Broer, S; Titheridge, H; (2012) Empowering people to live low carbon lifestyles through new housing developments in the UK. In: (Proceedings) 1st International Conference on Urban Sustainability and Resilience. UCL Centre for Urban Sustainability and Resilience: London.

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Abstract

The domestic sector accounts for around a quarter of UK carbon emissions. However, the home a person selects does not just affect their direct consumption of energy through the requirements for heating, hot water, lighting etc., but also affects other areas of consumption such as the embodied energy in the fabric of the building, personal travel, and energy used to supply the goods and services required to support our lifestyles. It thus makes sense that when we build new housing developments we consider how our design choices can support sustainable and low carbon living across all these areas of consumption. Current approaches to reducing carbon emissions through new housing are largely based on energy efficiency measures and renewable energy systems, and do not take account of the full range of emissions of the occupier which are directly or indirectly related to the way housing developments are designed and set up. Being able to draw on a wide range of technical and lifestyle options rather than energy efficiency and renewables only allows making low carbon living more affordable, boost the local economy and achieve a range of wider societal and ecological benefits. However, if lifestyle measures are such a cost effective way of achieving carbon emission reduction the question is: why are they not more widely used? Whilst this is partly due to a lack of policy incentives, we were interested in investigated whether or not, without policy changes, there are new business models which could be directly applied and would deliver the adoption of low carbon lifestyles. Literature review shows that sustainable living can be fostered by empowering people who wish to live sustainably to make this choice. Focus group discussions were conducted with relevant experts to review possible business models which may enable more sustainable lifestyles through the way new housing is developed. Here, eco-self-build communities stuck out as new business model, which may foster the desired behavior change. The research shows that eco-self-build communities are both feasible as a social venture and have the ability to deliver low carbon lifestyles. In comparison to conventional approaches to building new housing, they also deliver additional social benefits and greater urban resilience. If implemented correctly they could succeed in making sustainable lifestyles attractive, and foster the development of pro- environmental social norms.

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