An interesting talk at the NLA on Zero Carbon: a goal too far? began with Neil Jefferson, chief executive of the Zero Carbon Hub, talking us through government changes to the definition of zero carbon (reminiscent of Thatcher's changes to the definition of unemployyed, instantly bringing jobless queues down). What time we must waste manipulating figures to serve our causes.
I was mulling this when Jonathan Hines, director of Architype, started speaking and all this nit picking seemed irrelevant. In a strident speech, he said if zero carbon is the goal, we are asking ourselves the wrong questions. It's inefficient and wasteful to set up individual properties or developments to be zero carbon, which also provides no incentives for people to cut consumption. Far better to built mass recycling/ green energy installations and encourage thrift. He was convincing, and those who came after struggled with their pre-prepared speeches about construction of homes to Code Levels 4, 5 and 6.
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