New eco-towns funding will help to spread sustainability

09.02.10

BioRegional is backing the government’s strategy for exemplary eco-show homes to be delivered within the new £60m eco-towns funding announced yesterday. As a partner in the UK's best-known eco-village, BedZED, BioRegional has run the visitor centre and show home for 8 years which has helped to inspire policy change towards sustainability.

BioRegional’s Director Sue Riddlestone said “Without our visitor centre and show home BedZED would not have been nearly as influential. Sustainability can be hard to grasp but when you have a working example of sustainable living to show people they get it and are inspired – in fact 70% of visitors have said that they will bring what they learnt on their visit into their work or home lives. So we are extremely supportive of this part of the eco-towns strategy”.

BedZED is a mixed use community for 300 residents and workers in south London and is owned and managed by housing association Peabody. As development partners with Peabody, BioRegional provides a visitor centre and show home that has been visited by more than 30,000 people from all around the world including receiving numerous visits from ministers from all the main UK political parties. The village has helped to influence government policy in the UK - encouraging the CLG to state that all new homes must be ‘zero carbon’ by 2016.

Because of a long-standing experience in sustainable communities, Sue Riddlestone was selected to be part of the eco-towns challenge panel and post-panel the BioRegional team continues to advise on eco-towns. The charity is running a free workshop day for all the eco-town delivery teams in March, Sue said “ We work to pass on the lessons we’ve learned be that through the show home, publishing monitoring reports or providing training to help the eco-towns be a success”.