GHA Knowledge Base
The LETI Circular Economy Summary is the first publication from the LETI Circular Economy Workstream. This will be followed by a Circular Economy Primer which aims to explore circularity concepts in the built environment in more detail.
Author: LETI
Publication date: April 2022
More information: https://www.leti.london/circulareconomy1pager
The new tool responds to demand from designers, housing associations, environmental health officers, and other parties concerned with overheating risks in the existing housing stock, which are likely to increase further due to climate change and higher temperatures.
This tool is intended for use at the early stages of residential retrofit projects, or on existing homes, in order to identify key factors contributing to overheating risk and possible mitigation measures. It is applicable to existing homes, retrofits, and conversions of non-domestic buildings to residential accommodation.
The tool and guidance are meant to be easy to use by non-specialists to inform early-stage big impact decisions. They promote holistic consideration of overheating risk together with the site context and linked design issues such as ventilation and noise. The potential impacts of energy efficiency measures through retrofit are included, but the tool also highlights the important opportunities for retrofit to contribute not only to overheating risk mitigation, but also improvements in air quality and energy efficiency.
This launch is a beta version, and the team will look to produce a revised version in early Autumn 2022. Please get in touch if you would like to provide feedback or trial this version on a project and inform the revision.
Send download link to:
We have added some information on our case studies to illustrate how the tool can be used. These are now downloadable separately here:
The work has been led by Julie Godefroy of Julie Godefroy Sustainability, with support from Susie Diamond of Inkling LLP.
The project has been co-funded by the National Energy Foundation, and the BEIS funded REFINE project on radical decarbonisation of social housing through whole house energy retrofits.
The REFINE project is one of the Social Housing Decarbonisation Fund Demonstrators led by Warwick District Council and Oxford Brookes University with Enhabit/QODA Consulting and Sarah Wigglesworth Architects.
We would like to thank the following steering group members for their input during the project:
For more information about the Overheating in Retrofit and Existing Homes tool, please contact Julie Godefroy – julie@juliegodefroysustainability.co.uk or Susie Diamond – susie@inklingllp.com.
For more information about the Good Homes Alliance, please contact Julian Brooks, Programmes Director – julian@goodhomes.org.uk, 0330 355 6274.
The findings of a report that explored the potential of establishing a Zero Carbon Housing Performance Hub for Wales have been published.
This report is the conclusion of a three-month scoping study which brought together the Good Homes Alliance (GHA), Woodknowledge Wales and the Building Performance Network (BPN) to prepare a proposal for what the Hub’s core purpose could be, how it could add value to the housing sector in Wales, and how it could further the Welsh Government’s objectives.
The report includes a foreword from Julie James MS, Minister for Climate Change for the Welsh Government:
“This Zero Carbon Housing Performance Hub scoping study shows that there is strong support from the housing sector for a government endorsed body where industry, academia and NGOs can collaborate to share research, debate the issues and help shape future policy. The Hub could therefore become a resource for all similar initiatives to ensure a cohesive and coherent direction.
The Hub will also play its part in enabling a zero-carbon economic recovery that is purposefully aligned with the supply chain in Wales. Importantly for Wales, the Hub will enable the social housing sector to go zero early, bringing the benefits of low energy bills and healthy home environments to those that need them most. In short, the Hub will help facilitate and accelerate zero carbon high performance solutions that can be rolled-out at scale across all the housing sectors in Wales. We were delighted to be able to fund this scoping study and will give consideration to how we can support its implementation.”
Authors: Good Homes Alliance, Woodknowledge Wales and Building Performance Network.
Report prepared for ClwydAlyn with funding from the Welsh Government Collaborative Research and Innovation Support Programme (CRISP).
Study completed in March 2021 and conducted by Nicola O’Connor (Mandarin Research) and Ross Holleron (Building Performance Network) for the Good Homes Alliance in collaboration with Woodknowledge Wales and the Sustainable Development Foundation.
Publication date: August 2021
Funded through the Local Government Association (LGA) Housing Advisers Programme, the guide has been produced by leading technical experts from Etude, the Passivhaus Trust, Levitt Bernstein and Elementa Consulting.
Pulling on latest guidance and best practice, the Net Zero Carbon Toolkit is a practical, easy to follow guide to help plan a net zero housing project.
Aimed at small or medium-sized house builders, architects, self-builders and consultants, the toolkit covers a range of steps – from pre-planning right through to construction – for delivering net-zero carbon, low-energy homes.
The toolkit also provides homeowners looking to retrofit or extend their existing property, guidance and advice on what they need to consider and how they can implement energy efficiency measures and begin the process of decarbonising their homes in a more affordable, phased approach.
