Springfield Meadows Housing Development - Better than Net Zero?

Project Overview

Springfield Meadows is a small residential development on the outskirts of Southmoor, Oxfordshire. It includes 25 new homes, with 9 affordable and 16 privately owned.

The development aims to achieve net zero in use through energy demand reduction measures, alongside solar PV and the use of a green energy supplier for any additional use.

Embodied carbon and construction impacts have been considered through the materials chosen and supported by external auditing. The project also includes zero waste polices and biodiversity enhancement measures.

Springfield Meadows Action Plan follows BioRegional's One Planet Living Framework.

Highlights

• All homes will have net zero energy consumption when in use with on-site solar PV and connection to green electricity supply when needed.
• The embodied carbon from construction is net zero (or better) which will save an estimated 1,250 tonnes of emissions.
• 100% of the waste created during the construction process is recycled and recovered with total diversion from landfill.
• Protection and enhancement of the wildlife around the development through shared outdoor spaces, including a wildflower meadow, orchard and pond.

Approaches used

• Houses are being built using Passivhaus principles and will use less than 15kW hrs/m2/year for heating. Design features include: triple-glazed timber windows, low carbon heat from heat pumps serving underfloor heating and domestic hot water, mechanical ventilation with heat recovery (MVHR) system, LED downlights in all rooms, and thermally efficient front doors.
• 114kW of roof-mounted PV is spread across all 25 houses; supported through use of a green energy supplier when any additional demand is required.
• Biond Building System closed panel timber frame system insulated with bio-based materials which have been shown to lock up 35kg of CO2e per square metre of wall. From a full house embodied carbon study with Bath University the Biond system has been shown to achieve below net zero embodied carbon (subject to house design and specification).
• Low carbon cement replacement has been used as much as possible.

Future plans

• An additional 500 houses in the next five years built to the same standards
• More electric car clubs 
• Additional 7 megawatts of PV
• On-site sewage treatment 
• Catalysts for food generation