Planning and infrastructure solutions
Our homes and communities should be places we are proud of. They should allow us to enjoy a good quality of life, but without causing untold and unnecessary damage to the planet.
Yet currently, our homes account for 22% of our ecological footprint and about 30% of our carbon emissions. Our homes also influence our decisions on how we travel to work or school, where we buy our food, and how we choose to spend our free time.
Following on from our One Million Sustainable Homes (OMSH) campaign, WWF aims to significantly reduce CO2 emissions and other environmental impacts from the UK's housing stock.
WWF is working at every level of government to ensure higher standards in house building and to provide people with incentives to make their homes more sustainable. We are working with businesses to encourage environmental innovation and best practice in the housing sector. We are also trying to make it easier for homeowners to make their own energy efficiency improvements.
Beacon awards
Sharing good practice on promoting sustainable communities through the planning process
In 2007, WWF sponsored the ‘Promoting Sustainable Communities through the Planning Process’ category of the Beacon Awards - a Communities and Local Government (CLG) initiative run by the Improvement and Development Agency (IDeA) to reconise "excellance and innovation" in local government. Case studies from the winning Beacons are available.
For planning to play its part in delivering sustainable communities, people need to understand and experience planning as a system which works for them. They should see the planning system as something which they can help deliver their vision for their communities - retaining what is valued and changing what is not.
Good planning authorities are those which have fully involved local residents and other local partners in preparing or reviewing their community strategy - a strategy which wholly embraces the principles of sustainable development. Their local development framework, developed in consultation with partners, fis an important part of delivering the community strategy, and they are able to demonstrate high-quality delivery on the ground.
More information
How low can we go?
Zero carbon new build is one of the ways in which developers and local authorities are striving to meet government targets on carbon reduction. But what can be done with the existing housing stock? WWF's How Low? report takes a look.