Planning for Sustainability

The use of energy in buildings is one of the major contributors to global carbon emissions and climate change. Increasing energy efficiency and generating energy from renewable sources has become a major consideration in development proposals in recent years.

Since the assent of the Planning and Energy Act, local authorities can require that development proposals include the provision that the energy performance of buildings is greater than that required by the building regulations and that a proportion of the energy that is used by the new development will be produced on the development site and utilising renewable sources.

Many local authorities have now adopted policies that require that a certain percentage of the energy use of new development will be generated on the site using low or zero carbon technologies. The methodology that the developer proposes to implement to meet this requirement is described in an energy statement.

Planning for Sustainability provides a comprehensive set of services to assist the planning and design of development proposals to meet these requirements. For larger projects we advocate a staged approach consisting of:

• Development of an energy strategy
• Feasibility study
• Option selection to identify a short list of technologies
• Production of an energy statement for planning purposes
• Detailed design

We would be delighted to discuss our approach and how it applies to your project in further detail. Please send us an email on paul.giesberg@planningforsustainability.co.uk or call on 01235 852778 to arrange an introductory meeting or a request for a proposal.