Vistry has been awarded £100,000 from Innovate UK, the government’s national innovation agency, to investigate end-of-life carbon emissions in new homes.
Innovate UK, part of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), acts as the delivery partner for this programme focused on resource efficiency solutions, for both the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra).
This first-of-its-kind research in the new build housing sector has enabled Vistry to deconstruct its own Vistry Innovation Centre (VIC), a home built inside of Vistry’s modular construction factory in Leicestershire, to showcase future home technologies, with the key objective being to significantly reduce Scope 3 carbon emissions at end-of-life deconstruction.
Vistry’s Technical Innovation team has carried out the programme with support from Vistry employees, circular economy specialist Reconomy, and Reusefully, experts in circular economy advice within the built environment.
Vistry says that Scope 3 carbon emissions have traditionally posed challenges in whole life carbon assessments due to assumptions of waste disposal and end-of-life emissions, and that the project will allow the housebuilder to reduce its carbon footprint, marking a significant step towards the Group’s net zero ambitions.
With the deconstruction of the VIC now complete, Vistry says that it can now start gathering evidence on how circular principles can be applied at scale.
Jack Brayshaw, director of research and innovation at Vistry, said: “There is an urgent need to cut embodied carbon in housebuilding – when the Future Homes Standard takes effect, materials will become the biggest source of emissions for housebuilders. This significant investment has enabled detailed research into end-of-life carbon emissions for the first time in the new build housing sector. No other housebuilder in the UK has tackled this level of complexity in deconstruction and its impact on the circular economy, demonstrating Vistry’s commitment to innovative and sustainable development. The project also cements the VIC’s legacy as a platform for research and innovation.”
