Chapter 5 – Resilience and adaptation

5.4 Examples

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5.4 Examples

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Exeter City Council – developing Passivhaus homes

Exeter City Council has taken a planned approach to low energy development for ten years. The council has already developed over 103 certified Passivhaus homes and there are multiple other low energy projects in the pipeline including a leisure centre, swimming pools, offices and care homes. Key factors that shape their developments are low energy Passivhaus, climate readiness and improving health through building biology, including elements of permaculture landscape. Working with Exeter University and the Met Office (which is based in Exeter), Exeter Council have tested building designs against predicted future climate conditions to ensure resilience to 2080 and beyond. This approach is already delivering benefits, with residents reporting significant health improvements and better air quality.

Passivhaus Trust

A Passivhaus home - a modern building with some exposed brick features and white walls, with large windows.

Buildings have a huge impact on the environment and on people’s quality of life but, once in use, they often fail to achieve the level of energy efficiency they were designed to. The end result is buildings that aren’t comfortable to live or work in, higher energy bills and higher CO2 emissions. Passivhaus buildings use passive design techniques and controlled ventilation to reliably achieve significant energy savings whilst providing high levels of comfort and good indoor air quality. Ashden winner the Passivhaus Trust (PHT) is an independent, non-profit organisation that exists to promote the principles of Passivhaus design as an effective way of reducing energy use while providing high standards of comfort. It aims to preserve the integrity of Passivhaus standards and methodology, promote Passivhaus principles to industry and government, and to undertake research and development on Passivhaus standards in the UK.

Monodraught – low energy cooling systems to prevent overheating

A Monodraught cool-phase monitor, with buttons controlling the ventilation and heating system.

While it is possible to design new buildings in the UK to keep cool using natural ventilation, there are many existing buildings that overheat in the summer. Offices and classrooms in older buildings are particularly prone to overheating, as the installation of IT equipment has added heat sources that were not present when the buildings were first designed. And this risk of overheating becomes greater as our climate warms. Installing cooling systems, such as traditional air conditioning, can be very energy intensive. Ashden winner Monodraught has developed a low energy cooling and ventilation system – COOL-PHASE® – which reduces electricity consumption by up to 90% compared to standard air conditioning. A recent project saw the installation of two heat recovery systems and a full ventilation system in an IT support office in Essex, with energy savings of up to 34% proven following this installation.

A significant proportion of COOL-PHASE® units sold so far have been installed in schools, colleges and universities. As well as saving money for the customers, there are also benefits to the students, as research has shown that temperature and CO2 levels can affect concentration and learning outcomes, and COOL-PHASE® works to keep these within acceptable limits. Overall, Monodraught estimates its technology provides ventilation for 1.4 million pupils each year, saving 400,000 tonnes of CO2.

London Plan – ensuring new development accommodates electric vehicles

The London Plan Policy 6.13 stipulates that developments in all parts of London must ensure that 20% of parking spaces (both active and passive) provide an electrical charging point to encourage the uptake of electric vehicles. It also states that in locations with high public transport accessibility, car-free developments should be promoted while still providing for disabled people.

Edinburgh City Council

An electric car is plugged in to charge at a car park in Edinburgh.

Edinburgh City Council Design guidance Edinburgh Council has introduced an Electric Vehicle Framework which mandates that for residential developments where there are ten or more parking spaces, every six spaces should include an electric vehicle charging point which will be counted as part of the overall spaces provided. For all residential developments fast charging points are to be provided, while for all non-residential developments rapid charging points are required. The policy also calls for provision to be made for infrastructure to allow all new individual dwellings with a driveway or garage to have vehicle chargers in the future. This includes ensuring that there is capacity in the connection to the local electricity distribution network and electricity distribution board. Provision should also be made for the connection infrastructure required to meet future demand for electric vehicles.

Medellin’s Green Corridors

An overhead shot of a colourful, leafy green corridor in Medellin, Colombia.

The city of Medellin in Colombia won the Ashden Cooling by Nature Award in 2019. In the 1990s Medellin had an unenviable reputation as the world’s most dangerous city. Now the city is embracing the fight against climate change with an ambitious urban greening project, Green Corridors. This initiative has multiple goals, including improving appearance, reducing the urban heat island effect, increasing biodiversity and reducing air pollution. Working with the city’s botanical gardens, Medellin has planted 60 hectares of greenery on the central reservations of 18 major roads and 12 waterways (the city is surrounded by mountains, and streams flow down gorges to the Medellín river). Many of the waterways run through the ‘communas’ – poor suburbs that sprung up many years ago as informal settlements. One of the major impacts has been a reduction of littering, with communities undertaking maintenance of the plants. There are over 100 city gardeners who have been trained by the Botanical Gardens including many from disadvantaged backgrounds. The project is expected to reduce urban temperatures by 6-8 degrees once the trees are fully grown.

