Garden Offices | Environmental Policy | Carbon Footprint
Our environmental policy is straightforward.
- We use UK made materials that have been
made using as little industrial energy as possible. - Our structural timber is from FSC accredited sources.
- Our larch cladding is from managed forests and woods in Scotland and Northumberland.
- Our site waste is minimal and 90% recyclable.
- Our brochures are available on line and 90% of our communication is by email and phone.
- We walk to work.
- We reuse and recycle paper and packaging.
- Our environmentally friendly buildings are designed to last 60 + years.
We use a minimal amount of plastic in the buildings – wooden windows and doors, mineral or sheepswool insulation. - Our design and construction, insulation and glazing provide building regulation levels of thermal efficiency. This means minimal use of electricity.
- A garden office reduces the need to commute.
Garden offices and the domestic carbon footprint.
How can we conserve energy at home and in our garden offices and other domestic buildings?
There has been much talk about renewable energy and new technologies such as ground source heat pumps and grey water recycling for use around the home. Most new domestic technologies are still in the development stage, and have twenty or thirty year pay-back periods.
A wind turbine in the garden would suffer from limited wind speed in urban areas, needs planning permission, and unless 2 or 3 metres in span produces very little electricity. However, if you live on the top of a hill in Scotland a wind turbine is a good idea.
Solar panels for generating hot water are worth considering, and are cost effective on your house rather than on your garden office.
The investment in new technologies is definitely worthwhile personally and globally if you are building a new house or if you intend to live in your home for life. But there are simple measures that all of us can take in our homes and our garden offices to help reduce our carbon footprint.
So what are the simplest and fastest ways of reducing energy consumption in a new garden office, granny flat and in our homes?
Try our energy check list below: -
1. High levels of insulation. Is your loft insulated? Have you got cavity wall insulation in the house? Have you got building regulation levels of insulation in your garden office to help balance your carbon footprint?
2. In a larger garden offfice you could heat with a woodburning stove. Woodburners burn efficiently and the resulting ash can be compsted or spread straight onto your garden.
3. Double glazing. Have all the rooms in your house, including your garden office, got double glazing?
4. When choosing new domestic appliances and garden office equipment ask for an energy rating. Don't leave any electrical equipment on stand-by. [Plasma TVs use more electricity than traditional televisions.]
5. Building materials. Have the building materials in your new extension, loft conversion or garden office been manufactured in the UK to reduce carbon miles and do the manufacturers care about their carbon footprint? Do they recycle, how do they fuel their manufacturing plant?
6. Small but effective measures are energy saving light-bulbs. Washing your clothes at 30 degrees. Walking!
