This award applies to the Design Stage of Cruden Homes’ latest development, Barnton Avenue West in Edinburgh, which is now recognised for exceeding mandatory sustainability standards across a range of environmental and social issues.

The Scottish housebuilder and Homes for Scotland Housebuilder of the Year 2022 received the highly coveted award from the NextGeneration Initiative, which has been in existence since 2006, with an Executive Committee of Homes England, Lloyds Banking Group and UKGBC. The Barnton Avenue West development is an age-exclusive new housing development, for those aged 55 years and over.

All 48 homes at this development incorporate several high-performance and green-energy measures. All homes are heated through a sustainable Ground Source Heat Pump solution. This is the first development of its type in Scotland and significantly reduces carbon dioxide emissions on the development, making it between 300% - 400% more efficient in terms of use of electricity.

The homes also have superior thermal comfort built in from taking a fabric first approach which exceeds the performance criteria. A major advantage of this is that the building has many energy-efficient features already built in, including high performance insulation.

The health and wellbeing of residents has been carefully considered and a centralised mechanical extract ventilation system will pull a continuous supply of fresh air from trickle vents in windows to provide cross ventilation throughout the homes. Daylight levels have also been enhanced by using larger than average windows to allow light to flood into the homes.

Prioritising and conserving nature is also a key focus area and Cruden is working with local stakeholders and community members to ensure that the local biodiversity is protected and improved because of this development.

To achieve Gold Award status, sustainable measures need to be demonstrated at every stage throughout the build process and Cruden Homes has ensured that from the outset of building, more than 90% of construction, demolition and excavation waste will be diverted from landfill.

Cruden Group managing director, Steven Simpson, said: “Together with our joint venture partners, Housing Growth Partnership, we are delighted to be recognised as a pioneering leader in the UK home building industry by achieving the NextGeneration Project In Design Gold Award. Delivering quality housing developments with a firm focus on greener, environmentally friendly community-driven developments with energy saving at its heart has never been so important.

“The team at Cruden are very proud to become only the second housing developer across the UK to be awarded the NextGeneration Project In Design Gold Award.”

Scored independently by Jones Lang Lasalle (JLL) and launched in 2006, the NextGeneration Initiative recognises the UK’s most sustainable house builders who go above and beyond the industry’s minimum standards for sustainability.

Iona Deacon, associate at JLL said: “Congratulations to Cruden Homes on their Barnton Avenue West development achieving the second NextGeneration Project In Design Gold Award in the UK. The NextGeneration Initiative provides assessment services for all homebuilder sizes, to help them address the increasing sustainability scrutiny from policymakers, investors and homebuyers, considering a holistic array of sustainability issues including environmental and social impacts.”