The following reports and briefings are available for download. Unless otherwise indicated, all documents are in Adobe PDF format. For more information on this type of file, visit our help section.

Existing Housing

How Low – Achieving optimal carbon savings from the UK's existing housing stock
March 2008
Summary [PDF 487KB]
Full report [PDF 3.1MB]
The UK's poorly insulated, energy inefficient housing stock could be easily transformed into cheaper to run, low carbon homes by the next decade. The report shows that without a radical shift in Government policy the UK could be missing out on the biggest opportunity to cut household energy bills, and reduce CO2 emissions. The first ever modelling of the country's entire housing stock shows that with the right supporting mechanisms and policies in place the UK could get on track to meet its emission reduction targets by 2020.

Water and Energy Tariffs for Sustainability
September 2007
Summary. Water and Energy Tariffs [PDF 800KB]
Full report. Energy Tariffs [PDF 2.7 MB]
Full report. Water Tariffs [PDF 490.2 KB]
In recent decades there has been a rapid increase in household demand for both energy and water. Such levels of energy use are fuelling human-induced climate change, and the demand for water has caused significant damage to our rivers and wetlands. This report suggests that sustainable tariffs should be introduced that provide affordable energy and water for essential use, but penalize excessive and wasteful use.

WWF response to CLG Committee Enquiry – Existing Housing and Climate Change
October 2007
WWF response [PDF 58KB]
WWF response to CLG Committee Enquiry on Existing Housing and Climate Change.

One Planet Living in the Suburbs
November 2006
Summary [PDF 405KB]
Full report [PDF 1.5MB]
This report explores how we can achieve One Planet Living in the Suburbs. It applies the 10 One Planet Living principles to the existing suburb of Solihull in the West Midlands, and examines the barriers and opportunities to living more sustainably in our existing homes and communities.


New Build Homes

Benchmarking

Building a sustainable future
UK home builders' progress in addressing sustainability
October 2007
Summary
Full report
The report shows that the 20 companies responsible for building more than half of all new homes in the UK last year have recognised the importance of sustainability and are getting to grips with the challenge of making all new homes zero-carbon by 2016.

Investing in sustainability
September 2005
Full report [PDF 0.6KB]
This second sustainability benchmark report tracked how well UK house-builders had improved their management and reporting of sustainability issues. The report, Investing in sustainability: Progress and performance among the UK's listed house-builders revisited, reflected that all twelve companies studied substantially improved their performance over last year, but a lot of work remains to be done.

Building towards sustainability
January 2004
Full report [PDF 385KB]
This first survey of 13 of the UK's largest listed house-builders shows very clearly that each recognises the growing importance of sustainability issues to their business. It covers areas such as house-builders' impacts on the environment and society, and delves into their governance, strategies and risk management.


General

WWF response to Homes for the future: more affordable, more sustainable
October 2007
WWF response [PDF 59KB]
WWF welcomes the opportunity to respond to this Green Paper. WWF has extensive experience and knowledge of the housing sector, formerly through the work of our One Million Sustainable Homes (OMSH) campaign and recently through our One Planet Homes campaign, and our work to deliver exemplary 'One Planet Living' communities across the globe with our partners BioRegional.

One Million Sustainable Homes (OMSH)
December 2006
Report [PDF 187KB]
Summary of OMSH campaign success. Moving sustainable homes from the fringes to the mainstream of UK housing.

Window of opportunity - The environmental and economic benefits of specifying timber window frames
July 2005
Report [PDF 1.3 MB]
The report shows that throughout the use and disposal of the product, the overall environmental impact is significantly less for timber windows than for PVC windows. In addition to the negative environmental impacts of PVC, there are many examples of research that show timber windows to be between 14 – 25 per cent less expensive than PVC windows, when considering the 'whole life' cost.

One Million Sustainable Homes Brief
September 2004
Report [PDF 47KB]
At the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg in August 2002, WWF launched its groundbreaking One Million Sustainable Homes (OMSH) campaign to bring sustainable homes from the fringes of the housing sector to the mainstream. This brief describes OMSH's vision and goals for the campaign.


Regional checklists

A Regional sustainability checklist for developments
February 2006
Full report [PDF 377KB]
WWF has been working with part funding from ODPM, and in partnership with BRE to develop regional sustainability checklists for developments.


