Marshalls supports Barratt Developments in Zero Carbon Home concept

Unveiled this week, the Z House is the first home of its kind built by a major housebuilder, to go beyond the new Future Homes Standards - guidance developed to ensure that all new homes built from 2025 will produce 75‐80% less carbon emissions than homes constructed under current regulations.

Set on the main campus at the University of Salford, the new eco home will be occupied and monitored to assess its ongoing performance.

Last year Barratt announced that all of its new homes will be zero carbon by 2030 and the Z House flagship concept home represents the first step taken to achieve this goal.

David Thomas, Chief Executive of Barratt Developments, said: “We want to showcase what can be done to deliver zero carbon living using the latest technologies and working with the best industry partners. Ultimately, the aim is to find solutions to enable the industry to build high quality, zero carbon homes that customers love, at scale. We can then share this knowledge to help the industry deliver the future of sustainable housing.”

Marshalls, along with other leading industry partners across housebuilding, sustainability and technology sectors, worked with Barratt Developments to help broaden the knowledge of zero carbon living, as well as supplying products and services to help deliver this ambitious vision.

Alongside fridges that keep food lasting longer, and air powered showers that will save families hundreds of pounds per year, Marshalls supplied British-made driveway and patio hard landscaping products, most of which were manufactured less than 35 miles away from the site.

The Z House biodiversity garden received a gold rating from the RSPB thanks to its abundance of features, including nests for bats and swifts, a wildlife pond, hedgehog highways and a green wall. We supplied our Argent and Conservation X paving for the patio areas where residents can relax or entertain in a stunning, wildlife friendly outdoor space. The driveway features Drivesett® Tegula Priora®, which offers superior strength whilst helping to manage heavy rainfall in a sustainable way, with surface water passing through into the ground below.

Chris Griffiths, head of product sustainability at Marshalls, adds: "The construction industry is one of the biggest global producers of carbon, which means we have an opportunity to make the biggest difference by doing things better. This is why it’s great to see a project such as the Z House unveil its take on a zero-carbon home. We're continuing to work with our clients and partners to deliver the most sustainable solutions, and in the not so distant future, I hope we’ll see trials such as this on a much larger scale to help combat the industry's carbon challenge."

Earlier in October, Marshalls announced our plans to be Net Zero by 2030. In the coming months, we’ll share more detail about our own roadmap, which is based on the twin goals of mitigation – the actions we are taking to reduce emissions that cause climate change – and adaptation – the actions we need to take to manage the risks of climate change impacts.

In the meantime, you can find out more about our sustainability work on our website.