Thu 1 Nov 2007
One Planet Living
Sustainable living may now be big business but some organisations have been championing it for years. Roger Hunt finds out about One Planet Living.
Almost everything we read, watch or listen to encourages us to consume. The problem is that we are consuming too much – far too much – and globally we are using up resources a great deal faster than they can be replenished. Quite simply, the planet is not big enough for us to carry on consuming at the rate we are. Around the world we consume resources and pollute the environment to different degrees. In Europe the average lifestyle means that we need the equivalent of three planets to support us. In America this rises to five and, if everyone in the world lived as the Canadians do, we would require three and a half planets. At the moment China uses the resources of one planet but, with its large population and rapid development, this is set to change.
To be sustainable we have to reduce our consumption of fossil fuels and virgin materials to an equitable level: we have to achieve one planet living. This is a concept embraced by BioRegional and WWF in a joint ‘One Planet Living’ initiative which is based on ten guiding principles of sustainability.
The vision of One Planet Living is a world in which people everywhere can lead happy, healthy lives within their fair share of the Earth’s resources. The initiative builds on the products and services developed by the BioRegional Development Group which include projects such as BedZED - BioRegional’s Beddington Zero fossil Energy Development - as well as WWF-UK’s One Million Sustainable Homes Campaign.
BioRegional is working with partners to put in place real life practical demonstrations of One Planet Living while WWF is using its convening power and communications reach to highlight the issues and the solutions. A key aim is to build a world-wide network of primarily eco-communities around the world by 2010 in order to demonstrate One Planet Living in action.
Housing is a key aspect of One Planet Living but these eco-communities will encompass not only homes and workspace but also shared facilities such as schools, factories, health and leisure facilities, transport and food links.
A development cannot be branded ‘One Planet Living’ without the express permission of BioRegional and WWF and branded developments have to have an approved sustainability action plan in place based on the ten One Planet Living principles.
One Planet Living is facilitating the development of these communities by forming partnerships. Typically these may be relevant local or regional government authorities, local community representatives, developers, architects, engineers, financiers and providers of key infrastructure and services. This is the case in East Sussex where joint developers Crest Nicholson (South East) and BioRegional Quintain are currently building the Brighton One Planet Living Community which will occupy a derelict site on New England Street, part of the New England Quarter, close to Brighton train station.
Steve Jones, managing director Crest Nicholson (South East), is convinced there is a market for such schemes. “There are a lot of people who want to take action about leading a better lifestyle with less impact on the environment and we are looking to provide them with an opportunity to do that.”
The 172 apartments, including 54 units of affordable housing, that will make up the Brighton scheme will benefit from access to community space together with a community centre which will house a number of charitable organisations and provide a resource for local people to use.
The zero carbon development will include an energy efficient on-site communal woodchip biomass boiler, supplied from local wood waste that currently goes to landfill. This will be operated by a community owned energy service company (ESCO). The scheme will include eight on-site roof mounted wind turbines and an array of photovoltaic panels.
For Jones, renewable energy has been one area where the project has helped Crest Nicholson refine its knowledge. “ESCOs are quite an important part of all of this because they really make it work commercially. Whatever type of biofuel you are using, it really needs a commercially run ESCO to make it work for the next 30 years; they also make a contribution towards the cost of the scheme.”
According to BioRegional, ecological footprint research demonstrates that more than 50% of the ecological impact of a neighbourhood falls outside the built environment and can be accounted as the net lifestyle impact of its residents - what they eat, how they use transportation, how thoroughly they recycle and so on.
The idea is that residents can be helped to shrink their lifestyle impact by designing the built environment ergonomically for sustainability. For example, through easy, integrated recycling facilities and by setting up post-occupancy opt-in systems such as car clubs, organic food box deliveries and community shared agriculture. These are backed by workshops for incoming residents that communicate the usability of sustainability features and by transferring ownership of these processes to a resident’s association or equivalent community body for long-term viability.
As part of the local and sustainable food strategy in Brighton, residents will be able to grow their own food on-site. These opportunities include roof top automatically-irrigated mini allotment areas, six roof gardens and integrated planters on balconies, suitable for growing edible plants. To help residents, BioRegional will have a sustainability integrator on site. This individual will be responsibility for establishing links with local providers and farms so that seasonal organic produce can be supplied to the residents; negotiations are also underway to provide an organic food store.
For Jones, one of the frustrations of the Brighton scheme is that, because of planning issues, it has taken three years to bring it to delivery. “When we first started looking at the project we saw it as fundamental to the way property development was going to go. To some extent things have caught up with us.”
One of the changes to have occurred is that EcoHomes has been superseded by the Code for Sustainable Homes. The Brighton One Planet Living Community would have achieved a rating in excess of ‘Excellent’ under EcoHomes but, because of the difference in criteria, reaches only level five under the Code.
Jones sees One Planet Living as being more holistic in its approach than the Code for Sustainable Homes. “One Planet Living looks at solutions that can help people, rather than just at the performance of the building which is what the Code seems to be more concerned about. It goes beyond the Code and challenges us to look at the ten One Planet Living principles.”
New England Quarter will be the first One Planet Living and zero carbon development to be completed by Crest Nicholson and BioRegional Quintain. The joint venture has since won the contract to develop the One Gallions residential development, the Mayor of London’s zero carbon exemplar scheme, in London’s Royal Docks.In the longer term the joint venture has two other One Planet Living schemes in the pipeline. It is “working up” a project in Surrey with Surrey County Council and it is one of four bidders for the Rochester Riverside development, in Kent, where it has plans for a 550 home development.
Meanwhile, BioRegional Quintain is looking for a site for 2,000 homes in the Thames Gateway in order to demonstrate the application of One Planet Living principles on a large scale.
Around the world other One Planet Living communities are evolving. In partnership with developer Pelicano, One Planet Living has launched its Pioneer Project at Mata de Sesimbra, south of Lisbon, in Portugal. Involving a €1.1 billion investment, it will include 8,000 zero-carbon, zero-waste eco-homes, hotels, shops and community facilities for up to 30,000 people. It will also return 4,800 hectares of degraded logging plantations and quarries to native woodland. In addition, a sustainable public transport network will be created for the region, along with hybrid eco-shuttles, free bicycles and car clubs on-site. Over the past three years BioRegional has been in discussion with China Merchants Property Developers about a mixed use site for 20,000 people in the Panyu district of Guangzhou, China’s third largest city in South China. In June 2007 the Panyu government visited the UK with China Merchants Property Developers and gave the project their support. A letter of intent has been signed and, at the time of writing, technical studies are being undertaken. The Shanghai Pudong government would also like to host a One Planet Living community and so have identified a large government owned site in the city.
BioRegional is also building relationships with developers, industry bodies and governmental agencies to secure sites for One Planet Living communities in North America, South Africa and Australia.
The ten One Planet Living principles:
1 Zero carbon
2 Zero waste
3 Sustainable transport
4 Local and sustainable materials
5 Local and sustainable food
6 Sustainable water
7 Natural habitats and wildlife
8 Culture and heritage
9 Equity and fair trade
10 Health and happiness
First published in Show House Magazine November 2007.
The greatest care has been taken to ensure accuracy but some information contained within this article may have changed since it was first published.
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