One Planet Living

Towards a One Planet Olympics
Full report [PDF 2.3MB]
We only have one planet; London 2012 will respect its ecological limits, its cultural diversity and create a legacy for sport, the environment and the local and global community.

One Planet Living Brochure
December 2004
Full report [PDF 1.2MB]
One Planet Living (OPL) is a joint initiative of BioRegional and WWF. It aims to make sustainable living easy, attractive and affordable throughout the world. The vision of One Planet Living is: A world in which people everywhere can lead happy, healthy lives within their fair share of the Earth's resources.

Z-squared: Enabling One Planet Living in the Thames Gateway
October 2004
Full report [PDF 2.1MB]
This report, Z-squared: Enabling One Planet Living in the Thames Gateway, is the culmination of the first phase of work to justify development of a One Planet Community in the Thames Gateway. It outlines scenarios for on-site infrastructure required to deliver zero carbon and zero waste and sustainable water use and treatment. It suggests the approach that should be taken to reduce the environmental impact of transport and food within a community. It proposes methods to reduce the environmental impact of construction materials and improve biodiversity. Incorporating strategies to increase equity and fairtrade, and acknowledge culture and heritage, it offers a means by which people who live, learn and work in Zsquared can have happy and healthy lifestyles whilst living within a fair share of the earth's resources. A related leaflet [PDF 238KB] is also available.

One Planet Living in the Thames Gateway
June 2003
Full report [PDF 684KB]
A report that investigates the environmental and economic impacts of 200,000 homes developed in the Thames Gateway area to four different environmental scenarios.


Planning and building regulations

WWF response to the future Code for Sustainable Homes – Making A rating mandatory
September 2007
WWF Response [PDF 35KB]
WWF welcomes the opportunity to respond to the above consultation. WWF has been closely involved in the development of the Code for Sustainable Homes (the Code) as a member of the Senior Steering Group, and sits on the Zero Carbon Homes 2016 Task Force. We have
consistently called for all new homes to have a Code rating, and therefore we strongly welcome these proposals and the consultation document.

WWF response to Defending the Merton Rule
August 2007
WWF Response [PDF 26KB]
WWF Response to Defending the Merton Rule.

Sustainable and Secure buildings Act
January 2004
Full report [PDF 159KB]
The Sustainable and Secure Buildings Act, supported by WWF as part of it's One Million Sustainable Homes (OMSH) campaign. This Act will amend the previous Building Act to enable building regulations to address sustainability for the first time - an absolutely crucial pre-requisite for the development of sustainable homes. Andrew Stunell MP the Bill's sponsor referred explicitly to WWF's OMSH and One Planet Living work when he presented his Bill to Parliament.

Building sustainably
October 2003
Full report [PDF 1556KB]
A report stating that the UK's building regulations and the planning system must be reformed to help bring sustainable housing into the mainstream. A summary of the report [PDF 770KB] is also available.

WWF-UK Response to the Kate Barker Review of Housing Supply
August 2003
WWF response [PDF 39KB]
WWF welcomes the opportunity to contribute to Kate Barker's review of housing supply. While we recognise the many problems associated with shortages in housing supply and therefore the importance of conducting this review, we believe that any new housing development must prove to be sustainable.


Financial incentives

Fiscal incentives for sustainable homes
May 2002
Full report [PDF 694KB]
A report that recommends a range of possible fiscal incentives that WWF believes should be introduced to facilitate the development of sustainable homes.

WWF response to 'Economic instruments to improve household energy efficiency: consultation document on specific measures.'
October 2003
WWF response [PDF 22KB]
WWF welcomes the opportunity to comment on the proposals to introduce economic instruments to improve household energy efficiency.


Sustainable Communities

WWF response to ODPM consultation paper: Planning Policy Statement 1 (PPS1): Creating sustainable communities
May 2004
WWF response [PDF 47KB]
WWF's response to the ODPM Consultation Paper on Planning Policy Statement 1 (PPS1) mainly focuses on aspects of planning policy relevant to the WWF One Million Sustainable Homes campaign (OMSH), but also includes some other policy issues.


PDF files
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