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BioRegional Newsletter
Issue 13
February 2006
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Our Challenge
We live in a consumer society where over-consumption
is driving environmental degradation.
If everyone in the world lived as we do in the UK
we would need three planets to support us.
The BioRegional challenge is to find ways of living
and working where we can reduce our consumption by
two thirds to the one planet level.
BioRegional Solutions
BioRegional is an independent environmental organisation
implementing real-life, commercially viable solutions
for sustainable living - bringing local sustainability
into the mainstream |
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New sustainable
communities development company already in running
for 3 projects
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Concept design for the Brighton site
building regulations. Rather, the use of a site and the
lifestyle of its occupants are the critical factors. “BioRegional Quintain Limited will lead
the development of selected housing sites, and help advise
across the portfolio. We expect to generate a test-bed of
ideas and to refine and accredit various physical and technical
standards so that we can sort those initiatives which offer
real payback from those which verge
on the totemic.” More
info |
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Our associated sustainable communities development company
BioRegional Properties has formed a new 50:50 joint venture
partnership with FTSE 250 company Quintain Estates and Development
PLC called BioRegional Quintain Limited (BQL). The partnership
will deliver sustainable communities in the UK. The company
has already confirmed that it will develop, subject to planning,
a mixed use site in Brighton. BQL is also the preferred
bidder for phase one of Middlehaven, a waterside scheme
in Middlesbrough, and is down to the last three in competition
to develop the former Odeon building in Bradford.
BioRegional Quintain Ltd will look beyond current industry
standards to enable residents to benefits from a ‘green
lifestyle’ – providing enhanced health, happiness
and reduced household expenditure. The company will also
explore the extensive use of e-marketing and lead the creation
of a ‘multi-skilled’ construction system to
raise productivity and reduce the costs of sustainable construction.
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Pooran Desai OBE, former Co-Director
and Co-Founder of BioRegional and Sustainability Director
for BioRegional Quintain, said: “We want to lead the
industry in providing high standards of sustainability,
design excellence and enabling and supporting more community
based living. We firmly believe the UK deserves –
and is ready for – a progressive and enlightened approach
to development.
Our work in the UK will be complemented by work internationally
as part of BioRegional’s joint international One Planet
Living initiative in partnership with WWF.”
“We can make sustainability affordable and deliverable
and we are thrilled with this tie-up with Quintain. There
is no other developer of significant scale in the UK taking
this holistic, sustainable lifestyle approach.”
Nick Shattock, Director of Quintain, said:
“This important new joint venture is a recognition
that delivering genuine sustainability goes beyond the physical
aspects of new development and the technical solutionsrequired
by planning and |
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A One Planet
Living training attracts VIPs from across the channel
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Jan 20th saw Lib Dem MP Tom Brake speak at a sustainable
communities training session which we ran for VIPs from
French government.
Our One Planet Living training team worked with the group
to find ways to deliver sustainable communities across the
channel.
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Kendal Marsland Murray
of BioRegional said: “Interest in eco-communities
is definitely growing. We are being increasingly approached
by international groups. We are really pleased to welcome
them to BedZED, to see where our work in this area began,
and to help them raise the environmental standards of their
own projects around the world"
Our training draws on our 10 years experience as a partner
in a wide range of sustainability projects throughout the
world.
These include working as sustainability consultants to one
of Europe’s largest developments, the Mata de Sesimbra
eco-tourism community in Portugal,
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and Z-squared, a proposed zero carbon, zero waste development
for the Thames Gateway regeneration area.
The programme includes lessons learnt as a partner in
BedZED, considers monitoring results from its development
four years on and shows where further improvements can
be made.
If you would like to find out more about our Continuing
Professional Development training please contact Kendal
Marsland Murray 020 8404 4889 or email
Kendal
Our work in this area is funded by WWF
and the ALG
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All systems
go at the Croydon TreeStation - producing renewable
energy from wood chip |
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to report that over 500 tonnes of wood chip fuel has
been sold from our wood chip for energy production
plant at the Croydon TreeStation since November 2005.
