Author(s): Martin Godfrey Cook, MPhil (Cantab) RIBA

Architecture & Interiors

'Zero Carbon' is an abstract concept for most people, but we have lived energy-profiligate lifestyles for too long on finite fossil-fuel resources. We now face potential environmental catastrophe from climate change and global warming, with a continuing exponentially expanding global population that doubles every four decades. The capacity of the planet to reabsorb carbon dioxide is about two to three tonnes of carbon equivalent per person at current population levels of seven billion and therefore there is a desperate need for us to reduce our carbon footprint. One way of helping to achieve this is to live in a zero-carbon house, and this will become legislation in the UK for new homes by 2016.