The UK is committed to protecting and enhancing the environment and tackling climate change. The government has a long-term goal to reduce carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2050. With homes accounting for around 27 per cent of the UK's carbon emissions, it is clear that the construction sector needs to change the way it has traditionally been building our homes and communities.

In April 2007 the Code for Sustainable Homes replaced Ecohomes for the assessment of new housing in England. The Code aims to protect the environment by providing guidance on the construction of high performance homes built with sustainability in mind. The Building Research Establishment (BRE) and the UK Communities and Local Government (CLG) have worked closely together to ensure that the Code meets the latest regulatory requirements and addresses issues that emerged from an earlier industry wide consultation. It is an environmental assessment method for new homes based upon BRE’s Ecohomes and contains mandatory performance levels in 7 key areas (Energy efficiency /CO2; Water efficiency; Surface water management; Site Waste Management; Household Waste Management; Use of Materials; and Lifetime homes (applies to Code Level 6 only).The Code has a scoring system of six levels, made up by achieving both the appropriate mandatory minimum standards together with a proportion of the ‘flexible’ standards.