About Cambridgeshire

Sustainability on a
grand scale

 

The ambition for growth in Cambridgeshire is to create communities where renewable energy is effective, robust, and easy to use.

New homes in Cambridgeshire could become showcases of sustainability, living examples of how technology could be used to produce energy efficiently, in a way that significantly reduces the carbon footprint that everyday life creates.

Buildings can be highly insulated, reducing drastically the amount of energy needed to heat or to cool them in the first place.

Benchmark levels of insulation, glazing and construction will ensure energy consumption will be at a minimum – with the benefit of reduced energy bills for residents.

Cambridgeshire developments will adopt wide-ranging, 'holistic' approaches to sustainable living, building measures into the community to ensure the conservation of water, the efficient disposal and reuse of waste, and widespread recycling.

Dependency upon private cars will be reduced. New communities will be linked to the local network of cycle paths, foot paths, and public transport options, such as the Cambridgeshire Guided Busway, making it easy for residents to leave their cars at home.

The new communities masterplans and land use strategies will encourage the reduction of car usage by minimising distances to amenities, local centres, schools and public transport.

The idea is to create developments that are models of sustainability that we can all learn from. The objective is to build communities that are far less reliant on finite energy sources, such as gas, coal and oil, around which today there are so many concerns. Fossil fuels not only generate worries about pollution and depletion of natural resources, but also anxiety over whether supplies that are available to the UK today will still be available in five, 10 or 15 years.

Already there are discussions on how to use a range of micro-generation technologies, for example, generating heat and power using wind, solar energy, energy from the ground; or using a community-wide systems that use renewable fuels sourced locally, to deliver heat and energy to homes and public buildings. We asked your opinions on these different options early in the process during the consultation period that has just closed, so we can feed your views into the development of these new communities.

By adopting the technologies of sustainable living and renewable energy on a wide scale, social issues such as fuel poverty, depletion of dwindling natural resources, emission of greenhouse gases and concerns over society's growing carbon footprint, can begin to be addressed.

Although in the UK the use of renewable energy is in its infancy, elsewhere it is tried and tested. This is technology that has proved effective and reliable with clear-cut advantages: such as the potential to significantly reduce energy bills for those who adopt it.

The need for new technologies is clear if we are serious about reducing our consumption of energy, to reduce our carbon footprint, to reduce our impact on the environment, and to guard against possible future threats to energy sources such as imported gas, coal and oil. It also means that the cost of heating and powering your home should be reduced.

The consultation period for you to let us know your views on plans to use renewable energy and low carbon technologies as part of building new sustainable communities proposed for Cambridgeshire has now closed. Please sign up and we will let you know when the results of the questionnaire are available.