| Cutting-edge principles
for the agencies involved in developing proposals for eco-towns
have been published by BioRegional and CABE.
The report, What makes an eco-town?, defines an
eco-town as a place designed to make it easy for residents to reduce
their ecological footprint by two thirds and their carbon dioxide
emissions by 80 per cent below 1990 levels.
The report proposes features of places designed
for living within ecological limits. These include generous space
to grow food; ample tree canopy cover; attractive alternatives to
shopping as the default leisure activity; and substantial reduction
in car dependency. It provides clear criteria and practical guidance
on how the sustainability of settlements can be monitored and tested.
Eco-town developers have a key role in the areas
of housing and construction and home energy, which together account
for 31 per cent of a person’s carbon dioxide emissions and
26 per cent of their ecological footprint. The recommended criteria
include adopting the Building for Life gold standard for all residential
developments, and a 100 per cent renewable energy supply.
The report describes how a 60 per cent reduction
can be secured in the ecological footprint and carbon dioxide emissions
associated with food through measures which include making space
for food growing and links with local farms.
The report recommends residential areas should enjoy
tree canopy cover of at least 25 per cent to alleviate the impacts
of climate change, with 15 per cent canopy cover in mixed-use or
commercial areas.
Developers are urged to set a new trend by designing
places which present sociable and healthy alternatives to shopping
and improve quality of life. Recreation provision should include
great parks and play spaces (including spaces suitable for teenagers);
and sports facilities and green gyms (groups keeping fit while maintaining
open space).
Consumer goods account for 14 per cent of an individual’s
ecological footprint and the target should be to halve the ecological
impact of consumer goods bought in eco-towns, whilst maintaining
a vibrant local economy. Measures to achieve this might include
greater repair and re-use activity, swap shops and encouraging local
sustainable goods and services.
The report describes how eco-towns can reduce carbon
dioxide from driving - which generates almost a quarter of an individual’s
carbon dioxide emissions - by 80 per cent. This entails providing
a good, frequent and reliable low carbon public transport, and supporting
walking and cycling with a density of 50-100 dwellings per hectare.
A maximum of one car parking space per household is recommended.
The report notes that eco-towns should be as much
about creating employment and a local economy as they are about
building homes. This will assist in delivering the transport targets
as well as improving social and economic outcomes.
The report is inspired by the government’s
eco-towns challenge panel. It draws on BioRegional’s work
on building sustainable settlements and on CABE’s understanding
of what it takes to create workable and sustainable places. The
criteria recommended in it are a contribution to the debate: they
do not represent an absolute or final statement of what an eco-town
should aim for.
Sue Riddlestone, executive director and co-founder
of the BioRegional Development Group and an eco-towns challenge
panel member, said: “We need to see trailblazing projects
worthy of the name eco-town. Done well, these real-life projects
should advance industry best practice, inform government policy
and show how we can reduce our impact to sustainable levels and
have an improved quality of life.”
CABE and BioRegional would like to see these criteria
by all new neighbourhoods or urban extensions, not just eco-towns.
Richard Simmons, chief executive of CABE and an eco-towns challenge
panel member, said: “If eco-towns are to have a fundamental
purpose, it must be to show how we can all live and work in well-designed,
low-carbon neighbourhoods.”
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