Findhorn Foundation: Online Community: Conference Reports

Back to Online Community

Back to Conference Reports Menu

Conference Index

Reports

Day 1 Housing Seminar

Low and Zero Carbon Housing - Retrofitting and New Building Design

For the next three days architects, developers, builders and contractors, with concrete experience of both private housing and large scale development projects, have come together at the Findhorn Ecovillage to address the technical, legislative and community implications for new build, retrofitting, infrastructure and community planning.

Why?

The current UK housing stock is highly energy inefficient. The move to low and zero carbon buildings offers the single greatest opportunity for increased efficiency and positive environmental impact. In the European Union, the construction sector is responsible for 40% of energy requirements. In many cases, the implementation of such measures provides additional benefits, such as reduced running costs as well as greater interior comfort.

A recent report by Oxford University states:

“Of the homes that we will inhabit in 2050, around 80 per cent are already part of the housing stock and so these have to be the main focus for carbon-reduction policies” (Broadman, 2007, p.6).

The report concludes:

“The low-carbon revolution starts at home.”

The Low Carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland (Sullivan, 2007, p.23) recommends that “Training in new technologies, new products and new standards should be a priority for all parts of the construction industry and this should be supported by the Scottish Government.”

The Low and Zero Carbon Housing seminar is designed to address how the construction of zero carbon buildings and the retrofitting of existing buildings offer some of the most cost-effective and most immediate strategies in response to climate change. It examines how the building industry is adapting to the rising demand for cutting edge construction techniques and energy saving solutions.

This timely seminar is sponsored by CIFAL Findhorn UNITAR Associated Training Centre in partnership with the Scottish Federation of Housing Associations, the Chartered Institute of Housing, the Chartered Institute of Building, the Moray Council, and WWF. Co-facilitators are May East, CEO, CIFAL Findhorn, Dr. Daniel Wahl, Researcher, Findhorn College, and Galen Fulford, Director, Ecovillage Institute.

Today's opening session began with a statement of intent that by the end of the seminar a 1 or 2 page document - a call to action - will be produced to present to the press and local authorities, outlining key issues to focus on in the move toward low and zero carbon housing.

From left: Wayne Ward, John Prewer, Sue Roaf

The first presenter of the day was Professor Sue Roaf from the School for the Built Environment, Heriot-Watt University. Sue brought the topic Future Proofing your Lifestyles with Early Investment in Renewables - Lessons from a Pioneer.

John Prewer, Architect and Advisor of the Carbon Free Group presented his paper titled, Rethinking the Way we Build: The Eco-Home as an Example for Possible Solutions.

Next, Wayne Ward, Director, Building Research Establishment - BRE Highlands brought us Practical Implications of Low and Zero Carbon Housing.

Participants then broke into small groups to identify key questions and guidelines that would begin to inform our call to action, some of which included:

Questions
1. Why is green building not implemented more widely?
2. How can builders and developers be motivated?
3. How can we educate the client and bridge the gap between feasibility and implementation?
4. How can we change the culture to be able to implement more shared facilities?
5. What is our future lifestyle going to be like?
6. Where are the skills/manufacturers going to come from?
7. How will we achieve a low-energy, non toxic manufacturing base in the UK?
8. How do we make the science of CO2 measurement, auditing, and benchmarking more credible and reliable?

Guidelines
1. We need a clear statement of new guidelines in Scotland in 2016.
2. We need community level integration.
3. Keep it simple.
4. Halve the demand, double the efficiency, halve the carbon intensity.
5. We have to go back to first principles.
6. Think globally, act locally.

In the afternoon we toured a sampling of eco-homes at Findhorn and critiqued them along the way. Making mistakes comes with the territory of pioneering the new so we looked at what has worked well and what not so well with a view to applying the learning to future new builds and retrofits.

Oliver Rehm, Architect and Director of Baufritz, UK then presented Healthy Carbon-Positive Homes: The Baufritz Vision.

The afternoon ended with a podium dialogue to address the key questions so far, followed by an open space session for participants to present their case studies and solutions.

