Vistry sets out its ‘roadmap to net-zero homes’
Housebuilder Vistry Group has published what it terms “a roadmap to net-zero carbon homes” as part of a set of carbon-reduction announcements.
The housebuilder – the Vistry Partnerships arm of which works with many housing associations and councils – said that the construction of its homes, including both materials and processes, would achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2040.
That 20-year goal follows two other targets: for homes to be net zero “in use” by 2030, and to achieve a 75-80% reduction in carbon emissions, from a 2013 benchmark, by 2025.
Vistry said it would be completing its first homes to achieve net-zero regulated carbon emissions (a measure that includes the heating, cooling and lighting of spaces, but not other energy consumption such as using electrical appliances) this year.
The 54 homes, in Leamington Spa, are being built with improved insulation, air-source heat pumps, solar panels, ventilation with heat-recovery technology and timber frames to reduce their embodied carbon, Vistry said.
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Vistry Group will hold an event on 9 November at which more information around its sustainability strategy’s progress will be released.
Detailed carbon-reduction targets for its business operations will be published in 2022, it added.
It is working with the University of Exeter to assess the risks it faces under different climate-change scenarios.
Vistry’s announcements come in the wake of a sector-wide delivery plan being agreed between it and the UK’s other largest housebuilders, in order to meet the government’s climate change targets.
The Future Homes Task Force plan, published in July, contains a series of headline goals in line with those announced by Vistry, including “production and construction methods that are net zero and sustainable by 2050, with substantial progress by 2025 and 2030”.
It also pledged to deliver “places and developments that are consistently low carbon, nature-rich, resilient, healthy, well-designed and beautiful by 2025”.
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