The TreeStation will process over 5,000 tonnes of
wood per year. This is the culmination of 3 years
work to find a way to make wood chip fuel from tree
surgery waste that is viable at a local scale. Wood
chip is a renewable energy source and helps to combat
climate change.
Tree surgery waste comes in all shapes and sizes,
everything from small twigs to gnarled and twisted
trunks and veteran trees. Large machinery is needed
to process this waste so to keep costs down we bought
second hand equipment where possible.
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To make sure
the wood chip does not include any over-size pieces
which could cause blockages a chip screen was included
in our production line, as well as a covered storage
area for the finished product.
London Borough of Croydon were our partners in developing
the site. It is now run by City Suburban Tree Surgeons
Ltd., one of the capital’s larger arboricultural
contractors
www.tree-surgeons.net. For City Suburban this
completes the chain of tree management by giving a
sustainable use for their waste. The wood chip is
used at a large combined heat and power plant to the
west of London.
For the future we plan to further improve chip quality,
for this a simple and cheap drying technique is needed.
Dry chip is a better fuel
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and is suitable
for smaller boilers. BioRegional plan to test new
drying methods later this year. We will also help
to develop the local market for wood chip fuel. Croydon
Council continue to support the project through their
planning guidance, resulting in four recent developments
opting for wood chip heating.
We plan to use the experience at Croydon to help
others set up wood chip production. Biomass heating
is now a hot topic in London with interest from
three other boroughs in our achievements at Croydon.
More
info
This project is funded by Norlands Foundation, Carbon
Trust, Scottish Power Green Energy Trust, Mitchell
Trust and WWF.
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Biomass fuel assessment shows London has capacity to run
wood-waste powered CHPs |
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Following on from our
work at the Croydon TreeStation we have just completed
an assessment into the feasibility of supplying
our planned sustainable community for the Thames
Gateway, Z-squared, with woodchip for a combined
heat and power plant. Running on this renewable
fuel source, the plant would be the main energy
and hot water provider for the community.
The result of the assessment is that there is sufficient
wood chip available for the 2,000 home community
and other new communities. In fact this will use
only around a tenth of the 500,000 tonnes a year
that is potentially available in and around London.
Recent increases in fossil fuel prices mean wood
chip is now a cheaper fuel than mains gas in many
cases.
The biomass fuel market is expected to become the
dominant use for recycled timber and tree surgery
waste in the region, contributing to national waste
management targets.
As prices for biomass rise:
• new sources of wood chip such as woody residues
from composting operations will develop
• planting of energy crops will increase
• more chip will be produced from woodland
management benefiting woodland health, biodiversity,
and rural economies.
Woodlands, including coppice woodlands in South
East England might once again become a vital source
of renewable energy for London as they were in pre-industrial
times.
The study was supported by Shanks First Fund
and Defra.
You can download the report from our website
here
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Leading Portuguese environmentalists
introduced to One Planet Living in Portugal |
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On January 27th we were visited by representatives from
Portugal’s leading environmental NGO’s keen
to find out more about the team behind Portugal’s
One Planet Living eco-tourism development in Mata de Sesimbra.
The project is approaching public consultation in Portugal
where the NGO’s will give advice.
Representatives from BioRegional and WWF welcomed attendees
from Quercus, LPN, and GEOTA. The group were taken on a
tour of BedZED and introduced to the One Planet Living philosophy
and how it will be applied at Mata de Sesimbra. The project's
developers, Pelicano SA, are the first to develop and manage
a site following our One Planet Living principles.
The Mata de Sesimbra eco-tourism project will be world’s
first-ever integrated sustainable building, tourism, nature
conservation and reforestation programme. The total investment
is calculated at approximately 1 billion Euros (around £670
million pounds).
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This 5,300 hectare site will combine a 4,800ha nature reserve
and native pine and oak forest restoration project with
a 500 hectare tourism development comprising up to 8,000
units. BioRegional and WWF will work with the Portuguese
project team over a ten-year period as advisors. More
info
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