In the evening, three Research students from Vrije Universiteit Brussel presented. Wim Debacker presented his Design and Environmental Impact Assessment of Construction Kits for Temporary Constructions. Stign Elsen presented his Design of a Construction Kit for Adaptive Reuse of a High-rise Building and Anne Paduart presented her Environmental Impact Assessment of Adaptive Reuse of Existing Social Dwellings.

Join us tomorrow as we continue the knowledge transfer, share our experiences, and deepen our exploration....

- Mattie Porte -
June 16, 2008

Photographer: May East

Day 2 Housing Seminar

Low and Zero Carbon Housing - Retrofitting and New Building Design

Today's session began with a summary of yesterday's key questions and 'guidelines to action' presented by session facilitator Galen Fulford:

Participants will continue to hold these keys as points of awareness throughout the seminar until it comes time to prepare our call to action document.

This morning's quick succession of speakers began with Professor Sandy Halliday, Director of Gaia Research, presenting her topic We Need to Talk about Development. Sandy introduced a development model that integrates economic, social and environmental objectives. She briefly compared the old idealism of the 1970's with the modern realism of today. She feels that policies and targets are shifting, we're turning a corner, and we can do more.

"Sustainable design is a process not an act. We need to encourage developers to develop the ethos 'Process Not Product'." To Sandy, it all comes down to choice. This seems to be the refrain of most speakers thus far. Her plea was that we minimise the losers and maximise appropriate development. We need to design efficient, equitable, non-toxic, healthy housing that is supportive of community. This, Sandy affirms, is sustainable development!

The next speaker, Findhorn's Graham Meltzer, focused on the social dimensions in his presentation, Cohousing as a Carbon Reduction Strategy. Graham suggested that if people don't choose to collaborate through cohousing, they will end up being forced to due to the adverse effects of peak oil and climate change. Graham's experience of cohousing is that it provides a rich community life of social, cultural, recreational and ecological activity. Its contribution to carbon reduction is through efficient land use and shared facilities with residents living in smaller units, growing their own food and managing their own waste; their aspirations are social and they are involved in environmental action.

Graham notes that carbon reduction strategies are as much social as they are technical and that the cohousing model produces evidence of behavioural change. It can be a catalyst for social change in entire neighbourhoods and create the community cohesion to support the changes in lifestyle required in a low carbon world.

Architect Dr. Jeremy Harrall, presented Earth-sheltering: Beyond Zero Carbon. Jerry introduced earth-sheltered as probably the only building type to possess the characteristics that would enable carbon-negative performance, reversing carbon emissions by ‘sporting the latest fashion accessory - the green jacket,’ as Jerry put it. 'On a net annual basis these buildings absorb CO2, reversing the usual pattern.' Using performance data from a selection of earth-sheltered buildings, Jerry highlighted the anomalies of the Standard Assessment Procedure (SAP) as applied to earth-sheltered zero-heated homes. In reality, this type of building performed between 200% and 700% better than suggested by SAP, which is designed for buildings with mechanical heating systems.

John Talbott, Developer of The Field of Dreams, presented The Ecovillage at Findhorn from a Developer's Perspective.

John was the developer of The Field of Dreams which we toured yesterday and he now lives in Australia.

John demonstrated the growth of the settlement from the desolate, uninspiring land of tin boxes (caravans) of the late 1960's and 70's to the ecovillage we see today. The development was encouraged by the local authorities and born of an aspiration of the community at that time to live more in harmony with nature.

In the afternoon participants broke into three smaller groups for a design exercise focused on new building, retrofitting, and a combination of the two. The three groups were each given a design brief and asked to develop a design and present the results to the group. The results will be available soon.

The final speaker of the day was Professor David Strong, Chief Executive, Inbuilt Ltd Consulting and Founding Member, UKGBC. His topic: It's More than Zero Carbon - Delivering Genuine Sustainability in the Built Environment. David began with the Gaia Hypothesis: "All living organisms and the inorganic material of the planet are part of a dynamic system that regulates the conditions to support life." This hypothesis teaches us to consider the whole system, not just parts. Everything is interconnected and focusing on one element or issue can have dire and unforeseen consequences. David feels the danger of zero carbon is that if focused on in isolation we ignore the whole system and that there is also no clarity of what we mean by zero carbon.

