Cutting-edge principles for the agencies involved in developing proposals for eco-towns have been published by BioRegional and CABE.

The report, What makes an eco-town?, defines an eco-town as a place designed to make it easy for residents to reduce their ecological footprint by two thirds and their carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent below 1990 levels.

The report proposes features of places designed for living within ecological limits. These include generous space to grow food; ample tree canopy cover; attractive alternatives to shopping as the default leisure activity; and substantial reduction in car dependency. It provides clear criteria and practical guidance on how the sustainability of settlements can be monitored and tested.

Eco-town developers have a key role in the areas of housing and construction and home energy, which together account for 31 per cent of a person’s carbon dioxide emissions and 26 per cent of their ecological footprint. The recommended criteria include adopting the Building for Life gold standard for all residential developments, and a 100 per cent renewable energy supply.

The report describes how a 60 per cent reduction can be secured in the ecological footprint and carbon dioxide emissions associated with food through measures which include making space for food growing and links with local farms.

The report recommends residential areas should enjoy tree canopy cover of at least 25 per cent to alleviate the impacts of climate change, with 15 per cent canopy cover in mixed-use or commercial areas.

Developers are urged to set a new trend by designing places which present sociable and healthy alternatives to shopping and improve quality of life. Recreation provision should include great parks and play spaces (including spaces suitable for teenagers); and sports facilities and green gyms (groups keeping fit while maintaining open space). Consumer goods account for 14 per cent of an individual’s ecological footprint and the target should be to halve the ecological impact of consumer goods bought in eco-towns, whilst maintaining a vibrant local economy. Measures to achieve this might include greater repair and re-use activity, swap shops and encouraging local sustainable goods and services.

The report describes how eco-towns can reduce carbon dioxide from driving - which generates almost a quarter of an individual’s carbon dioxide emissions - by 80 per cent. This entails providing a good, frequent and reliable low carbon public transport, and supporting walking and cycling with a density of 50-100 dwellings per hectare. A maximum of one car parking space per household is recommended. The report notes that eco-towns should be as much about creating employment and a local economy as they are about building homes. This will assist in delivering the transport targets as well as improving social and economic outcomes.

The report is inspired by the government’s eco-towns challenge panel. It draws on BioRegional’s work on building sustainable settlements and on CABE’s understanding of what it takes to create workable and sustainable places. The criteria recommended in it are a contribution to the debate: they do not represent an absolute or final statement of what an eco-town should aim for.

Sue Riddlestone, executive director and co-founder of the BioRegional Development Group and an eco-towns challenge panel member, said: “We need to see trailblazing projects worthy of the name eco-town. Done well, these real-life projects should advance industry best practice, inform government policy and show how we can reduce our impact to sustainable levels and have an improved quality of life.”

CABE and BioRegional would like to see these criteria by all new neighbourhoods or urban extensions, not just eco-towns. Richard Simmons, chief executive of CABE and an eco-towns challenge panel member, said: “If eco-towns are to have a fundamental purpose, it must be to show how we can all live and work in well-designed, low-carbon neighbourhoods.”

Email: ZAnderson@cabe.org.uk