Buildings

Energy use in buildings and industry accounted for 59% of UK energy use and 54% of emissions in 2017. High standards for new buildings and adding energy improvement measures (retrofit) to all existing buildings can reduce energy demand for heating by around 50%, making it a hugely important area.

A comfortably warm, dry building with good indoor air quality is important for health. Especially for the youngest and oldest of us.

Unfortunately, trying to keep most of our homes comfortably warm creates 10% of the country’s emissions. However, buildings as a whole account for 40%. Two connected things are going on here. First, buildings constantly leak heat to the outside when it’s cold, so are always ‘hungry’ for heat. Second, most forms of heating are not yet efficient in terms of emissions.

So ideally we need to fix the building so we can be comfortable with less heating. For instance, get the existing heating to work as efficiently as it can. Then switch that heating to a more efficient form. One which produces lower emissions, at some stage when we can afford it.

We also need to look at our appliances and gadgets that use electricity. Find out how that electricity is being generated and think about where / when we are using it – and furthermore whether it’s really needed.

‘Retro-fitting’ – the adding of energy efficiency measures to our existing buildings – can be a complex area. The eco-renovation information provided by the Centre for Alternative Technology is a great source of information and advice.

The UK Government has recently launched “Green Deal” pages on the Gov.uk website. It shows how you can make energy saving improvements to your home and find the best way to pay for them.

Housing and other building developments have an impact on biodiversity through habitat loss and breaking connecting corridors for wildlife.

Land is a limited resource. The ongoing development of land for buildings risks further losses to our ever diminishing wildlife as more green spaces are covered with artificial surfaces. These hard surfaces increase the flooding impact of heavy rains (which run off them much more quickly than undeveloped lands) and prevent land from being available for carbon storage.

However, the lack of affordable housing in the UK causes major problems for many people on lower incomes (and even average incomes). This makes housing a challenging issue to get right. One way around this dilemma is to reduce the number of empty homes. Another is for low impact developments which are well connected with transport links and designed to include green spaces (and consideration of human wellbeing) to be the norm in the future – see this link for info on Smart Cities.

The development of land – whether that’s our back garden, front drive, or new major local facilities – needs to happen in a way that strengthens ecological networks and contributes to local biodiversity.

In 2016, an estimated 13.5% of Herefordshire’s homes were in fuel poverty (i.e. 11,000 homes) and a higher than national average percentage of homes are off the mains gas grid, reducing options for lower energy heating.

Keep Herefordshire Warm is a local service supporting home improvements through advice, grants and funding. Click here for more information.

Talk to neighbours who have improved their houses to find out what they did. Look at the Green Open Homes list of houses in your area that open up their homes to share their experiences of reducing emissions from their homes.

From September 2020 households in Herefordshire are eligible for Government funding towards installing energy efficiency measures such as insulation, low emissions heating, draught proofing, glazing, energy efficient doors and heating controls. Most households will be eligible for support with two thirds of the cost up to £5k, with those in receipt of certain benefits eligible for all of the cost up to £10k. Click here for more details.