Birmingham’s eco home with the most environmentally friendly features in the UK is shortlisted for a national award
30 September 2008
A Birmingham housing association which has led the industry in sustainable social house building for over a hundred years has been shortlisted for a national housing award for its eco home.
Bournville Village Trust (BVT) refurbished a 1929 two storey mid terraced house with over fifty environmentally friendly features. The eco home which was opened last year by David Bellamy is one of six projects which will be considered for a sustainable housing award, organised by the Chartered Institute of Housing.
264 Selly Oak Road in Bournville (Birmingham) was let to tenants in December 2007. The family’s ‘green’ lifestyle is being monitored in comparison with a pilot home for twelve months.
The concentrated mix of environmentally friendly features includes a sedum roof and ground source heat pump, sun pipes, cavity and loft insulation and solar panels which heat the water.
The project is being supported by a number of suppliers and manufacturers, such as Chamois Kitchens, Lecico which supplied low water consumption bathroom fittings, and Worcester Bosch which supplied the solar panels and Ground Source Heat pump.
Local Year 9 schoolchildren from Kings Norton Girls School in Birmingham helped to design the garden and made suggestions as to what features should be included in the house. The tenants are growing their own vegetables and recycling.
It is one of the very first homes of its age to receive the Government’s ‘Eco Homes Excellent’ accreditation.
Bob Stanton Head of Housing at Bournville Village Trust said: The objectives of refurbishing the house are to reduce the energy requirement of the home by improving its thermal performance, to reduce the dependency of the home on non-sustainable energy sources and to minimise the environmental impact of the home as it is upgraded. Following the twelve month monitoring, we will be using the features that work in our future housing repairs and maintenance programme."
David Bellamy said: "Bournville does it again; state of the art homes now as green as they can be, ready for the lucky tenants."
Housing Corporation Board Member Sir Duncan Michael and Margaret Allen, the Central Director were amongst over one thousand people who visited the eco home before it was let to tenants.
Margaret Allen said: "Both Duncan and I found the visit really interesting - and we left full of ideas and inspiration! It was great to see such enthusiasm both in the visitors and team for this project. I am sure it will help raise awareness of sustainability as well as provide a beautiful family home".
Britain’s homes are responsible for a significant proportion of the UK’s carbon emissions and all new homes will have to meet tough new "zero carbon" standards by 2016. The awards which will be presented on November 11 2008 in London, recognise those projects and organisations which are at the vanguard of housing sustainability best practice.