The houses have been designed for residents to lead a life with very small carbon footprint. Image credit: Greencore Construction
Reprinted by kind permission of Wood For Good. www.woodforgood.com
Springfield Meadows is a multi-award-winning housing development of 25 climate positive homes in Oxfordshire by Greencore Construction and Ssassy Property.
Sitting on an eight-acre rural plot in the village of Southmoor, with transport links to Oxford, the development was designed for residents to lead a life with very small carbon footprint with aims to achieve net zero through carbon reduction measures, use of solar PV, and using green energy providers.
Bioregional’s One Planet Living Framework
Springfield Meadows used the One Planet Living® framework during the planning and construction process. The framework was developed by Bioregional and the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) which comprises 10 principles that look at every aspect of sustainability including – sustainable water, materials and products, zero carbon energy, culture and community, and even land and nature.
As part of the Oxfordshire Zero Carbon Homes Initiative and One Planet Oxfordshire, Springfield Meadows may be the answer to the climate emergency.
The bio-based materials used to build the homes are used to lock up carbon and prevent it from re-entering the atmosphere. Image credit: Greencore Construction
Carbon Savings
The embodied carbon from the construction of Springfield Meadows is estimated to have saved 2 500T of embodied carbon, this is based on 25 houses saving 100T per house. It is also projected to save a further 3 750T of operational emissions over the next three decades.
According to Greencore Construction, if all houses in the UK were built using the same process as Springfield Meadows, it could save 600 million tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e) emissions over the next 30 years. (This is based on 3 million houses each saving 200T of both embodied and operational carbon over the next 30 years).
Design for biodiversity
The homes were designed to make minimal disruption to surrounding green spaces; the outdoor space and gardens were designed with help from the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust (BBOWT) to improve biodiversity. For the next five years, BBOWT will be monitoring the wildlife and biodiversity and providing a report to the residents.
The bio-based materials used to build the homes are used to lock up carbon and prevent it from re-entering the atmosphere. By doing so, the carbon footprint of each home can be reduced throughout its life.
Every aspect of the houses has been designed with sustainability in mind. Image credit: Greencore Construction
Each of the 25 properties are designed to meet Passivhaus thermal performance standards, this means the homes have high levels of insulation, excellent air-tightness, design out thermal bridging, triple glazed timber windows, heat recovery ventilation, and using green energy via Photovoltaic (PV) panels to generate electricity and batteries to store energy.
Use of timber
The houses at Springfield Meadows were constructed using the Biond Building System closed panel timber frame system insulated with bio-based materials. A full house embodied carbon study of this system by Bath University has been shown to lock up to 32kg of CO2e per square metre of wall.
Several of the new homes are clad in Kebony wood – a sustainably certified material which is both durable and aesthetically pleasing.
Kebony softwoods are heated together with furfuryl alcohol, an agricultural by-product, resulting in a modified product which has the same durable properties as tropical hardwoods.
Springfield Meadows has received more than 10 awards, including the OxProp Best Residential Housing Development 2021, Timber Framed Project of the Year (Structural Timber Award 2021) and Custom & Self-build Project of the Year (Structural Timber Award 2021).
Find out more about the Springfield Meadows project here.
