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The Green Gauge February 8th

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A trawl through the web this week has revealed the Government's new plans for water usage, green gadgets and the new Housing Minister's first banana skin

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Government will fluff zero-carbon homes, report warns

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As found by Jo Will in the Society Guardian, a report in the Journal of Environmental Planning and Management, says that the Government should be making Code Level 6 mandatory for all new homes if it wants to deliver zero-carbon homes by 2016. With only housing associations required to reach Code Level 3 at present and no current obligations at all for commercial housebuilders, this is a problem. Another one is 'user error.' Where malfunctioning enregy systems, residents removing the technologies and installing 'low performance alternatives to suit their colour scheme' might be an issue.

Boris Johnson - green warrior?

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Not sure what to make of the current race to become London mayor. Ken is being portrayed as rather less than scrupulous, whilst Boris is a buffoon. The latter is interviewed in this month's Regenerate magazine, which is dubbed the sustainability issue. He comes out green, although it doesn't quite feel like it's from the heart.

A weekend of wind

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It's absolutely all about wind farms this week. Figures in The Sunday Times were instructive. 165 farms already operating 1,944 turbines, another 34 under construction, 118 have planning consent and 220 are under consideration. Time for a pat on the back and a cheer? Of course not.

The Weekly Green Gauge

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Just say POE

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If there's anything we can learn from the "Princess Diana is Still Dead" court case (I presume it's a court case although it could quite easily be a strange dream someone had after eating too many Cheezy Wotsits) it is surely that hopes and reality - both ours and Diana's - are often sharply at variance. "Being a princess isn't all it's cracked up to be," she once said with some understatement.

Life's not always a breeze

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The planners have put the boot in again on a rural wind turbine; this time at the village of Hockerton site of the UK’s first earth sheltered, self-sufficient ecological housing development. Residents of Hockerton in Nottinghamshire have had their hopes for England’s first community-owned wind turbine severely dampened by the local planning authority’s concerns about views from a neighbouring village.

Not so slim pickings

Two years ago there was a gap some eight feet wide between two period villas in west London. Now, thanks to some imaginative design work, and a lot of sheer will power, that gap has been filled by the capital’s latest environmental conscious home.

Architect Pitman Tozer has created a property that squeezes neatly between the two existing houses before expanding outwards into the rear garden of one of the premises. The new home includes a raft of environmental measures including a ground source heat pump, rainwater harvesting, a highly insulated building envelope, natural ventilated bathrooms and passive solar design to maximise winter solar gain and minimise summer cooling.

Zac Goldsmith on nuclear

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Powerfully argued article in today's Evening Standard (which very annoyingly I'm unable to find on their site) by Zac Goldsmith on the upcoming decision to go-ahead with a new generation of nuclear power station. The campaigner-cum Tory party candidate for Richmond Park picks apart the argument for pressing ahead with nuclear. "If nuclear power genuinely offered a solution, we would have to embrace it. But it doesn't, and nor does it address the looming energy crisis we face in this country," he writes.

Wicks and "momentum"

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Plenty of coverage over the weekend on energy, from the upcoming government announcement on nuclear expansion this week to soaring gas/fuel/electricity prices. The Westminster Hour on Radio Four ran a report on the struggles facing the renewables sector currently last night, from getting planning permission for large scale wind farms in the first place to connecting such facilities into the grid.

Uninspired New Year message

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One unofficial resolution I set yesterday was to stop being so negative about the Government's record on sustainability. So that lasted a day then. The announcement yesterday that they had handed out a measly £25m in grants for renewable energy grants under the the Low Carbon Buildings Programme was hardly something for them to crow about given the vast distance the UK needs to travel to really establish an viable renewable sector.

And the next Code is

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So we end 2007 with yet another report and yet another major piece of future legislation for the industry to grapple with. This one's for non-domestic buildings and the report has been worked on for government by the UK Green Building Council. Although the code is some way off the UKGBC is talking 2020 as the date when zero carbon buildings can be achieved. It would be easy to dismiss as another document with heady ambitions leading to botched delivery but I see the report somewhat differently.