An Urban Permaculture Passivhaus Eco-Community

A plan of the development generated by architects RG+P.

We can get a glimpse of a sustainable, one planet urban community might be like by looking at existing projects. Presently, the largest permaculture-based, Passivhaus urban eco-community in Europe, is being developed in Leicester, England. When finished, the settlement will contain 68 homes for rent at affordable rates for essential workers. 

It is happening on the site of former, disused Whittier Road land on Heathcott Road, Leicester. The developer is East Midlands Homes, a provider of affordable housing, in partnership with Westleigh Homes. Westleigh is taking on new apprentices to learn building skills to help construct the homes.

At the edge of the site will be a farm, to be run on Permaculture principles, on which residents will be encouraged to work, to grow their own fruit, vegetables, other foodstuffs and supplies. When finished it will provide an urban oasis. The field pond will be refreshed, and hedgerows reinstated to connect a wildlife corridor on Saffron Heath, creating a diverse wildflower meadow and planting 800 new trees, many of which will be fruit trees, on the site.

Saffron Lane Neighbourhood Council (SLNC), a charity and social enterprise, is behind the “Building a Greener Future” project.

The site already contains a community garden, and has produced everything from striped beetroot and blue pumpkins, supplying a range of local restaurants with specialised herbs and vegetables and supporting local community projects, including their own brand and jam. This work is expected to expand upon completion of the estate.

The Neighbourhood Council exists "to provide a range of services to support disadvantaged residents of the Saffron Lane Estate and environs to reach their full potential". Its resource centre is around the corner from the 12 acre site.

Passivhaus homes

The 68 houses will be constructed according to Passivhaus principles which means that the annual running costs per year for heating will be just £13 per home, according to Standard Assessment Procedure software calculations (used by all developers to comply with Building Regulations). The majority of homes in the UK are constructed to level 3 of the Code for Sustainable Homes, meaning that homes comparable to these would use about 8801kWh per year and cost £735 per year to run.

Passivhaus is a standard for energy use in all building types. The homes will be of energy-efficient design, oriented to face south with increased south facing glass, super-insulated and with effective window shading and ventilation and moisture control, plus minimized building surface-to-volume area, protected from wind and with the cooler service spaces located on the northerly side.

The Standard requires the following:

• Space heating: less than 15 kWh/m²/yr;
• Total primary energy use (heating, hot water and electricity): no more than 120kWh/m²/yr;
• Air leakage: no more than 0.75 m³/m²hr @ 50 Pa (0.6 air changes per hour);
• The specific heat load for the heating source at the desired temperature is recommended, but not required, to be less than 10 W/m².

Neil Hodgkin, Head of Development at Saffron Lane Neighbourhood Council, said that "the original plan had been for the 68 homes to be built around the farm so that they would look onto it in a village green type construction, but this was not approved by the planners".

He added that since the houses are to be rented, the residents will have to sign a contract with the housing association, but "it will not be a feature of the contract that they have to do work on the farm, nevertheless they will receive encouragement and training".

It is very unusual to see a development which includes all of these features, and they are in line with the principles of 'one planet living' as espoused by the One Planet Council which notes that there are many benefits to this approach. They include:

• Sustainable, low impact homes;
• Sustainable livelihoods;
• Reduced ecological footprint for the community;
• Local food and products, with micro-enterprises and employment;
• Affordable housing;
• Increased land productivity;
• Skill training;
• Increased biodiversity at the site;
• Increased feelings of well-being and good health from residents;
• Increased sense of community;
• Efficient use of natural resources.

Watch a video about the community project up to now:

David Thorpe is the author of:

• The 'One Planet' Life: A Blueprint for Low Impact Development
• Solar Technology: The Earthscan Expert Guide to Using Solar Energy for Heating, Cooling and Electricity 
• Energy Management in Buildings: The Earthscan Expert Guide
• Sustainable Home Refurbishment: The Earthscan Expert Guide to Retrofitting Homes for Efficiency, and
• Energy Management in Industry: The Earthscan Expert Guide.

The road to the One Planet Life

We only have one planet!

Just one. Obviously. But the way some people carry on you'd think we had five - in some cases even eight - wonderful blue, vibrant orbs just like planet Earth, rotating round our life-giving Sun.

Perhaps they imagine these worlds - duplicates of ours except minus human beings - are hiding on the far side of the sun. Sitting there conveniently, so that when we've used up all the resources on this planet, we can go and tap into those. How simple the future might be if we could.

We’d probably need more than one extra planet. But hey, you never know what might turn up.

As far as I know, astronomers haven't detected any more earth-like planets in the attainable vicinity.

What a shame.

