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  • HPH355: The Story of Upfront Carbon – with Lloyd Alter

    HPH355: The Story of Upfront Carbon – with Lloyd Alter

    Lloyd Alter explains the term upfront carbon, its relevance to us all as consumers, and why he felt compelled to write a book on the topic.

    Interview with Lloyd Alter

    In 2021, Lloyd released his book Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle, where he attempted to limit his carbon emissions in line with what climate scientists say would be needed to keep within 1.5 degrees of global warming. Lloyd took on this challenge just as the Covid-19 pandemic struck and therefore it might have been slightly easier than normal because big emission activities such as flying were restricted. After completing a year living within this carbon budget, Lloyd stopped carbon counting. Habits that stuck include eating more vegetarian meals each week, using his e-bike instead of his car as much as possible, and not buying gadgets on a whim. The trickiest part for him has been air travel and he has taken a few flights since.

    After examining the power of our personal choices Lloyd’s latest release focuses on our obsession with stuff! In his new book, The Story of Upfront Carbon: How a Life of Just Enough Offers a Way Out of the Climate Crisis, Lloyd explores the carbon emissions linked to everything we purchase as consumers.

    “If you buy a car you’re buying 14 tonnes of upfront carbon emissions, the emissions of making that car. Everything you buy has these issues and people would talk about efficiency, efficiency, efficiency. But efficiency is pointless without sufficiency.”

    What is upfront carbon?

    When it comes to producing products a common phrase used to describe carbon emissions (or greenhouse gas equivalent emissions) is ’embodied carbon’. However, the word embodied is misleading in this context as it seems like it is describing a positive process of carbon sequestration rather than a harmful process of emissions. Lloyd, alongside Elrond Burrell and Jorg Chapa started thinking if it could be described more accurately and came up with ‘upfront carbon’. This term clearly highlights to the consumer what the carbon cost has been to create a product up until the point of purchase.

    Upfront carbon refers to the first 5 stages of the life cycle (production and construction) from A1 to A5 which goes from the mining of materials right up to the use stage. It can be difficult to find accurate information within different aspects of the supply chain which makes most calculations an estimate rather than a certainty. Lloyd highlights that in spite of this uncertainty, it is always a good idea to use as little resources as possible as this will reduce the upfront carbon. It is also important to focus on items that use less processed materials because the upfront carbon will be significantly lower, so a wooden pencil rather than a metal mechanical one, or straw insulation over foam.

    “The ultimate thing is just how much of everything are we using”

    Upfront carbon is a good place to start but can’t be the end

    Upfront carbon tells us a story about the production process of that object and can highlight the impact that the mere existence of the product has on our planet. However, with many of the things we buy, we will also generate carbon emissions when we use or maintain them. The easiest example of this is a car, which comes with approximately 14 tonnes of upfront carbon, but if that car has a petrol engine with poor fuel efficiency, the carbon emissions will be ongoing. It is therefore important to be looking at both the upfront carbon and the entire lifecycle of the product, in order to understand its impact and determine whether it is worth purchasing in the first place and how best to manage it.

    “I had a student who actually analysed a pencil for her class. It was a brilliant, brilliant examination because the Staedtler pencil was made in Nuremberg, from clay from Pennsylvania and graphite from Turkey and cedar from California. And all of these things came together in a pencil in Nuremberg, which was shipped to the store in Aurora, Ontario, North of Toronto. But the carbon emissions from her driving to the store and bringing it home were twice as big as the whole manufacture of the pencil and shipping everything all over the world.”

    Buy good quality things and maintain them for as long as possible

    Every time you buy something new it comes with upfront carbon. Every year you can make that product last, you are amortising that upfront carbon over a longer period and it will be getting less and less. Lloyd highlights this as the simplest method for reducing your carbon emissions and by breaking that consumerist mindset, you will be taking a large step towards a more sustainable lifestyle.

