowledged that: 'it's in America's interest to diversify its energy supply having been too long dependent on foreign oil'. But before we criticise, perhaps we should all be looking closer to home. The seemingly innocent acts of lighting and heating our homes are having a massive impact on the environment.

It's no surprise, therefore, that green themes are now central to the government's new housing initiatives. In December 2005 Gordon Brown pledged to undertake energy audits on existing homes and work with the financial services industry to offer low-interest loans on homes that meet certain green criteria. All new homes, he added, must be built as zero carbon by 2016. And buyers of the majority of new experimental green homes will be exempt from stamp duty for a limited period. So while there has long been an ethical and environmental argument for living in a green home, there are now financial incentives too.

An eco-friendly home is likely to have certain features such as high levels of insulation to keep in heat, big windows to let in lots of daylight, renewable energy sources like south-facing solar roof panels or wind turbines, energy-efficient heating systems and water collection facilities such as outdoor water-butts.

However, an eco-friendly house is not the same thing as a 'carbon-zero' home that, by definition, must literally generate the same energy as it spends creating a net 'zero emission' of carbon dioxide. The vast majority of existing homes are simply not built to achieve this state - however environmentally-aware its occupants. So where can you find an eco-friendly home? Greenmoves.co.uk is an online 'broker' for green homes, either from developers or private individuals.