Implementing the measures laid out in the new toolkit will help reduce the carbon footprint of new and existing buildings. Making significant reductions to a home’s carbon emissions also means lower energy bills for homeowners, more people out of fuel poverty and homes that are comfortable and healthier to live in.
West Oxfordshire District Council and its two partner councils share an ambition that net zero should be the standard for all new housing and retrofit projects in their districts.
Achieving the UK’s legally binding net zero target is no small task and it is acknowledged that reaching this goal requires organisations to work together, share experiences and build on best practice.
To help others reach net zero and to speed up the UK’s collective response to the climate emergency, the Net Zero Carbon Toolkit is openly available as a resource for private and public sector organisations to use and adopt. Further information about how the toolkit may be used is listed on page 2 of the document.
Authors: Etude, Passivhaus Trust, Levitt Bernstein and Elementa Consulting.
Publication date: July 2021
Unlock Net Zero is a knowledge hub focusing on the practical reality of the transition to a net zero future. Net Zero refers to achieving a balance between the amount of Greenhouse Gas emissions produced and the amount removed from the atmosphere. To achieve this requires large-scale and extensive innovation across the UK energy system. This will involve disruptive change across all sectors and industries.
Unlock Net Zero seeks to inform, educate, and connect people and organisations involved in adopting a net zero approach, identifying the technologies, infrastructure and behaviour change required.
For news, case studies, resources, events and more, visit https://www.unlocknetzero.co.uk.
The clauses are free-to-download and set minimum requirements for performance standards for energy (net zero), emissions, health, comfort and building performance evaluation.
Developed in collaboration with:
With input from our local authority (Vanguard) and housing association (Pathfinder) network members via a workshop.
The work has been kindly funded by the MCS Charitable Foundation.
The new clauses can be adopted by clients (i.e. local authorities, RSLs) and included in Employer’s Requirements and Design Guides. The clauses principally intend to:
The clauses provide minimum requirements set out as a performance specification which can be used in connection with both self-promoted and Section.106 developments, they should not be relied upon for any other purpose. Additionally, the clauses seek to clarify the responsibilities of designers and developers in satisfying the requirements.
The ERs are built around standards set by LETI in their Climate Emergency Design Guide, the Future Homes Standard and Woodknowledge Wales BPE Guidance.
Authors: For the Good Homes Alliance, authored by Paul Ciniglio, BM3e Principal, Boulter Mossman with input from Jim Allman, Director, Boulter Mossman and Prof. Tim Sharpe, independent consultant.
Publication date: June 2021, v3
Main document:
Appendices:
On June 1st 2021 we hosted the Model Employer’s Requirements and Design Brief Clauses launch event. You can watch the video of the event below.
Speakers included:
A tutorial with BPE expert Fionn Stevenson.
Download content available for Good Homes Alliance members only.
If you are a GHA member, please Log In or Sign Up for an account.
See our list of members and find out more about membership.
If you have any queries, please contact richard@goodhomes.org.uk.
This guidance is aimed at housing clients, and anyone interested in Building Performance Evaluation (BPE) who wants to evaluate and improve the performance of homes.
Its purpose is to provide an introduction to applying BPE in practice on projects, with:
This guidance recommends a “core” BPE scope for clients and project teams wanting to understand and improve the performance of their homes. This provides a holistic look at performance, including people, the indoor environment, fabric performance, energy use and water use. It highlights how BPE techniques can work together, and the interactions between energy performance, people, and the indoor environment. It limits the involvement of experts and expensive equipment. Instead, the aim is to embed building performance throughout the project stages and empower project teams to deliver high performance.
Authors: This guidance has been produced for Woodknowledge Wales on behalf of the Home-Grown Homes project. The document was authored by Susie Diamond, Inkling & Julie Godefroy Sustainability, for the Good Homes Alliance.
Publication date: January 2021
The target audience encompasses key stakeholders within Welsh social housing organisations including development and asset managers, their design teams, contractors and suppliers, but it also relevant to stakeholders throughout the UK.
Clear and authoritative guidance is provided on how to procure and undertake an Embodied Carbon assessment, what benchmarks can be set, tools that can be used and how Embodied Carbon can be reduced. Examples are provided to show how others have tackled Embodied Carbon within their organisations and projects, with a focus on housing. Where relevant, other guidance and useful information is signposted.
Authors: This guidance has been produced for Woodknowledge Wales on behalf of the Home-Grown Homes project. The document was authored by Jane Anderson of ConstructionLCA Ltd together with Katherine Adams, The Alliance for Sustainable Building Products.
Publication date: December 2020
The fourth and final event in the Good Homes 2020 Conference Series.
Download content available for Good Homes Alliance members only.
If you are a GHA member, please Log In or Sign Up for an account.
See our list of members and find out more about membership.
If you have any queries, please contact richard@goodhomes.org.uk.
Programme:
Event date: Tuesday 17th November 2020