    Use materials that have been processed less

    Lloyd highlights that another way to ensure you are reducing your upfront carbon is to use natural materials where possible. The majority of building products that have been highly processed will have extremely high upfront carbon, items like foam insulation or concrete. Lloyd uses an example from Steve Webb:

    “He said, how do you make concrete? You take limestone, you grind it up into a powder, you put it in a kiln at 1450°C. You then mix it with a bit of clay and aggregate to make what is basically artificial stone. So if I go to a quarry, cut out the limestone, cut it into blocks, drill a hole and put a cable through it as reinforcement, I can make a beam out of stone that is stronger than the beam out of concrete with a 10th of the upfront carbon emissions and it will last five times as long. I said why aren’t we doing this? Making concrete is perverse.”

    Constructing Old Holloway with EcoCocon panels

    Simpler designs will use less

    Minimally processed materials must be used in the most efficient way and all while keeping a check on the scale of things. Lloyd indicates that there is often a misconception that if wood sequesters carbon, then using as much as possible can only be a good thing. However, this negates the fact that wood is a precious resource and whilst it is a great natural building material with low upfront carbon, it should be used as efficiently as possible within the structure.

    While much of the design world ignores the wisdom of optimising, the path is clear. For example, for larger timber buildings they would be simple and boxy, and limited in height to around 6 storeys. The buildings would have flat facades and fairly small windows.

    “We should stop this insane competition to be the tallest wood building in the world. You don’t want to be the tallest wood building, because then the columns are getting bigger and bigger and bigger, and you’re putting in more and more fibre. And you’ve got to deal with harder fire regulations and all of these things.”

    Finding out accurate information about the upfront carbon can be difficult

    You cannot accurately measure the upfront carbon of wood because every tree is different and unique. The most important thing you can do is make sure you only use FSC certified timber.

    Both high energy efficiency and low upfront carbon must be prioritised

    The construction space can be filled with confusing examples. Many of the first really efficient houses used foam insulations with huge amounts of upfront carbon, so whilst carbon emissions were reduced on a day to day basis, they were significant during construction. An opposing argument has been raised from within the eco build community, where natural building materials with low upfront carbon have been prioritised whilst the need for energy efficiency has been questioned. Lloyd believes that both must be considered equally to ensure that our homes are as sustainable as possible whilst also providing comfort and security.

    There may be emissions from heat pumps

    The refrigerants used in heat pumps often contain harmful greenhouse gases and so if the heat pump isn’t installed correctly they may leak. There are now some heat pumps that claim to use ‘natural’ refrigerants but in reality they are still fossil fuels, just natural gasses rather than fluorocarbons. The ‘natural’ heat pump is a much less harmful version and should definitely be prioritised where possible, but it is not necessarily emission free. Because of this nuance, once again, it is important that the spaces we are designing are modest to ensure that we can keep the size of our heat pump down and therefore reduce the associated emissions.

    Copyright by Evelyne Bouchard

    We need to design with grid intermittency in mind

    Lloyd highlights that there is a growing need to design buildings with future grid intermittency in mind. This would include low carbon, well insulated and efficient shells in order to maintain indoor temperature in the possibility of power cuts. With a need to move towards more and more renewable energy sources, it is important that we anticipate the potential issues that could arise and plan around them. Lloyd highlighted a potential to connect up car batteries to houses in order to utilise each of our resources to the max.

    “The thing about this new world we’re getting into where we’re relying on renewables for everything is that renewables are intermittent… We have to design our houses to be really, really efficient so that if the heat goes off for an hour, and the hot water heater goes off, you don’t notice it.”

    Cultural shifts can cause a ripple effect that increases our carbon emissions

    Lloyd uses the example of the hamburger as a cultural ripple effect. The rise of fast food and drive thrus has created a culture around eating inside our cars. As a result car manufacturers began to add in features such as tray tables and cup holders to make this experience easier for the consumer. As years go by, these features increase and the overall size of cars increase too as a response to the amount of time we are spending in them. All of these increases go far beyond sufficiency and enter the world of excess, where every extra feature and every extra inch of space is adding to the upfront carbon of the car. This is a great example of how our cultural and consumerist influences cause these ripple effects that amplify our impact on the climate at every stage.