The question is, in David's mind, are we looking through the wrong end of the telescope? Is zero carbon an illusion? David cautioned us to 'beware the law of unintended consequences,' e.g., summertime overheating, flood resilience, transport, security, acoustic performance, indoor air quality/health problems. Is the zero carbon agenda acting as a huge distraction from the vital challenges associated with, for example, reducing carbon emissions from the existing housing stock, securing investment/planning for large scale renewables? In terms of pounds invested per tonne of carbon saved, both of these options will provide a much greater/faster return than making new homes zero carbon. We need to get to grips with our existing stock.

David encourages us to take the lessons from the past - vernacular architecture - and from nature - biomimicry. It's not a quick fix - it requires great care, both during the construction process and in the operation of the building. So the challenge needs whole systems thinking and collaborative, multi-disciplinary, integrated team work.

Join us tomorrow for the final day of the seminar as we integrate our thinking and turn to the task of formalising our call to action.

- Mattie Porte -
June 17, 2008

Photographers: May East and Eian Smith

Day 3 Housing Seminar

Low and Zero Carbon Housing - Retrofitting and New Building Design

On the final day of the seminar participants remained fully engaged in the stimulating and thought-provoking processes of knowledge transfer, networking, and brainstorming, whilst generally coming to grips with the challenges and creative opportunities inherent in the low and zero carbon housing initiative.

Responding to the Retrofitting Challenge, Elizabeth Leighton
The morning's presentations began with Responding to the Retrofitting Challenge with Elizabeth Leighton, Senior Policy Advisor, WWF Scotland. Elizabeth outlined the problem and the obvious questions, then presented a 6 point plan for making it happen. "There are good words out there," Elizabeth noted, "but it's the delivery that counts." Although the focus of Elizabeth's presentation is Scotland, the lessons are widespread. The reality in Scotland is:

* its homes produce one third of the UK's carbon emissions; two thirds of total stock by 2050
* the energy demand in the UK housing sector grew by 17.5% between 1990 - 2003
* in 2005, 23.5% of householders were fuel poor.

WWF's Living Planet Report shows the number and quality of species in decline, while our human ecological footprint is on the increase. In the 1980's we exceeded what the planet can sustain. With regard to climate change, the scientific debate is over. Politicians know the score - now it's a matter of having the political will to act. The ice cap is melting and the situation may be worse than our latest evidence shows. The most important fact to consider is that it's the poor round the world who will be the hardest hit.

In the developed world we need to look at 100% cuts, not 60%, not 80%. The low hanging fruit is housing and retrofitting. This we can do something about. Many low-tech solutions exist - it's just not being done. So why are we holding back? Capacity - stop-go programmes, grant dependent, gap in central heating and renewable energy engineers, gap in building control and planning officer expertise, skills shortage in low and zero carbon technologies.

Seminar organisers from left: Galen Fulford, Daniel Wahl, May East

Elizabeth suggests a difference in scale of change is needed. Can policies deliver? She thinks targets are important because they are driving policy - Kyoto, Scottish Climate Change Bill (80%), NEEAP (Scotland), renewable electricity target, fuel poverty target, Scottish Housing Quality Standard.

WWF's 6 Point Plan of opt in - opt out steps:

1. Area-based low carbon zones - new models of delivery with something for everyone, community involvement, economies of scale. Example: Hadyard Hill Community Energy Project in Ayrshire.

2. Expand use of Energy Performance Certificates.

3. Balance Trading for new developments - offset emissions from new developments with savings from existing homes in the area; create income stream from low carbon areas.

4. CHP/community heating promotion - Scotland wide CHP Development Agency, offer services to public sector, help establish local ESCOs (Energy Savings Companies).

