Sustainability is at the core of everything that Weston Homes designs and builds. The company adopts a ‘fabric first’ approach to building design that involves maximising the performance of all materials that make up the building fabric itself, before considering the use of mechanical or electrical building services systems. This approach helps to improve energy efficiency which reduces carbon emissions and benefits the environment. It also reduces the need for maintenance during the life of the building and helps to lower fuel bills for our customers.
In order to minimise the need for energy consumption, every building that Weston Homes constructs is designed with high levels of insulation and air tightness. In order to balance this carefully and prevent overheating, solar gain is optimised through the provision of solar treated glazing, natural shading and where possible, natural ventilation. Where dwellings are in a noisy location, they are provided with acoustically treated mechanical ventilation systems to enable a healthy indoor air quality without residents having to endure high levels of outside noise.
Focusing on the building fabric in this manner is considered to be the best approach to reduce emissions, lessening the reliance on energy saving technology or renewable energy generation, both of which have a limited lifespan. The UK government’s approach to zero carbon homes has also adopted the fabric first approach.
In line with Weston Homes’ focus on factory built building components, the fabric first approach can be standardised before being constructed by the Group in the British Offsite complex, resulting in high quality and a better performance in the finished building. Weston Homes is also integrating renewable energy sources into the company’s various developments. This includes installing PV panels on roofs and providing air source heat pumps. The heat pumps are generally within the dwelling and absorb heat from the exhaust air which is pre-heated by lighting, cooking and people to heat the home and provide hot water. External air source heat pumps can still extract heat when air temperatures are as low as -15 degrees centigrade. Air source heat pumps use electricity to run but are a renewable energy source and have efficiencies up to 450%, therefore provide a much greater heat output than the electricity used, making them a highly energy efficient method of heating a home.
On its large-scale apartment building developments including Victoria Central in Southend-on-Sea, Abbey Quay in Barking and Lorimer Village in Goodmayes, Weston Homes has designed all the buildings with green roofs (a waterproofed roof partially or completely covered with vegetation) and brown roofs (where the substrate surface is allowed to self-vegetate from windblown and bird lime seed dispersal).
Likewise, where allowed through planning, Weston Homes designs apartment buildings to have raised podiums which are topped with landscaped gardens, with parking or ground level commercial or communal space below, to maximise the amount of green open space and planting at the developments.
On all new sites Weston Homes has adopted a policy of maximising the provision of Electric Vehicle charging points. On sites that are already past the point of construction where this can be achieved, the wiring and infrastructure has been provided so that all bays can be modified for electric car charging where required. At the forthcoming Lorimer Village development in Goodmayes, all the parking bays will have access to electric charging points.
Opened on 24th September 2020, Weston Homes’ new 49,000 sqft head office complex in Takeley known as The Weston Innovation Centre has a BREEAM rating of VERY GOOD and the basement parking facility has extensive charging for electric cars.
Weston Homes has also shifted the Group’s company car fleet to encourage the adoption of electric cars; every member of the Group Board and many of the wider business employees and divisional board members now drive electric vehicles.
Download our 2023 Sustainability Statement here.
