Working with government
For the last five years, WWF has been making sure the government departments responsible for the way our homes are built can’t rest on their laurels.
We’ve been working closely with, and continually challenging, all levels of government – from national to local – to ensure environmental factors are key when developing new homes, as well as in improving our existing housing stock.
We’re currently striving to ensure the government’s Heat and Energy Saving strategy delivers the step change we need to reduce carbon emissions from our homes.
We were strong advocates for the introduction of Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), which indicate a home's energy efficiency and are an ideal tool for helping minimise environmental impact.
WWF was also involved in the creation of the Code for Sustainable Homes, which sets ambitious targets towards new zero carbon homes and encourages higher performance in terms of water use, materials, biodiversity and a range of other environmental issues.
We are driving forward progress for both existing and new homes through our positions on government panels responsible for revamping the home buying and selling process and the 2016 Zero Carbon Task Force.
WWF's One Planet Homes report, How Low?, shows that in order to stabilise carbon emissions at a level sufficient to prevent the worst ravages of climate change, we need a fundamental step change in government policies, and a significant ramping up of energy efficiency measures, including low and zero carbon technologies.
Find out more on what we need from government by reading our summary for policy makers.
Latest news
New government boosts for green economy
We’re really pleased with some of the details emerging about the new coalition government’s environmental plans. Ambitious carbon reduction targets and more renewables all sound promising for a greener, low-carbon future. But we’d like more commitments on zero-carbon homes…
Related links
- How Low? Key findings
- Energy Performance Certificates
- Building on Success – One Million Sustainable Homes