Sustainability
Sustainability, communities, UK investment and the environment
Terra Pura’s Core values embrace the heart of the NPPF 2012, which is underpinned by;
- an economic role – contributing to building a strong, responsive and competitive economy, by ensuring that sufficient land of the right type is available in the right places and at the right time to support growth and innovation; and by identifying and coordinating development requirements, including the provision of infrastructure
- a social role – supporting strong, vibrant and healthy communities, by providing the supply of housing required to meet the needs of present and future generations; and by creating a high quality built environment, with accessible local services that reflect the community’s needs and support its health, social and cultural well-being
- an environmental role – contributing to protecting and enhancing our natural, built and historic environment; and, as part of this, helping to improve biodiversity, use natural resources prudently, minimise waste and pollution, and mitigate and adapt to climate change including moving to a low carbon economy
Sustainability isn’t just about specific building processes, it’s about sustainability in its broadest terms. We are sustainable not just in our BIM design, and manufacturing and construction processes, but also in our mission to reinvest back into Britain. Our British company not only manufactures exclusively in Britain but also uses British designers, buys British Steel, installs insulation manufactured in Britain and sources its screws from Scotland.
To us, sustainability also means less concrete, less wet trades, less mess, less disruption, less transport miles, less waste, and more recyclable building materials. Certain building processes such as our manufactured metal frames create zero waste. Our larger scale projects involve environmentally responsive design options such as solar arrays, Combined Heat and Power installations, rainwater collection and Passive Homes upgrades. This creates the opportunity for developments to run off-grid, and even produce power to sell to neighbouring homes or feed back into the national grid network. This way of thinking has now put TerraPura Sustainable Homes at the forefront of Affordable Homes and Build to Rent projects, and delivers some of the best value homes in the UK.
Our Philosophy
From the manufacturing and construction process, through to the whole building life span, TerraPura buildings use less materials than alternative building systems (from footings to wall systems), and build homes to passive house standards, reducing the need for heating and cooling, and general energy usage. The embodied energy and carbon footprint of TerraPura buildings compares very favourably to traditional building materials being used, such as brick and block walls.
TerraPura light gauge steel framed buildings reduces the need for complex and costly ground works and footings, and can reduce overall building and construction time. The light weight construction also creates opportunity to build on grounds otherwise inappropriate for 2 to 3 floor homes, where the underlying ground is poor or potentially unstable.
BRE state that material waste on construction sites is 13% BRE Sustainable Construction Advice TerraPura manufactures its light weight frames to order, thereby minimising waste from off-cuts and inefficient sizing. This reduces the need to define an area on construction sites for waste, and the further costs associated with it, such as skips and polluting transportation.