People, products and places: Exploring sustainable-living practices in masterplanned communites

This research summary briefly documents a major research project into sustainable living that has been undertaken by researchers at the University of Hertfordshire over the last three years, under the auspices of the University of Hertfordshire Lafarge Tarmac Sustainable Living Partnership. A full research report is also available at http://www.uh-sustainable.co.uk/LAF/ The international, comparative research has focused on the attitudes and practices of residents and other place-users in sustainable masterplanned communities. To that end we have undertaken research in three places in the United Kingdom and two sites in Australia (details are provided below). This research has been done through five very detailed case studies of masterplanned neighbourhood-scale developments. For each of these case-study sites, claims have been made about the sustainability of the design and/or construction practices employed. In these sites the project researchers have explored what motivates sustainable behaviour and what acts as barriers to it among residents and other users.These masterplanned sites have had some purposefully sustainable features built in to them, arguably facilitating enhanced levels of sustainable living to be put into practice once they are occupied. We wanted to understand what actually happens when these sustainability-oriented design measures meet lived reality for new residents and other place-users, and what we might learn about helping make places sustainable in future.