    Copyright Looney Tunes

    ‘Visualising’ the carbon may help us grasp its impact

    Lloyd spent a long time deciding on the best metric of measuring upfront carbon and eventually settled on Wile E. Coyote’s biggest threat, an anvil. It can be difficult to grasp the real impact of upfront carbon when it is measured in pounds or kilograms. Therefore being able to say that the production of a Macbook Air took an anvil and a half of carbon or that a watch was half an anvil can be a really valuable image to help people understand the true impacts of their possessions.

    Could a ‘carbon allowance’ be the answer to sufficiency?

    Lloyd suggests that carbon rationing could be a good strategy to help reduce carbon emissions. Everyone would be allowed the same, whether that’s by year or by lifetime, and from there they are free to decide what to spend their allowance on. The idea is that the consumer would be encouraged to reflect on the impacts of the products they buy and the choices they make.

    “So if you’re building lower cost housing, you could maybe say slightly lower standard because it’s small. But if someone wants to build 500 square metres and has the same carbon allowance, they’re going to have to really be careful and they’re going to have to build it to a really high standard. And then if you start saying oh, by the way, you’re only allowed to have this much carbon allowance to build your whole house. Well, then they’re suddenly going to be looking at saying the only way I can build my mansion is if I build it out of straw and hemp on woodpile foundations.”

    Sufficiency, sufficiency, sufficiency: how much do you really need?

    “In this new world of upfront carbon, we have to turn that on its head and start thinking about sufficiency. How much do we need? And this goes through everything. How much clothing do I need? How much food should I be buying? How big is my car? Do I need a car? How big is my house? Everything we do we should look at it. And I often say when you look at the world through the lens of upfront carbon, everything changes. You just start thinking differently about everything you do and everything you buy.”

    Find out more

    Get your copy of The Story of Upfront Carbon

    Living the 1.5 Degree Lifestyle

    Key decisions that impact on the sustainability of a house build

    Worldwide trends in green design

    Transcript

    Download the transcript of this episode.

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  • HPH191 : Key decisions that impact on the sustainability of a house build – with Lloyd Alter from TreeHugger

    HPH191 : Key decisions that impact on the sustainability of a house build – with Lloyd Alter from TreeHugger

    Lloyd Alter from TreeHugger shares his advice on what we should be prioritising as 21st century self-builders.

    Interview with Lloyd Alter

    We catch up again with Lloyd Alter, whose work as an architect and a real estate developer led to his interest in modern building methods. He blogs for the website TreeHugger and also teaches sustainable design at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada. Previously, Lloyd’s talked to us about worldwide trends in green designs.

    Don’t measure value in pounds per square foot

    Lloyd says that size will be the most important decision about a house build because so much relates to it. While building small may be preferable for sustainability, he acknowledges there are various problems to overcome.

    Some contractors may refuse work on smaller houses, or argue that a bigger house is better value. Lloyd warns against buying more space than you need. A bigger house may cost less per square foot but that is a dangerous criterion for measuring value. He explains, “It will cost you more per unit of area to build smaller but the aggregate, it will still cost you less.” Operating and maintenance costs will also be less with a smaller dwelling.

    House size may be dictated by the plot

    Re-sale value can force a self-builder into a larger project. Often it’s the land that really has the value, so there’s a judgement to be made about the right sized house for the size of the plot. And Lloyd points out that putting in services costs the same regardless of house size, potentially making it harder to recoup costs on a smaller house.

    By-laws can, in some instances, prevent small homes being built. For example, Lloyd explains that some North American municipalities fix minimum square footages to guarantee a minimum tax return.

    Balance location with lifestyle

    Lloyd recognises the dilemma for self-builders who want to minimise their carbon footprint but can’t afford the expensive land located close to facilities.

