Source: Regen Daily

The scheme would apply current government green policies that have so far been focussed on individual buildings or estates, to a neighbourhood level, according to a report released today by the Commission for Architecture and the Built Environment.

And cooperation between government departments is vital to see the project through, the report says.

According to Hallmarks of a Sustainable City, the Department of Communities and Local Government and the new Department of Energy and Climate Change should join forces to create the sustainable neighbourhoods scheme.

As well as tackling climate change, a neighbourhood-wide approach to sustainable building could help solve a plethora of recession-related ills affecting neighbourhoods, according to the report.

“Operating at a neighbourhood level would not only save time and money but would also stimulate the market for green building materials and renewable energy technologies, and generate jobs in the construction trades and professions that are suffering in the recession,” the report says.