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Only now had time to draw breath after a hectic week. Not much time to consider a major piece of work by the NHBC Foundation on consumer knowledge and appetite for zero-carbon homes. Building has plenty of detail on this in today's edition, which essentially points out that while the industry and government has been beavering away at coming up with bold plans, definitions, targets and technical guidances they have as yet failed to communicate any of this to the general public.
The result is confusion and misunderstandings about zero carbon and technical terms such as airtightness (perhaps we need to come up with a new word or phrase for this) - there was also the 'yuk factor' that consumers feel at using greywater. More disturbingly in the wider part of the consumer survey only 45% of the public believes that climate change os caused by CO2. And on specifics the problem appears to be twofold: that selling zero carbon and reduced water usage will be difficult as it involves quite radical changes, such as airtightness and now power showers; and that there's a risk of a 'carbon rebound' affect, ie. using savings on energy to jet off on holiday or buy a bigger car.
One hopes that the report, which also has some interesting findings from the perspective of housebuilders as well, will not be jumped on skeptics as proof of inaction rather than grappling with the problems and finding solutions.
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