5. Energy Savings Trust - one-stop shop - one high profile gateway for information, advice, and financial support related to retrofit; energy efficiency; hand-holding.

6. Monitor progress - Home Energy Efficiency Database (HEED) - more triggers for EPCs to build database - remortgage, planning permission; use to prioritise investment.

Elizabeth believes that an 80% cut in emissions is possible with negligible effect on the economy. For more information see WWF's How Low? report, (available for download at http://www.wwf.org.uk/filelibrary/pdf/how_low_report.pdf). They've modelled carbon savings through decarbonisation of the electric grid and behavioural changes. Elizabeth admits that we can really only get to 80% if we use everything including the kitchen sink. We need to look at all measures to achieve those gains.

Opportunity knocks - Climate Change Bill:
* low carbon Building Standards Strategy for Scotland (Sullivan Report)
* Fuel Poverty commitment
* Rising fuel bill making people think
* Kyoto, EU Directives are driving energy effective agenda with us.

Strategy:
* Link to fuel poverty, community involvement, improve overall house standards
* staged targets toward 80% reduction
* new business models for whole house retrofit.

An energy efficient house is a better house - a nicer house to live in. We can achieve 80% reductions by 2050 with negligible impact. The Stern review estimated the cost to the economy of mitigating the harmful impacts of climate change to be 10 times that of acting now.

Promoting Sustainable Housing in Scotland, Fiona Porteous
The next presenter was Fiona Porteous who is the Project Manager, Highland Housing Fair. The Highlands of Scotland is staging the first major housing fair of its kind in Scotland in August 2009. The purpose of the Fair is to raise the level of design within private and public sector building. The Fair will bring together architect/development teams and is designed to get the whole construction industry engaged in raising the bar.

Fair Components:
* development of master plan including plot codes
* design competition for plots
* lots bought and houses built by competition winners (winning teams finance their own build)
* Fair event duration one month
* show homes sold or rented by developers post event
* 40% is affordable housing; 60% free market housing

This Fair will serve as a catalyst for change. It will get everybody talking to each other - developers will showcase to the public and get a response, and architects have the opportunity to invite the public to observe and comment on their designs.

It's about creating an exemplar community which sets the standards for future development. The Fair is not bankrolling it themselves because they want people to see that it can be replicated.

Sustainable design is high on the list of criteria: using reclaimed materials, setting eco-criteria for plots. There are four zones: solar, wood fuel, recycling, and carbon, and the teams must excel in one. There are 20 organisations actively backing the project, for example, the Forestry Commission. By sourcing materials locally, they are stimulating the local economy.

The 8-acre Fair site is in Inverness and will contain 55 units. The master plan will include:
* shared surfaces
* narrow streets
* priority to pedestrians
* community spaces
* remote parking
* reclaimed materials
* focus on ethically-sourced materials.

The Fair is intended to raise public expectations (30,000 people will attend the fair) and encourage people to make demands on the next house they buy. When the fair ends, the houses will be available to buy and it will become a living community.

To find out more visit: http://www.highlandhousingfair.com

Turning the Concept of Low Carbon Healthy Buildings into Reality, Greig Munro
Participants walked over to the nearby Moray Art Centre for a presentation by local Findhorn architect, Greig Munro on Findhorn ecovillage site construction. Greig walked us through some of the building projects he's been involved in over the last 10 years and showed us where he would do things differently now while balancing client demands with practicality. Some clients insist on new technologies that are not necessarily appropriate for their particular building. Greig's philosophy is to keep it simple, recognising the tension between, for example, keeping buildings small and the client's tendency to go bigger.

Greig's experience has also taught him that in some cases, it's more cost-effective to build new than to retrofit. Nowadays, Greig says, he'd rather build housing clusters with shared common facilities than individual homes. Many of the builders he's worked with had never been involved in energy-efficient, low carbon building, but after their first build, they tend to choose to do it off their own bat rather than go back to building the way they used to. So Greig sees lots of enthusiasm and power in skills building in the local area.

