Sustainable Homes News 1 - 12/11/2009.

Zero carbon definition announced
In the last month a number of important announcements were made. In particular John Healey MP wrote a statement covering important housing policy issues. The Minister of State's announcements covered: further defining zero carbon, affirming the zero carbon target, announcing Eco Town sites and a consultation on the climate change and renewable energy planning policy statements. If you want to know more about the future of eco towns and low carbon follow this link.

Code refresher
It's been nearly two years since the Code for Sustainable Homes was published. It has changed every six months since then. Changes include large additions to the urban drainage category and a new water efficiency calculator. To make sure you are up to speed with all the changes come along to our refresher day in October.
Follow this link to see what's covered and who should attend.

HESS consultation response The HESS consultation sought feedback on the Government aim for emissions from existing buildings to be approaching zero by 2050. This involves increasing energy saving measures and decarbonising the generation and supply of heat. View summary here

On-site Code awareness
Achieving a Code level is an important objective for many clients, but much of the work needed depends on on-site personnel having a good knowledge of the code and particularly how their actions impact upon the final level achieved. Read more about this one day course specially put together for project managers, contractors and other on-site staff.

SHESP recipients revealed
In case you missed it, the HCA has revealed who will be taking forward the £84 million grant to insulate homes over the next two years. The funding, payable over two years, is expected to insulate up to 110,000 difficult-to-fill homes. Find out who will benefit and more

Low energy Victorian home The Sustainable Homes team have been on their annual day out. No, we didn't go to Blackpool.  We had splendid day in London which included a visit to a refurbished Victorian house. The house has achieved an incredible reduction in carbon emissions without any fancy 'eco bling'. Follow this link and learn more

On-site Code awareness
Achieving a Code level is an important objective for many clients, but much of the work needed depends on on-site personnel having a good knowledge of the code and particularly how their actions impact upon the final level achieved. Read more about this one day course specially put together for project managers, contractors and other on-site staff.

Code changes impacting on designs
The Code for Sustainable Homes is a standard that assesses the environmental benefits of newly built houses. But recent changes to the Code have made it operate quite differently, such as the new water efficiency calculator. Many people ask us about the impact of these changes. We have developed three different ways for you to stay up-to-date:

720,000 homes can't be wrong!
If you are setting budgets for next year you may want to put aside some money now for joining SHIFT. The new SHIFT year starts in April 2010 and we're expecting to double our membership. Make sure you can join our 32 members. All members will benefit from a full assessment of their organisation's sustainability, valuable PR and priority invitations for leading edge projects and events. More information.

Ecohomes for existing Buildings
Low carbon refurbishment of the UK's housing stock to meet zero carbon targets is the single largest engineering challenge we have faced since World War II. This standard can strengthen your asset management strategy. In one day, understand how it relates to EPCs and learn how to use the toolkit with confidence. More information.