    Low energy buildings can reduce environmental impact, and changing habits can also mitigate high-energy consumption. Someone Lloyd knows – who lives 9km away from town – cycles, uses a hybrid car when he has to drive, minimises shopping trips and avoids ordering things delivered by truck. Lloyd himself tries to balance his many air miles by cycling and keeping his house at “incredibly low temperatures”.

    An independent expert will help you design for sustainability

    In a poorly planned house, you pay more for a poor living experience. Lloyd mentions one self-builder who incorrectly fitted insulation and this decision threatened to destroy his house.

    For Lloyd, an architect should “help you get to the essentials and put the essentials together in the most efficient, satisfying and beautiful way.” He sees this as directly linked to building sustainably: “The key to sustainability is living with less and the key to living with less is to have it designed properly.”

    To choose an architect or builder, Lloyd suggests going to see their work and spending enough time with them to know that you like them, they understand you and that you can understand what they’re saying; clients shouldn’t have to deal with what he calls “Architectese”!

    Simplicity should be designed into the house in the first place

    So-called “smart homes” are fashionable but Lloyd is wary of unnecessary complexity that adds cost and needs maintenance. “My attitude is I like a dumb home!”, he says, citing the Passivhaus as a good example of this. Using less power means no need for a smart thermostat or a complicated solar panel system connected to the grid. “The house takes care of itself,” he says.

    Another reason to keep house design simple is to accommodate changing technology. Low voltage LED bulbs have practically eliminated the problem of lighting load and our technology increasingly runs on low voltage DC wiring. Lloyd envisages future houses solely using DC, so any high voltage electric systems fitted now should be kept accessible.

    As different building elements last different lengths of time, Lloyd’s advice is to prepare and keep things simple. “Put as little of it as you need in. Because at some point, you’re going to have to redo it anyway.” Homeowners should be able to access, change or fix any systems in the house:

    Element of your propertyHow long it may last
    LandForever
    Frame of your house500 years
    Cladding200 years
    Windows100 years
    Plumbing50 years
    Electrical20 years
    Mechanical systems10 years

    Fabric first is fairer as well as simpler

    Lloyd believes it is unreasonable to simply aim for “net zero carbon”, stating, “We have to use less, period. Even if we’re trying to offset it with energy from sun or wind.” Thus, investment in domestic energy production is another trend that Lloyd mistrusts. Compared to the huge amount of energy used for transport, he describes solar panels on roofs as inconsequential. “We should be going after the big things. And that’s efficiency, not solar panels on the roofs,” he says.

    He remarks that policies of domestic generation of electricity disproportionately favour people who have south-facing roofs. Someone without a roof or who can’t afford solar panels will pay more for their electricity, meaning the poor end up paying for the grid. A fairer system in Lloyd’s view would be for everyone to live in houses that are built to a higher standard and use less energy.

    Preferred methods of building continue to change

    Lloyd teaches a sustainable design course and the content can change every year. Ten years ago, he taught about spray foam that seals and insulates efficiently, but we know now this foam contains unhealthy flame-retardants and some don’t even work below three degrees Celsius. The current insulation trend is for low carbon cellulose, although Lloyd prefers rockwool.

    On the subject of new building techniques, Lloyd says, “I’ve become very conservative as I’ve gotten older.” He sees people who want the “latest new thing” demolishing existing houses on highly sought-after plots. This discourages building really good quality houses because “they don’t seem to be building them forever anymore”.

    Construction methods can be more suited to specific locations

    Building with “brick and block” gives thermal mass, holding heat in the day and releasing it at night. Lloyd says that this principle works well in the high Arizona desert, with hot days and cold nights. In less extreme climates such as the UK it is less effective, and making bricks, concrete and mortar releases a lot of carbon dioxide before construction even begins.

    Homes should be comfortable, safe, secure and resilient

    A self-build should bring comfort and happiness. Just because it’s environmentally friendly doesn’t mean you have to suffer!