Wirral JSNA – inclusion of climate change

Wirral Council’s Joint Strategic Needs Assessment includes a detailed section on climate change and health. Wirral have identified the groups that will be most vulnerable to climate change and the specific health impacts such as increased respiratory diseases, cardio-vascular illnesses, skin cancer and mental health.

Islington Council – cutting fuel bills through external wall insulation

Islington Council installed external wall insulation on 269 properties in the Holly Lodge Estate in 2014. An evaluation survey conducted a year after the insulation had been installed showed that the proportion of people who restricted their heating due to concern over their bills decreased from 73% (110 out of 150 people) before the insulation was installed to 20% (28 out of 140 people). The median monthly bill amount over winter decreased from £70 per month to £60 per month.

A woman stands outside her top-floor flat in Islington, London and looks out over the view.

Sustrans school streets

A crowded road outside a school full of people. Children play games with a skipping rope, an outdoor chess set and giant Connect 4. There are chalk drawings on the road.

Sustrans is a charity focused on making walking and cycling in the community easier and ’For Everyone’, with benefits such as reduced air pollution and increased activity enjoyed by everyone equitably. Streets around schools are often dominated by idling cars and speeding traffic at drop-off and pick-up times, resulting in air pollution and an environment that is generally unpleasant for walking and cycling.

Sustrans School Streets is a programme that aims to ease the congestion, poor air quality and road safety concerns that many schools experience during drop-off and pick-up times, by facilitating timed traffic restrictions on the road outside the school gates. At the start/end time each day, main roads by school entrances close for 30-60 minutes. Implementation varies with region, with London and Welsh councils supporting the system through automatic number plate recognition, whereas other councils are introducing temporary bollards or barriers to halt access.

Sustrans works with local authorities to develop and implement the programmes, developing plans that gain local support which are then developed into trial tests to demonstrate the impact of the initiative. The initiative is being implemented across the UK, including a number of London boroughs, Edinburgh, Solihull and Birmingham, where an evaluation report on changes to local road traffic and air quality recently received funding. The project has had particular success in Southampton primary schools, where the scheme has made journeys to school much cleaner whilst also reducing road safety concerns.

Parents were surveyed following the initial project launch and it was found that 92% agreed that the road had become safer to use, and 93% supported the initiative becoming a regular occurrence outside of their school. Sustrans recognises there is more to be done, with their 2021 UK survey of 1,305 children aged between 6-15 finding that only 2% cycled to school, despite 14% wanting to, and over 50% of children describing the school environment as having too many cars. This is an issue in Northern Ireland, with the number of pupils being driven to school rising from 59% to 68% over the last 6 years; making it a focus of Sustrans to implement a School Streets programme there in 2022 after the success of their Active School Travel Programme which increased the number of children actively travelling to school from 31% to 43%.

Newcastle’s Green Infrastructure Delivery Framework

Newcastle City Council published a detailed Green Infrastructure Delivery Framework in December 2018. Newcastle have built on their Open Space assessment to identify areas where green space is inadequate, particularly play areas. This is informed a 3-year upgrade programme starting in 2019, which includes better use of green space e.g. for community food growing.

Repowering – training young people in deprived communities

Ashden award winner Repowering delivers community-based renewable energy. They have worked with housing estates which have often been neglected in the past and delivered projects in some of the most deprived parts of London including Hackney and Brixton. These projects get local people involved, providing opportunities to gain skills and confidence. Repowering provides a paid youth training programme to do this. The accredited programme is targeted at upskilling 16-25 year olds and gives an insight to sustainable energy, social enterprise and community development. Training includes activities such as solar panel making, visits to renewable energy technology sites, discussions with industry specialists and more general skills such as digital marketing, brand building, community engagement and surveying. The grassroots approach it takes in involving communities, rather than imposing projects on them, means that they can identify the most useful opportunities for local residents and help facilitate engagement between neighbours that might otherwise have never happened. This approach is behind the success of implementing projects in areas which were previously deemed ‘hard to reach’.

A shot of solar panels installed on a roof overlooking a residential area in Hackney comprised of blocks of flats.

West Midlands – the UK’s first clean and inclusive Local Industrial Strategy

The West Midlands Combined Authority produced the UK’s first Local Industrial Strategy, launched by the West Midlands Mayor and Government Ministers in May 2019. The strategy has a clear clean and inclusive growth strand at its heart by:

  • Incorporating carbon emissions reduction, air quality and natural environment as part of the current and future growth objectives.
  • Setting out key local strengths and sectors which will make the best of this opportunity – e.g. future mobility.
  • Identifying how to integrate into other local sector support – e.g. innovation, housing.
  • Supporting infrastructure investment will help the foundation of all local business and clean growth e.g. energy, transport, natural capital.

The West Midlands Combined Authority, as part of their climate emergency action plan, is in the process of launching a £45,000 Green Futures Fund. It aims to identify and evaluate how schools can develop career programmes that allow students to connect their learning to green jobs and have the information they need to access them in the future.

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5.5 Useful Resources

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