Sustainable design and construction SPD

Sustainable development involves balancing social, economic and environmental impacts to ensure the best possible development. The aim is for a good quality of life and environment now and in the future.

This SPD will explain how new developments can be designed and built without having a negative impact on the environment. The sustainable design and construction SPD focuses on explaining how Southwark Council's planning policies on energy, pollution, water, waste, flooding and biodiversity will be applied to different types of development.

Consultation on the draft sustainable design and construction SPD

Formal consultation on the draft sustainable design and construction SPD took place between 1 October 2007 to 12 November 2007. Officer responses to submitted representations can be viewed below.

Officer responses to representations on the draft sustainable design and construction SPD.

Adoption of the SPD

The revised SPD was presented to the planning committee for their comments on 3 February 2009. A copy of the SPD and accompanying reports are below

• Final sustainable design and construction SPD 
• Final sustainable design and construction SPD - part 1, showing changes since draft version  
• Final sustainable design and construction SPD - part 2, showing changes since draft version 
• Equalities impact assessment 
• Sustainability statement and statement of compliance 
• Sustainability report
• Adoption statement 

RTPI Planning Awards 2009

The awards presentation for the RTPI Planning Awards 2009 took place on Thursday 4 February 2010. The sustainable design and construction SPD received a Commendation for the Climate Change award.

Judges commented on the following planning achievements of the SPD:

• the SPD has been used successfully to ensure that the larger developments approved at the Elephant and Castle site have been designed to connect to the multi-utility services company (MUSCo) when it is operational via S106 agreements. The Council is also using the SPD approach to guide the development of energy strategies in other areas such as Aylesbury and Canada Water. The Aylesbury area action plan contains a commitment to providing CHP, a requirement for developments to connect, and a requirement for all homes reach Code for Sustainable Homes level 4 as a minimum
   
• over half the borough is located in a flood zone. The SPD provides a mechanism to implement the recommendations of a recent strategic flood risk assessment, setting out guidance on the standards sought with regards to water attenuation and mitigation measures such as SUDs and flood resilient design techniques
   
• to help officers implement the SPD, the Council ran a number of joint training sessions to develop a stronger level of understanding of the requirements of the document and the ways in which it can assist their work
  
• the SPD ensures that development management staff are aware of the critical elements that need to be scrutinised across the whole range of sustainable design and that they feel able to apply policy with confidence.

More information and details of other award winners is set out on the RTPI website.