    Considering our changing world, Lloyd advises self-builders to prepare for power outages, provide some storage for water and food, and build high enough and not in the middle of a flood plain. He adds that if you have to cycle to get milk, then make sure you can actually do it! “That’s what a home is supposed to be,” he says. “A place of security and comfort. That’s what we should all be striving for.”

    Find out more

    Visit the website of TreeHugger

    Follow Lloyd Alter on Twitter

     

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Lloyd Alter

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  • HPH045 : Why Are More People Not Retrofitting Their Homes?

    Upgrading your property so that it is more comfortable and costs less to run makes sense. If we’re serious about tackling climate change then retrofitting has to be undertaken on a huge scale. So if it looks good on paper, why are very few people doing it?

    In this discussion (which was one of our Google+ Hangouts) we consider some of the barriers that may be putting people off.

     

    The Panel

    Managing Editor of TreeHugger Lloyd Alter (who was our guest in episode 35)

    Host of the Home Style Green podcast Matthew Cutler-Welsh (who was our guest in episode 21)

    Writer and blogger Roger Hunt (who was our guest in episode 10)

     

    Large Houses Could be Sub-Divided

    Lloyd Alter explains that he’s in the middle of a retrofit where he’s reducing the energy use per capita in the house.

    By duplexing his home, instead of just two people living in the six bedroom property there will be six people.

    Taking this approach means he doesn’t have to ruin the character of his 100 year old house by changing windows and adding insulation. The rent from these units will also fund the alterations.

     

    When Homeowners Have Money, They Use it for Other Things

    Matthew Cutler-Welsh shares research that of the 1.6 million houses in New Zealand (where he lives), around 1 million are below World Health Organisation requirements for maintaining a comfortable temperature. So there is definitely a need to retrofit.

    Although many people typically spend between $3000 and $5000 on their homes each year, that money tends to go on new decks or redecorating bathrooms etc.

    Homeowners like to see where their money goes.

    Matthew says: “Caulking, insulation, draught-proofing – can you think of anything less sexy to buy!”

    Home decorating mature man painting wall roller 

    Poorly Executed Retrofits Could Do More Harm than Good

    Roger Hunt acknowledges that as Britain has some of the oldest housing stock in the world there is definitely the need to upgrade it.

    However, with a lot of old buildings comes the responsibility to care for them in a special way.

    With many professionals still learning about the most effective ways to carry out these upgrades he’s concerned that some of these measures (such as insulation solutions) may not be appropriate in the long term and ultimately will have to be ripped out.

    This could be another reason why people are reluctant to carry out an extensive retrofit because they are not confident that it is the best thing to do.

     

    Payback Periods Are Often Too Long

    There are many examples of where replacing windows in older properties is not only inappropriate and devalues a property but there are very long payback times as well. Roger has seen payback times of 97 years quoted for some replacement windows!

    Losing original wooden windows to landfill is also equivalent to throwing out an antique chair.

     

    There is a Lack of Good Information

    People don’t have the right information, partly because the construction and renovation industries are built around the idea of selling people stuff.

    Lloyd shares a resource from Minnesota Power that sets up a hierarchy of things that you could do. If people really care about saving energy then a lot of the best things cost very little money.

    Proper thermostats, caulking, weather-stripping, sealing can make a huge difference. Instead people invest in granite counters or solar panels on the roof because these measures can been seen!

    Information

     

    People Feel They Have to Do One Big Retrofit

    Roger suggests that people don’t have to do this all at once. They need to work out their retrofit roadmap and plan those stages, even if it’s over a period of 10 years.

    The important thing is that all the phases work cohesively.

     

    Awareness is Increasing Even if Mass Action is Not

    Roger talks about one of the positive aspects of the UK’s Green Deal is that it has got professionals thinking more about solutions.

    Matthew also says that New Zealand’s equivalent programme has educated the general public in terms of what R-values are and so on.

