ABSTRACT
The creation of low-energy buildings and communities is a multifaceted problem, with a large number of variables to be successfully juggled and balanced. In recent years, a range of schemes have been developed for zero-carbon communities, whether outside Shanghai, in Abu Dhabi or across north-west Europe. Such communities tend to focus strongly on transport issues, including reducing the need for vehicle journeys at all, in favour of more local transactions involving walking or cycling, but also embrace shared resource use where possible and the aim of overall energy self-sufficiency. Households are currently responsible for 27 percent of the UK's carbon emissions for heating and powering their homes, and there is an inevitable focus on how to bring this percentage to near to zero. Although various approaches to low-energy building design have been tried in the years since the energy crises of the 1970s, they have largely consolidated into the tripartite strategy: reduce demand, increase efficiency and use low-carbon energy.
