Issues in Sustainable Housing - The SCP Knowledge Hub

Issues in Sustainable Housing
1 st “Policy meets research“ Workshop
Helsinki, 24 th November 2011
Pål Strandbakken
funded in
National Institute for Consumer
Research (SIFO)

Our focus
– Sustainable housing is a very broad concept. We have to
narrow it down in order to deal with it
– We first want to concentrate on energy use and energy
savings in households. This is the major challenge.
– Second, we adress environmental themes beyond energy
use (pollution, landscape use etc.).
– Third, we comment some aspects of socially sustainable
housing.
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Issues in Sustainable Housing

Focus contiued
– This means that there are a number of important themes and
issues that are left out or only briefly commented upon:
– Infrastructure beyond energy; like waste management, water
supply, sewage and broadband/telecommunications.
– The very important interface with mobility (urban density,
urban sprawl, area planning, networks of road & rail)
– Production, except for energy production
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Issues in Sustainable Housing

Sustainability and housing
– There seems to be no commonly accepted definition of
sustainable housing
– But we do have definitions for special reports and studies.
The Irish statement on housing policies; Delivering Homes;
Sustainable Communities (2007) gives a definition of
sustainable communities: “Sustainable communities have a
high quality natural and built environment, with a dynamic
and innovative economy, good transport, supportive
community and voluntary services, and are environmentally
sound” and ”they meet the diverse needs of existing and
future residents, are sensitive to their environment and
contribute to a high quality of life”.
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Issues in Sustainable Housing

Energy use and emissions from the sector
A rather common rule of thumb is that the environmental
impact of consumption splits into one third from food, one third
from mobility and one third from housing.
“Buildings” account for some 40 % of direct energy consumption
and 36 % of CO2 emissions in the European Union.
The precise figures may be contested, and the relation between
consumption of energy and GHG emissions will vary between
countries due to their different energy mixes.
Nevertheless, emissions from private consumption are
considerable and national differences are only moderately
interesting in a European market
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Issues in Sustainable Housing

What can private consumers do about their
energy use and GHG emissions from housing?
– Put simple, they have two options:
1. they can use less energy, by changing behavior and/or by
using technology
«Behavior» here would include area per person, indoor
temperature, use of light, turning off/turning down, while
«technology» means insulation, energy efficient appliances as
well as energy saving technologies (like heat pumps)
2. they can try to get their energy supply from renewable
sources
Some power companies offer electricity from renewable
sources at a slightly higher price
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Issues in Sustainable Housing

Reduced energy use from housing: The
Consumers’ options
In the ideal detached house, the consumer
should consider the following:
- Insulation (attic, roof, external and even
internal walls, floor, pipes & boiler)
- Energy efficient appliances (white good,
light bulbs etc.)
- Energy efficient heating technologies
(heat pumps, automatic temperature
control, smart meters)
- Installation of solar panels for space
heating, water heating or electricity
production
- Plus behavior change (lower
temperature, less showering, turning off
lights)
Source: The Fresh Project
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Issues in Sustainable Housing

Aggregate effects
– We have a situation where the environmental issue mainly
consists of individually insignificant acts (my personal
contribution is negligible) that add up to our present
problems:
– If we choose to narrow it down to electricity, we find that in
the European Union, white goods account for 40 % of
households’ electricity consumption
and
– It has been estimated (CECED 2008) that Europe might reach
6% of Kyoto targets only by replacing old and inefficient
white goods
Issues in Sustainable Housing

Consumer change
– This means that we are more interested in small changes
among large consumer groups than in large changes and
sacrifice among a small group of activists
– From a researcher’s point of view, this perspective should
guide politics as well
– The authorities’ ability to influence consumer behavior in the
field of domestic energy use and saving og via regulation,
economic measures/incentives and programs adressing
consumer conciousness
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Renewable sources
– In some European countries households are offered the
opportunity to buy electricity from renewable sources. There
is, however, no possibility to identify its source.
So the idea is that the power company is able to charge extra
for the exact amount of electricity it produces from wind, sun or
other. The company gets an incentive for increasing the
production of renewable energy
The consumer supports a good cause economically, and in
addition sends a message to politicians and stakeholders
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Issues in Sustainable Housing

Energy supply
– Beyond this attempt at influencing the incentive system,
energy supply obviously is and remains the responsibility of
the political authorities, mainly on Member State level
– In the UK, energy from renewable sources only accounted
for 2% of the total (in 2007), while comparable data from
France give approximately 14% renewable energy in 2010
versus 17 % for Germany
– Even for a pioneer country like Denmark, wind power still
only delivers approximately 5% of total production
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Issues in Sustainable Housing

Sustainable energy
– On the positive side, the potential for developing energy
supply from renewable sources is big; with wind, hydro,
solar, geothermal and biofuelled. In addition, energy saving
is a huge potential alternative power plant.
– Negatively, we fear that the development goes too slow. In
addition, the economic problems in the Eurozone is
constraining ambitious policies.
– The most promising example at the moment is probably the
German «Energiewende»/Energy turn.
– Germany aims at phasing out nuclear energy by 2022, and at
the same time reduce CO2 emissions by 40% (ref. year 1990).
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Issues in Sustainable Housing

Further environmental issues in housing
Resource use: Recycled or second hand (re-used) materials
should be incorporated; reclaimed lumber, locally obtained
stone.
Landscape deprivation: Large areas are consumed for building
residental areas with necessary traffic infrastructure
Pollution: Production of building components (eg rockwool) is
very polluting
Indirect/embedded energy: Production of houses/building
structures consumes huge amounts of energy
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Issues in Sustainable Housing

Social sustainability of housing
– Some 30 million people or 6 % of the population in the EU 27
area were reported to suffer from severe housing deprivation
like noise, lack of space (overcrowding), crime, pollution or
other housing related problematic conditions in 2009.
– More than 12 % lived in households affected by high housing
costs. Families with small children were more affected by
poor housing conditions than households with only adults.
– Less than 4 % lacked basic sanitary facilities, but problems
with leaking roofs (16 %), and darkness in the dwelling (7 %)
were more widespread.
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Social policy and agreeable neighborhoods
– The main focus has had to be on the dwellings’ technical
standards; water, sewage, insulation, size, and “quality”
more in general. In addition, however, policy makers have to
consider questions of urban development and of good
quality neighbourhoods.
– Sustainable housing policies are then supposed to
contribute to creating more attractive and safer
neighbourhoods; with less crime and unrest, better
educational and cultural facilities and so on.
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Thank you.
Pål Strandbakken
National Institute for Consumer Research (SIFO)
pal.strandbakken@sifo.no
24 th November 2011
funded in