The most prolific provider of zero carbon homes. Sustainable Developer of the Year is announced at 30th annual What House? Awards
With 30% of the UK’s energy use at household level, produced mainly through heating and hot water, sustainable housing is becoming an increasingly important topic with many speaking of the urgent need to improve our housing stock to save energy, cut CO2 and reduce our carbon footprint.
One such housebuilder which has the key elements of sustainable construction at its heart is Keepmoat Homes, gold winner at last week’s prestigious What House? Awards ceremony.
Taking the Sustainable Developer of the Year title, Keepmoat Homes has a strong commitment to sustainability, announcing last week that it achieved its highest score to date under the NextGeneration benchmark, which measures a company’s sustainability performance, propelling the housebuilder to fifth place in the 2011 sustainability rankings.
While Keepmoat ensures that all properties are built to code 3 under The Code for Sustainable Homes (CSH), an environmental impact rating system for housing in England and Wales which has set new standards in energy efficiency, Keepmoat’s outstanding sustainability performance extends to becoming the most prolific provider of zero carbon, level 6 homes in the country.
With this in mind, Keepmoat is in the process of constructing two homes to CSH (November 2010) levels 5 and 6 to be certified under SAP 2009, with the What House? Awards judges praising these trial projects, stating that they will “show that these levels can be achieved practically, simply and cost-effectively”.
With a long standing history since the 1930’s, Keepmoat Homes builds and sells over 1200 properties each year, building or refurbishing a house every three minutes, and as a result, sustainability in housing development has become an integral part of the company seeing their Management Action Group formulate a series of policies including: a Sustainability Policy, a Climate Change Policy and a Biodiversity Policy, while also producing a Home User Guide for all customers to encourage environmental responsibility.
Indeed, while Keepmoat strive to raise awareness of sustainable issues as well as working on sustainable solutions to solve them, Keepmoat has led the way for sustainability among the housebuilding industry, being the first UK housebuilder to operate an Energy Management System that conforms with the requirements of BS EN 16001 for the acquisition of land and the design, construction and sale of residential buildings. Keepmoat is also ISO 14001 accredited, setting itself challenging objectives to reduce energy, water consumption and the carbon footprint by 2012.
Recognising the importance of sustainable development practices, all Keepmoat sites are registered with the Considerate Constructors Scheme to encourage responsible site management in relation to the environment. With this in mind, the judges commended Keepmoat’s membership of the UK Green Building Council and NEXT-GEN partnership; explain that these associations “further enhance Keepmoat’s sustainability credentials”.
To find out more about the Sustainable Developer of the Year as well a full list of What House? Award winners visit http://www.whathouse.co.uk/what-house-awards/results-2011 or download the new What House? App for iPhone and shortly iPad.
To register for details of the 2012 What House? Awards please contact Derek Smith. ds@globespanmedia.com. Tel: 020-7324-2800.
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Notes to Editors:
Rupert Bates, editorial director of whathouse.co.uk would like to thank the following What House? Awards 2011 sponsors:
Whathouse.co.uk
Roca
Spicerhaart land & new homes
Nolte Kitchens
Hometrack
Show House magazine
Electrolux
Premier Guarantee
Johnson Tiles
Laufen
ScottishPower
KLAS International