World Leading Sustainable Buildings Innovation Park Launched by Yvette Cooper

Today Yvette Cooper, Minister for Housing & Planning, launches five demonstration buildings on the BRE Innovation Park that are world leading in sustainable design and construction. Using some of the very latest innovations in construction technologies and materials, these buildings all address the ‘zero carbon' challenge making them amongst the most sustainable buildings in the world.

Four of the houses on the BRE Innovation Park by Stewart Milne Group, Kingspan, ecoTECH and Hanson have been built to the Government's new Code for Sustainable Homes, introduced in April this year. These houses are the first to be assessed under the new voluntary regulation. They represent the most significant examples of ‘zero carbon' and ‘holistic sustainable' homes not only in the UK but in the world.

Yvette Cooper says "A quarter of carbon emissions come from our homes. That's why zero carbon homes are so important. We need a complete revolution in the way we design and build our homes. Many of the technologies exist already as these new homes show. Now we need more work to test them and deliver economies of scale."

Also launched today are:

• a carbon neutral recycled timber school designed to maximise the learning and teaching capacity of pupils and teachers, by Re-Thinking, the consultancy arm of Willmott Dixon. The school achieves BREEAM excellent standard for schools
• a volumetric three bedroom house from developer Spaceover which is part on an award winning sustainable community project currently being constructed in Harlow

Chief Executive of BRE Dr Peter Bonfield concludes ‘We are delighted to play host to such a fantastic array of sustainable buildings - its truly inspirational how our industry partners on the BRE Innovation Park have addressed the ‘zero carbon' challenge in their own unique way. They have positioned the UK as world leading innovators in design and construction of sustainable building'.

These new buildings form part of The Big Build Area at BRE's OFFSITE2007 event, currently taking place at BRE Watford.