Findhorn Ecovillage Tours - The Living Machine
In the afternoon, participants joined in a choice of tours of the Windpark, the Living Machine or the Ecovillage. This group is pictured inside the Living Machine, the community's biological sewage treatment system.

Existing Homes and Climate Change: The Scottish Government’s Position and Strategies, David Fotheringham
David Fotheringham is Team Leader - Private Housing Policy, Housing and Regeneration Directorate, Scottish Government. David opened with the Scottish government's purpose: "to focus government and public services on creating a more successful country with opportunities for all of Scotland to flourish through increasing sustainable economic growth [...a strategy that would be questioned by the next speaker]."

There are free programmes to get more retrofitting information and financial assistance to householders:

National Performance Framework - high level targets to reduce emissions over a period to 2011 and by 80% by 2050.

Carbon Impact Assessment - towards zero carbon new homes by 2016/17. Our homes produce a significant proportion of emissions - 31%. Other benefits are warm comfortable homes and tackling fuel poverty.

Where are we now?

* Public recognises climate change is an issue, but there's a gap when it comes to personal action.
* Public is concerned about a shortage of affordable housing, credit crunch, fuel poverty.
* There is a growing awareness of the importance of housing emissions.
* Initial stakeholder focus on new build shifting to existing homes.
* Recognise need to be cost-effective.

David contends that houses are becoming more energy efficient, but we've a long way to go. There is a diverse housing stock with a wide range of challenges. The poorest is the rented private sector. Around 650,000 (28%) houses are 'hard to treat', e.g., stone walls, off the gas grid.

David sees both the challenges and opportunities for businesses.

Current programme:
* advice/support to homeowners
* one-stop shop
* Home Help Service
* EST website

Grants/Discounts:
* Fuel Poverty Forum
* CERT
* Land Energy Saving
* Scottish Housing Quality Standard
* HECA
* Building Standards

CERT
* obligation placed on energy suppliers to achieve carbon savings
* scope for significant increase in CERT investment in Scotland
* enhanced flexibility compared to former EEC
* could save 14 million tonnes of carbon (lifetime)

Energy Report
* Home report from 1 December 2008 include condition survey, property questionnaire and Energy Report
* better information at time of critical investment opportunity
* green mortgages
* EPCs in rented property from January 2009

Climate Change Fund
* £17 million to support community action on climate change
* other community/neighbourhood schemes, e.g., Scottish Sustainability Community Initiative; Scottish OM SCHRI
* The Climate Change Fund can support transition town initiatives. The fund is administered by Keep Scotland Beautiful. For more information, contact: ccf@ksbscotland.org.uk

Adapting and Managing Climate Change Risk
* climate change is already happening and needs to be managed
* more sever weather events, flooding
* issues for design quality maintenance
* opportunity to integrate with response to climate change mitigation.

David concluded by recognising that tackling climate change is a long-term, cross parliament issue.

Low and Zero Carbon Housing from the Local Planner’s Perspective, Donald Lunan
Donald Lunan, Planning and Development Manager, Moray Council, was introduced as 'the holistic thinker' in the Moray Council. Donald began with three themes:

1. Wastelessness - we need to learn to waste less. Are we wasting less?

2. Fit and forget - applies to builders who are giving energy-saving solutions that clients can't operate or optimise.

3. Eco-unfriendly building - clients wanting to build an eco-house often know more about ecological building than the developers and builders who often tout the recurring theme: 'you will not get a return on your investment' and so resist eco-measures.

According to Donald, there is a lot of cynicism about what we're trying to achieve - there's a gulf. The marketplace is very powerful so he thinks it will be a tough negotiation to bring developers along. In his 40 years experience, he believes everything is predicated on growth and fed by development. The gradual crescendo which is becoming increasingly shrill is that we have to do something, or stop doing certain things. The term sustainability has now been in common use for 10 years, but before it was in vogue Donald remembers a French EU conference speaker quoting 'things that are on an unsustainable trend', including:

* growth in car usage
* growth in urbanisation
* growth in aging population
* growth in economic mitigation
* growth in waste
* growth in population
* growth in our dependency on oil and gas.

