Living in a sustainable community: new spaces, new behaviours?

Sustainable communities are new sites of exploration; spaces which have been planned and designed to overcome a multitude of social, economic and environmental problems which are present in the UK urban landscape. Given their environmental credentials, this offers a new backdrop for investigating children and young people's knowledge regarding the environment and sustainability. Data are presented from research with children, young people and families living in one of these new communities. The paper focuses on the local primary school and homes which have been designed and equipped with various eco-technologies, exploring how pro-environmental behaviour is encouraged and acted out within these (new) spaces. Ultimately, the paper identifies a number of barriers to pro-environmental behaviour which need to be overcome if these new built environments are to become true sustainable communities.