Enter the concept of One Planet Living.

We crossed the one planet threshold of our global ecological footprint back in the late '60s: the amount of resources we can sustainably use.

In the 1990s the environmental group WWF developed the concept of the ecological footprint. It measures in a form that is very easy to communicate, the environmental impact of our activities compared to the number of people on the planet and the resources it contains and its ability to absorb pollution.


In the UK we use over three planet's worth of resources on average. In the United States it is much higher.

In 2002, the Beddington Zero (fossil) Energy Development, or BedZED as it is known (pictured below), was completed in south London. Designed by BioRegional for an affordable housing association with architect, Bill Dunster, the 100 home development aimed to create a whole sustainable lifestyle.

Pooran Desai and Sue Riddlestone are the husband and wife team behind BioRegional. They analysed BedZED, measuring its performance against its ecological footprint, which led them to come up with the term ‘One Planet Living’.

In 2009 “One Wales One Planet” was published, with a vision of putting sustainable development at the centre of government delivery, encouraging others to embrace sustainable development as their central organising principle.

The following year the then Environment Minister for Wales, Jane Davidson (right), saw through the introduction of One Planet Developments into national planning guidance in Wales with the dry-sounding Technical Advisory Note 6: Planning for Sustainable Rural Communities.

The accompanying planning guidance also allows for one planet dwellings and communities in urban areas (though none has yet been tried).

Jane says: "I am a passionate believer in creating an effective and fair planning system that is responsive to ecological challenges and encourages innovation."

Since that time various cities or smaller developments around the world have signalled a willingness to move towards one planet living.

Bioregional operates on four continents.

Brighton in the south of England has fully declared its intention to be a one planet city and Bristol is thinking about it. I'm going to a meeting to discuss this in Bristol next week.

All of this is very exciting and it is the subject of my new book, The One Planet Life, out this month, to which both Pooran and Jane have contributed. In fact some of the above text is direct quotation from the book.



During the course of the writing of the book, together with many existing or aspiring one planet development practitioners, we have founded the One Planet Council. This exists to support all of these trends and those who want to live the one planet life. We are beginning to deliver training programs.

I believe this is the beginning of a trend. It's the thin edge of a wedge that is being driven into planning policy and thinking about the use of land, and who – or what – it is for. Because land is fundamental to the question of sustainable development, of regeneration, of the resilience of communities – the use of the land as well as its ownership.

Pooran Desai said in conversation to me recently that he believes that land speculation should be banned. It artificially drives up the price of land putting it outside of the reach of most of those who need to use it. I believe this is true. It is a fundamental injustice and incompatibility with sustainable development.

With this in mind The One Planet Life acts as a manifesto, stating the following demands and supporting them with a 15,000 word essay of evidence:

We ask:

1. That to aim towards one planet living should become an underlying principle of planning and official policy as de facto the only objectively-verifiable sustainable strategy
2. That the same set of social and environmental criteria should be used to assess all planning applications to create a level playing field
3. That these criteria, amongst others, should be informed by ecological footprint analysis which enables all projects to be compared for their environmental impact
4. That official attitudes to land use should change to help rural areas use one planet living methods to become more productive and more populated, and urban areas more green.

We make this call for the following reasons, which are substantiated in the book:
The one planet life:

1. results in more productive land use with far fewer environmental impacts
2. creates more employment than conventional agriculture
3. promotes greater physical and mental health and well-being, reducing the burden on the welfare state and health service
4. requires no taxpayer subsidies, unlike much conventional farming
5. improves the local economy, resilience and food security
6. therefore is more sustainable and gives excellent value.

Readers of this blog can obtain a 20% discount on the price of the book by going to this website and entering the code FLR40 at checkout. Tweet using the hashtag ‪#‎OnePlanetLife‬!

Jane Davidson says of it: "Throughout this book you will read how those who have embraced this lifestyle fully feel liberated by their choice: they have reconnected with nature; they understand the seasons and where food comes from and the limitations of what can/cannot be grown or reared where they live; they can offer a different, more sustainable future to their offspring. Not everyone will want to take the great leap into the unknown, but all of us can use this book to help us demonstrate the principles of one planet living in one or more parts of our lives."

Pooran Desai adds: "This thought-provoking book summarises some of the approaches which can help us on the journey - so please read, learn, practise and share. There are many already on the journey and we can, together, co-create a better future."

Some other recommendations include:

• "A wealth of practical detail" - Oliver Tickell, editor, The Ecologist magazine
• “Shows the journey to a new life.” – George Marshall
• "What it means to live a 'one-planet' lifestyle" – Prof Max Munday, Cardiff Business School.