Dream of Becoming Green

Have you ever sat in of an evening when Kevin McCloud has appeared on the television showcasing the latest Grand Designs, telling you how amazingly eco-friendly the Wigglesworth’s house is going to be; how the grass roof on Mr Smith’s house will save hundreds of pounds on heating bills; or how Mrs Clake’s 20m-tall window will allow 16 hours of sunlight in to the front room?

Such houses seem so far away from the average three-bedroom semi in your area; the type of palace that only a multi-millionaire land owner could possibly afford to build, right?

Wrong. Ultra modern eco-friendly houses are much more common than you think.

Take the UK’s best-known ecovillage, BedZED in South London for example. The Peabody housing association development, built in partnership with sustainability experts BioRegional and ZEDfactory architects, is an all-encompassing community that boasts some of the most impressive energy efficiency figures in the country:

• An 81% reduction in energy use for heating
• A 45% reaction in electricity use
• A 64% reduction in the car usage
• 58% less water used on a daily basis
• 60% of all waste recycled.

Britelite Windows can take a little praise for these astounding figures; we installed A-rated energy efficient windows on the project, helping to keep the cost of heating down. The below image shows how installing A-rated glass, combined with a little pre-planning can help achieve such high levels of energy efficiency:

Further ecovillages are appearing across the UK and Ireland, and indeed the world. The Cloughjordan Ecovillage in Ireland is a not-for-profit organisation developing an alternative model for sustainable living. Their 67-acre site is currently under construction and when finished, will have 114 energy efficient houses and more than 50 acres of fertile land for growing crops on.

While we understand that making the move to an ecofriendly village isn’t for everyone, there are measures that you can take in your own home to reduce your carbon footprint. Take a look back at our past news stories for ideas.