Countryside

Homeowners nowadays are not only looking for premium quality homes but healthy, vibrant, connected, and sustainable communities. A new approach to sustainability that is winning the hearts of every environment conscious homeowner involves building net zero carbon ready homes. For minimising environmental impact and tackling shortage of skilled labours, homes are being built using cutting edge off-site technologies. In an exclusive interview with Robert Macdiarmid, Group Sustainability Director at Countryside, he sheds light on his valuable insights, the challenges faced by forward thinking contactors. He talks about trending technologies for leveraging better sustainability outcomes, the future of sustainable construction, and the work going on in Countryside to ensure it remains a responsible and trusted UK housebuilder. 

Please shed some light on your experience as a Group Sustainability Director and how you are using technology to give rise to efficient processes in Countryside?

In the last few years, the industry has witnessed a seismic shift in interest and emphasis on transition to low carbon economy amongst housebuilders, governments, customers, and various stakeholders. There is an urgent need in the built environment to come up with new technological solutions that can aid the transition to net zero. For some in the industry they have stuck steadfast to age-old methods of house construction. For others, like Countryside there is a strong movement to fundamentally change the way in which houses are built. We are seeing these forward- thinking housebuilders going from bricks and blocks to more modern methods of construction (MMC). Countryside has committed, through the setting of science-based carbon targets, to a just transition to net zero by 2030. This underlines the strength of our ambitions to create places where people love to live, with sustainable communities built to last. Making use of modern methods of construction and the use of low-embodied carbon production methods and materials makes a significant impact on minimising the environmental impact of construction.

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Tell us about the challenges that contractors and subcontractors face today, and what are some of the best technologies that they could use to mitigate those challenges?

Shortage of skilled labourers is undoubtably one of the major concerns faced by the construction and built environment sector at the moment. There have been continued efforts across these industries to attract and retain a diverse pool of talent through the roll out of recruitment strategies and partnerships with organisations to offer apprenticeship schemes and graduate training programmes to encourage younger generations to choose a career in construction. We also need to look around for innovative solutions to address this challenge. Using modern methods of construction and moving some of the production of houses to off-site will help to answer the shortage of labour. Many Geopolitical factors have also led to accelerated rates of build cost inflation, reiterating how vital it is for all housebuilders to be more resource efficient in every step of the way to minimise the environmental impact, whilst maximising output.

What are some of the technologies you've been leveraging to make Countryside projects successful?

Manufacturing and erecting modular timber frames is key to delivering homes at scale, pace, and quality, while ensuring more sustainable outcomes. Countryside has a manufacturing facility at Warrington which produces fully formed, closed panel timber frames, and a new factory in Bardon, Leicestershire. Countryside is committed to modernising construction. It’s critical that we move from the traditional model of “design and construct” to a more high-quality product-led and volume delivery model. To support this transformation, we are fundamentally restructuring the way our business operates to drive increasing levels of pre-manufactured value.

Not only will this new model help Countryside to build homes at the pace and quality it needs to help meet the Government’s ambition of building 300,000 a year in the UK, but it will also help to reduce the embodied carbon levels within the homes we built. Our 2020 Carbon life cycle assessment showed that our modular timber frame homes had 30% less embodied carbon than our traditional brick and block home. The adoption of more rigorous design processes, better quality control, reduced waste and fewer transport loads will further help to reduce the embodied carbon level of our new homes.

Over the next 3-5 years we plan to incorporate more modern construction solutions into our factory-built homes by 2025 to ensure they have 40% less embodied carbon than a traditional brick and block home. We have also adopted a fabric first approach to reduce the heating demand of new homes, applying the principles of the energy hierarchy to help reduce both regulated and unregulated energy usage.

Tell us about the best practices in the construction tech space for achieving sustainability?

With the built environment accounting for 40% of the the UK’s total carbon footprint , the construction industry must help to build a world that will improve the lives of future generations, using low impact, eco-friendly methods. Technological advancements have paved the way for a new generation of building materials that have lower embodied carbon and great proportion of recycled content. These newer materials are vital in reducing the whole life carbon footprint of buildings.

Ergonomic construction isn’t just about using renewable materials; it’s also about implementing methods that enhance sustainable efforts.

The rising cost of energy is now starting to drive increased homeowner interest in alternative renewable heating systems, the running costs of which are less beholden to fluctuating energy prices. Some of these renewable heating systems, like heat pumps perform better when heating water to lower temperatures than traditional gas boilers. These types of systems run more efficiently and economically is they’re tasked with keeping room temperatures moderate and consistent. Unfortunately, some homeowners have become accustomed to cranking heat right up and down in their homes as and when they feel the need. Therefore, a lifestyle change will likely be necessary for people to fully realise the economic and environmental benefits of lower temperature renewable heating systems. 

To summarise, it is not just down to the large housebuilders to improve their methods and practices to better the environment, every one of us has a role to play by embracing new renewable technologies and making key lifestyle changes to minimise our own individual environmental footprint.