     

    More People Will Retrofit as Energy Prices Increase

    In Canada natural gas prices have just doubled, so the volatility of energy prices is a trigger for homeowners to explore how they can reduce their bills.

    Lloyd says: “The problem with energy in North America is it’s just been too cheap. It doesn’t put enough pressure on them.”

    A large proportion of people in the US and Canada are over-housed which is leading to a mass down-sizing.

    ?????????????????

     

    Energy Efficiency is Still Not Valued Enough 

    Despite Energy Performance Certificates being a requirement in the UK, they do not drive the market (as might be the case with a car’s performance).

    Roger feels that as more people slip into fuel poverty, day-to-day running costs will start to register when people buy houses.

     

    Getting Building Permits for Small Renovations is Increasingly Difficult

    Lloyd says that over the years it has become harder and harder to carry out small renovations.

    He gives an example of how despite having a very competent green carpenter there was an excessive amount of paperwork to get things moving. Having to deal with this level of bureaucracy may deter some people.

     

    More Houses Need to be Seen by Trained Professionals

    Matthew stresses that in order to create better buildings, more trained professionals need to be involved.

     

    Watch the Google+ Hangout

    Do you fancy getting involved in a future discussion? Well, check out the schedule.

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the debate.

     

    Our Question for the Comments Section

    What is stopping you from retrofitting your home?

     

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  • HPH035 : Worldwide Trends in Green Design – with Lloyd Alter from TreeHugger

    Lloyd Alter, Managing Editor of TreeHugger, explains how worldwide trends in green building have developed. He also shares his tips for self build success as well as some pitfalls to avoid.

    Lloyd Alter

     

    Interview with Lloyd Alter

    Having worked as an architect and a real estate developer Lloyd Alter became fascinated in prefabricated houses. Keen to educate people about the benefits of modern building methods he became an early blogger and gradually got more and more involved with the website TreeHugger. Lloyd also teaches sustainable design at Ryerson University in Toronto, Canada.

    TreeHugger logo

     

    TreeHugger Aimed to Drive Sustainability Mainstream

    TreeHugger was founded by Graham Hill in 2004 with the intent to drive sustainability mainstream. At the time green living was on the fringe and was considered to be for hippies so the idea was to present it in a modern and slick way, showcasing the best of green design. This not only included architectural design but product design and fashion design, etc. Today it has branched out even further.

     

    We Now Understand the Importance of Moderation

    Lloyd believes that in the past we have been preoccupied with the little things because we didn’t really understand what the big things were. He gives an example of how five years ago there were a lot of column inches dedicated to stopping vampire power (the electricity many gadgets waste just by being plugged in). Nowadays it is less about green gismos for your roof and more about moderation.

    Drive less, get a smaller car, move closer to work, walk and build a house to meet your needs.

    cars-on-highway

     

    The Infrastructure to Support Cars Dwarfs Everything

    Buying a Prius or putting solar panels on the roof of your house have a relatively small impact if you live in the suburbs or the countryside. This is because you are still having to rely on a car to get anywhere. Lloyd says that the carbon footprint from gasoline and oil use is the major problem, so it would be far better to move somewhere that allows you to walk or cycle to most amenities.

    Where Lloyd lives in Toronto, people are beginning to realise this and are coming back downtown.

    passivhaus-certified-building-250

     

    Passivhaus is the Way of the Future

    Lloyd describes the Passivhaus movement as ‘so incredibly logical‘. Reducing heat loss to the extreme that a building needs very little energy to either heat it or cool it in the first place is common sense!

     

    Net Zero Buildings Don’t Necessarily Consume Less Energy

    Net zero buildings are not so logical. A tent can be net zero with enough solar panels on the roof!

    As it doesn’t necessarily lead to a building that consumes less energy, it just leads to a building that relies on gadgets. It also doesn’t take into account the energy needed to make these renewables and their lifespan, etc.

    net-zero-house

     

    Many Houses Have Too Much Glazing

    Amongst some of the common mistakes that Lloyd sees repeated in houses is that they have too much glass. In terms of thermal performance, even the best windows are not as effective as walls can be. Lloyd also suggests that a smaller window can be a great way to frame a view rather than opting for a wall of glass!

