Corby: Zero carbon timber eco-home showcased at COP26

A timber-built eco-house which is both energy and carbon efficient from the day building starts is being showcased at the COP26 summit.

The project is championed by modern homes specialists SNRG and energy efficiency company, Electric Corby.

One of the timber homes was displayed at the Construction Scotland Innovation Centre in Glasgow.

SNRG development director Nick Bolton said the aim was to "demonstrate the art of the possible".

Mr Bolton, who is also co-founder of Electric Corby, said the homes would be built in a factory out of "sustainable locally-grown timber".

The idea came out of work being done by Electric Corby, which first came to prominence when it developed the town's electric vehicle charge point infrastructure in 2011.

The company has been developing zero-energy homes at Priors Hall Park in Corby since 2013.

Traditional homes, even eco-friendly, energy efficient ones, involve the release of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere via the production of concrete, cement and steel when they are being built.

Mr Bolton said: "Straight away you have got 10, maybe 20 years' worth of energy efficiency to achieve before you pay back all that carbon.

"Whereas if you build a timber home you are starting from a clean sheet.

"We are really hoping to demonstrate the art of the possible, how we can achieve low-embedded carbon in our developments, as well as energy efficiency once built."

He added that for every tree used to develop a home, the aim would be to grow two more with plans also in place to regrow areas of Rockingham Forest in Northamptonshire to "get that central belt forest re-established".

2 November 2021

bbc