In December 2006, the government produced the final version of the Code for Sustainable Homes, calling it a ‘Step-change in sustainable home building practice’. But the Code itself is not posing a radically new idea; green building standards for homes (and other buildings) have been around for a number of years, both nationally and internationally. In the context of the emerging Code (CSH), this article will cover those schemes that are more commonly used for residential buildings in England and Wales, and which developers and architects can, and may in the future, seek to use. Nick Gardner will look at five rating systems and standards which include documentation and independent, third-party verification – three from the UK and two international standards.
This is an eight page article. First published in Spring 2007
Extract:
There are numerous green building standards and certification schemes that I could have sought to explore within the scope of this article; in the USA for example the US Green Building Council has counted more than 70 local or regional green home building programmes, each with its own specifications or guidelines. There are, of course, other related standards and ratings, such as SAP ratings (mandatory), Energy Performance Certification (mandatory from June 2007), or the National Home Energy Rating scheme, which I have not covered here, largely for reasons of space.
The blue side-boxes provide a brief summary of what each standard seeks to achieve, for the reader’s reference, and an overview summary is given in the table on pages 36-37. However, I will start by looking at some of the key similarities and differences between the standards, I’ll then discuss the scope and coverage of the Code for Sustainable Homes and finish with a brief exploration of the potential implications for the other standards.
VAT applies to this product (UK only).