The speaker said back then that if we didn't act it would be catastrophic. Today, can we say we have reversed the trend in any of these areas?......

To tackle the problems of 'unsustainability' we have to have less growth. Moray has a population of 87,000 and we've built 10,000 houses that today house 2.2 people compared with 3.5 people 30 years ago. A staggering 30% of homes are occupied by one person and we're planning 2,000 more homes in the next planning cycle.

Why are we doing this? It's an enormous use of resources. How sustainable is that? We can't go back to the way it was 30 years ago as that would be seen as regressing. Is the answer to plan for slow down? That is unthinkable in politics.

Our population needs to decline - there are 6.8 billion people on the planet with China being the only country that has thought of population control. Should Scotland do something about population growth? The government thinks growth is okay as long as it's sustainable, but what is sustainable? It's a vast issue and it's difficult not to despair.

Communal heating systems are rare. Now in 2008 the government is bringing in a policy for houses to demonstrate how energy efficient they are. It's a start, but it's not enough. We're cautious and compromising so does it really work? It's opposed by developers and builders. How do you calculate it and trust that developers and builders are complying?

If there's a national, global urgency, why is it not mandatory to construct with low or zero carbon?

The climate change debate tends to panic people or make them fatalistic. How do you feel at the end of this seminar? Do you have the positivity to respond to the crisis? Which camp are you in?

Summary of Guidelines and Outcomes, Galen Fulford
Session facilitator, Galen Fulford, wrapped up the seminar with a summary of the 'guidelines to action' and outcomes of the three days:

Action: Prioritise genuine sustainability, address emissions reduction as an aspect of a holistic design.

Keep prioritising retrofitting.

Use planning consent to leverage developers to retrofit existing stock.

Write a clear specific brief with sustainability outcomes and corresponding contracts.

Action: Seek financial structures which allow buildings to use collective heating or renewable generation systems while increasing rather than decreasing the value of each property.

Action: Remember health, air quality, toxicity, noise, electromagnetic radiation, dust.

Action: Give equal attention to social, economic, and technological aspects of carbon reduction strategies.

Action: Look to nature and vernacular wisdom for sensible design inspiration.

Action: Apply low tech solutions before high tech 'eco-bling.'

Consider mechanical ventilation where minimal to no heating system is to be used.

Consider unintentional outcomes, e.g., over-glazing.

Consider large scale renewables where they will be most effective.

Consider passive ventilation in locations with available back up heating.

Aim for CSH code level four, and seek collective solutions to renewables beyond this.

Zero Carbon: no carbon emitting fuels are burnt on site and no electricity is imported from the grid.

Net Zero Carbon: carbon emitting fuels are burnt onsite, but locally generated renewable energy is exported to the grid to balance this.

Collective community solutions are ultimately more effective than individual ones.

Action: Add covenants for common land in developments which facilitate community use and engagement.

Action: Apply Cohousing as a model of a future low carbon society empowering people to address social, environmental and economic needs co-operatively.

Sharing = reducing cost and consumption.

Beautiful buildings last longer.

Keep thinking holistically.

In conclusion, Galen shared, "In tying some of these things together, I question in myself why I am 'not there yet' and will it be too late? It's not helpful for me to go too far down that road. So what can I do? Can I make my house the absolute best that I can, yes, I can. Reversing growth doesn't mean contraction; it means expansion."

**********************************************************************

Thank you for joining in the seminar online. We leave you with this apt thought which was quoted by John Prewer in his talk on our first day together:

''How can we make the world work for 100 percent of humanity in the shortest possible time through spontaneous cooperation without ecological damage or disadvantage to anyone?'' Buckminster Fuller

For information on future CIFAL programmes, visit: http://www.cifalfindhorn.org

- Mattie Porte -
June 18, 2008

Photographers: May East and Eian Smith

Top | Home

Findhorn Foundation, The Park, Findhorn, Morayshire, Scotland, IV36 3TZ