Transforming homes kickstarts rapid transition. Providing affordable, energy-efficient and decent shelter is a primary responsibility of a society to itself.
Big global shifts in recent decades have seen populations rise and move to cities and urban areas where space is limited and the provision of housing a challenge. The built environment is one of the biggest users of energy and emitters of carbon, both in construction and day to day use.
But there are huge economic, environmental and social gains to be made from making sure that new buildings are zero carbon, and existing buildings are retrofitted to become energy efficient. New thinking about how where we build relates to where we work can also radically reduce energy use and improve quality of life by, for example, designing out unnecessary commuting in cars.
New or revived interest in common land ownership, and cooperative or part-communal housing developments are further demonstrating how to change how we live to radically, and rapidly reduce our climate impact, while also easing a range of social and health problems.
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Story of change
A fast plant for rapid shifts in construction – how the ancient supercrop Hemp can help build low carbon homesReducing emissions in the construction industry, with its dependence on carbon-intensive concrete, is notoriously difficult and extraordinarily important in...
Story of change
Heating households not the planet: from China to Denmark rapid transition in heating brings warmer homes with less climate costWinter is coming in the northern hemisphere and keeping homes warm is on everyone’s minds. Much housing stock is old, inefficient and leaks heat, and the...
Story of change
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Story of change
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Story of change
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Story of change
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Story of change
Transition Towns – the quiet, networked revolutionThe Transition Network began in 2006 in the small rural UK town of Totnes, Devon. It was initially a response to the twin threats of climate change and peak...
Story of change
Future homes: the rapid rise, fall, and return of UK social housingHousing is the ‘crucial backdrop’ to poverty in the United Kingdom according to the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human...
Story of change
Make do and mend: the rise of repair cafesThe relationship with ‘stuff’ in high-consuming, wealthy economies is set to change. From the European Union to the United States new laws are being...
