A Sustainable Community

“A ‘sustainable city’ enables all its citizens to meet their own needs … without degrading the natural world or the lives of other people, now or in the future.”

Herbert Girardet, Cities People Planet, 2004

Creating sustainable communities

Our proposed Eco-town for Leicestershire is not just a technical exercise to deliver buildings and spaces.  We want to create a community of people who can live together and flourish for many generations to come, setting an example for other communities to follow.

In this sense, ‘sustainability’ means working within an exacting framework of social, economic and environmental factors that guide the project and its delivery.

At the core of our proposal is a renewable energy strategy that will make this community self sufficient in energy terms with the capacity to grow into a zero carbon settlement.

Measuring and managing sustainability

Getting the Masterplan right is the first step.  An important part of this stage is to design the management and operation systems that will measure the town’s sustainability performance. We will evaluate and monitor the ecological and carbon footprint of the town from day one.  The community will also participate in this process via innovative governance systems.