Isle of Wight housebuilder pledges to reach net zero in two years
Captiva Homes, one of the Isle of Wight’s main housebuilders, has pledged to become carbon net zero in two years.
Since being founded, the firm has worked on 13 projects to build more than 400 homes on the island.
Speaking to On The Wight, Ian Delaney, Captiva’s chief executive, explained they want to set a new benchmark for building on the island which ties in with the Area of Natural Beauty designation, biosphere goals and rewilding while accelerating house delivery.
He said: “The Island’s housing need means some green fields will have to be built on so how can we do the best to offset that and mitigate as best as possible?”
One way the firm is working towards this is by building every new to home to an “A” category certification, a move which will also reduce energy bills for the occupier. The firm is also aiming to rewild or regreen more land than it builds on.
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Rewilding looks to recreate an area’s natural uncultivated state, while regreening refers to a more general process of creating green spaces which are not necessarily intended to seem uncultivated.
In line with this aim, the firm has secured 57 hectares of land to regreen, compared to 24 hectares of development land, across three sites.
This is contributing to the firm’s overarching and third goal of becoming fully carbon neutral, offsetting its emissions on the island.
To this end, the firm has used the Solent Local Enterprise Partnership’s sustainable business programme to verify their carbon footprint. It is now working towards offsetting this footprint.
A three-bedroom detached house using Captiva’s timber-frame construction produces 60 tonnes of carbon, meaning 360 trees need to be planted. The 2,180 tonnes of carbon produced last year, plus the 3,680 predicted to be produced this year means the company needs to plant more than 35,000 trees.
This process is already underway, having started earlier this year. The firm’s latest development, Highwood Grove in Rookley will have up to 3,500 trees planted around it. It is also aiming to preserve habitats by installing bat boxes and hedgehog highways.
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