     

    House Plans are Often Inefficient

    If house plans have not been well thought through there is a danger that a house can end up being bigger than necessary. For example, space can be lost to corridors, there can be duplication of spaces, oversized rooms, miss-proportioned rooms and so on. Hiring a design professional can help to overcome this, although as architects often charge a lot of money this can deter people and make them seek alternatives.

    Websites that sell architects’ plans are becoming a more popular route in the United States.

     

    LEED Programme Doesn’t Test As-Built Performance

    It’s one thing to say that a building is going to be green but if it’s never actually tested once built, then there is no way of knowing. This is another reason Lloyd likes Passivhaus because buildings have to achieve an airtightness of 0.6 air changes per hour. If it does not meet this level of performance (along with the other criteria) then it cannot be certified.

    Lloyd highlights this as one of the problems with the LEED programme in North America – there is no verifiable system to see if things had been installed properly and whether complex systems are maintained or just eventually get switched off by the user!

    China-high-rise

     

    Rapid Development in China Makes Our Efforts Seem Insignificant

    Lloyd talks about his recent trip to China where he saw the scale of development first hand. Their energy consumption per capita is going through the roof owing to gigantic scale projects such as the 60-storey buildings in the provincial capital of Henan (pictured above).

    Lloyd describes how the enormity of these world problems hits you: “The last few days I had in Beijing I could barely see and I could barely breathe the pollution was so bad. You see that and you just think, well, what’s the point? What difference does what I do make? And the fact of the matter is probably in the long run not much at all, but we don’t have a choice.”

    However, he also senses that China is on the brink of understanding this cannot go on. Plus there are companies that are doing amazing work in driving forward very high standards of energy efficiency.

    china-scale

     

    Copenhagen Has Chosen to Give Priority to Bicycles

    In marked contrast Lloyd spent some time in Copenhagen, where they have almost set out to make cars socially unacceptable. Over 30 years the number of people cycling has increased from around 10% to 50%. Lloyd describes the atmosphere as ‘wonderful’ and he believes other cities will eventually follow suit.

    copenhagen-bikes

     

    In America, Quality Comes Second to Cost Per Square Foot

    While talking about factory building, Lloyd said that it’s hard to see it working in North America. This is because anybody with a pickup truck and a nail-gun can call themselves a builder! It makes it very difficult for the factories to compete as the main driver in the American market is cost per square foot. The bigger the house, the lower the cost per square foot because it’s just air. The kitchens and the bathrooms – which are the expensive things – are paid for.

     

    Self Build is Difficult in America

    A lot of the desirable plots of land in North America are in the control of developers, so it is quite difficult to self build unless it’s a second home in the country. The irony is in those situations there might be 15 pick-up trucks driving 50 miles to get to the site each day and then they if they run out of something they have to travel 50 miles to get to the nearest hardware store!

    That’s another reason Lloyd really likes prefabrication because it really reduces the resources needed on site.

     

    Interest in Sustainable Design has Declined Since the Recession

    Lloyd believes that since the world recession of 2008 there has been declining interest in sustainable design. People are far more concerned about the cost of things than they are about the quality and energy efficiency. They also easily distracted with things such as setback thermostats that are connected to the Internet!

    Moving away from the technology and more towards simplicity is what we need to do.

     

    Transcript

    Download a transcript of the interview with Lloyd Alter.

     

    Passivhaus Open Days

    If you’ve never visited a Passivhaus before then why not change that! Each November a number of people throw open their doors (homes, offices, etc.) and invite in those curious to find out more about what a Passivhaus can offer. So if you’ve got some burning questions, then this could be the perfect opportunity to ask them. Find out who is participating near where you live.

     

    Our Question for the Comments Section

    How have you noticed people’s attitudes changing where you live?

     

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