Sustainability & Environmental Consulting

Bioregional has initiated an Innovate UK-funded project aimed at enhancing its Net-Zero Living Spatial Planning Tool, which assists local planning authorities in modeling the carbon impact of new homes. This project addresses a critical challenge faced by over 300 UK local authorities that have declared a climate emergency, as they struggle to align their planning policies with the UK’s ambitious carbon reduction targets. The Committee on Climate Change has indicated that emissions from the built environment must reach zero by 2050, with new homes required to be zero-carbon by 2025. However, many councils lack the necessary tools to accurately assess the carbon footprint of new developments and to implement effective planning policies that accommodate growth while minimizing emissions.

To tackle this issue, Bioregional's innovative tool, developed in collaboration with Greater Cambridge Shared Planning and Mode Transport Planning, has been utilized by local authorities like Central Lincolnshire. This tool models the carbon impact of new developments, including construction, operation, and transport emissions, based on various factors such as location and housing types. Central Lincolnshire successfully employed this tool to create a Local Plan featuring some of the UK’s most climate-friendly planning policies, which was approved by the Planning Inspectorate in April 2023. This success not only validated the tool's effectiveness but also highlighted its potential for broader application among other local authorities.

The Innovate UK grant will further enhance the tool's functionality by integrating Bioregional’s spatial carbon mapping expertise with Space Syntax's Walkability Index. This collaboration aims to create a comprehensive digital solution that allows local authorities to make informed decisions regarding the placement of future housing and infrastructure, ultimately reducing carbon emissions for the UK’s future population. The project will transform the existing tool into an interactive dashboard, leveraging big data and geographic information systems to enable local authorities to model the carbon implications of new developments more efficiently and accurately than ever before.