Graham Rix

‘Sustainability’ should be about leaving the planet in a better place than you found it.   The appalling ugliness of most ‘sustainable’ buildings seems evidence that the architects responsible have lost the plot.

Almost all of the currently recommended sustainable measures are simply gestures.  Even the most rational ‘green’ measure (solar panels) makes very little economic sense.   Given the choice between a three degree rise in average temperature, or having to live with ‘sustainable’ aesthetics: you might prefer a sub-tropical England. (Having said that, global modelling predicts less than a one degree rise for Britain.)

Modern houses, built merely to current Building Regulations standards, of  2000 – 2500 square feet, emit around four tonnes of CO2 annually.  Yet, before the recent credit crunch, Lloyds TSB offered ‘air miles mortgages’.  For the £700,000 needed to buy one of these houses, the family could then have visited New York a couple of times, thus emitting around 15 tonnes of CO2.  In other words, about four times the annual output of the house.  If there were a box in ‘The Code for Sustainable Homes’ that could be ticked for not selling to anyone with an air-miles mortgage, then that box would be worth as much as all other boxes put together. But the previous New Labour government might have lost votes by restricting foreign holidays, whereas it could play ridiculous games with the Building Regulations with relative impunity. I don’t have a lot more confidence in the Con-Lib coalition.

Did you know that a house with heating and hot water powered by a ground source heat pump saves little or no CO2 compared to an efficient conventional gas fired system?  Yet many local authorities insist on measures such as ground source heat pumps in order to reduce CO2!  What a waste of £15,000 which the system might add to the cost of the house; and what a shame to have to excavate most of your garden to a depth of 1.5m.

A ground source heat pump works on electricity and the principle is that for every units of electricity you put in you get three units back.  But, kilowatt for kilowatt, gas-fired heating costs less than a third of electric heating.  So where’s the saving?