Zero carbon development for sustainable homes in the United Kingdom

One of the challenges that the construction industry faces in the 21st century is to realise projects in harmony with the concept of sustainable development. The United Kingdom Government has proposed that all new homes in the UK will have to be carbon zero by the year 2016. It is a bold statement about the environmentally friendly homes of the future, but is it realistic? This paper reviews the concept of zero carbon home and what has been done towards zero carbon for buildings in the UK with particular case in Wales. It also discusses the issues to be confronted in Wales and maps out the plan of actions to deal with climate change in the built environment accordingly. The paper also attempts to address a rational responsive policy to deliver the required carbon emission reduction through key objective parameters with respect to the utilisation of sustainable materials from waste at reasonable cost with the lowest possible negative impact to the environment.