First 'Zero Carbon' Home for Wales

Sustainability - contexts on the doorstep in Wales and Watford!

Rejuvenating the site of an old steel works in South Wales, the Welsh Future Homes project is a new development of three sustainable houses. One of the three buildings meets Level 6 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, making it the first ‘zero carbon’ home to be built in Wales.

This development of three houses and a Visitor’s Centre is the result of a partnership between BRE Wales, the Welsh Assembly Government, Blaenau Gwent Council and United Welsh Housing Association.

Each home has been constructed from a range of locally sourced materials that are highly sustainable and low ongoing energy costs. The project aims to both stimulate the development of a low carbon built environment in Wales, and also 'kick-start' the country's green economy.

For further information, including details for arranging visits, see the BRE (Building Research Establishment) website.

As well as the first ‘zero-carbon’ home for Wales, teachers may find Watford’s ‘renewable house’ a useful context for exploring areas such as material science, energy efficiency, and sustainability.

Completed in 2009, the ‘renewable house’ looks from the outside like a standard three-bed semi. However, the construction draws almost entirely on plant products, such as hemp, wood and sheep wool. The building was developed in partnership with the National Non-Food Crops Centre. Visitors are also welcome at the Watford site (image courtesy of NNFCC).

The National STEM Centre's eLibrary includes a number of resources to support teaching of sustainability, including materials from the Practical Action collection and several resources from the Triple Science Support Programme, including ‘Green Chemistry’.

This is a growing area of the collections, so we’d appreciate suggestions for other materials that you’d like to see included. Please contact us with any ideas for resource collections here.