Acton action

Apartment project seeks carbon neutrality via ‘green electricity’ suppliers and carbon offsets Taking a different route to carbon neutrality, Berkeley Homes has undertaken to measure, reduce and finally offset all the CO2 emitted during construction of its 518-unit West 3 London Apartments development in Acton. The building work will all be done using energy from renewable sources. This measure alone will reduce its ‘carbon footprint’ by 18%, cutting 1,350 tonnes of CO2 emissions. When residents move in they’ll all be on ‘green electricity’ tariffs too - boosting the number of ‘green tariff’ consumers in the UK by 1%. Berkeley says it plans to invite renewable energy suppliers to tender for all its development contracts in future, and that it will consider using them as suppliers of choice wherever this is economically viable. The ‘carbon neutral’ dimension of its West 3 project is being managed by specialist carbon offsets company Future Forests. When the final carbon count for the construction comes in, Future Forests will channel funds to support small-scale hydro in Bulgaria, and sustainable forestry in Bedfordshire, to prevent or sequester an amount of CO2 emissions equivalent to whatever the development still creates. - Roger East

21 September 2005

Roger East