BedZED

Overview

Beddington Zero Energy Development is the UK’s largest mixed use sustainable community. It was designed to create a thriving community in which ordinary people could enjoy a high quality of life, while living within their fair share of the Earth’s resources.

BedZED was initiated by BioRegional and BDa ZEDfactory, and developed by the Peabody Trust. It was completed and occupied in 2002. The community comprises 50% housing for sale, 25% key worker shared ownership and 25% social housing for rent.

People move to BedZED with typical lifestyles, and over the years change their behaviour significantly. The holistic design works on three levels:

1.the design solves problems such as heating and water usage;

2. the design and services offered help people make sustainable choices such as walking rather than driving; and

3. the community have created their own facilities and groups to improve quality of life and reduce their environmental impact.

Green lifestyles

Green Lifestyles - completing the sustainability picture

People are attracted to living and working at BedZED for many reasons. But whether you like the architecture, the location or are a committed environmentalist, green living comes as standard.

Energy and water efficiency have been ‘designed in’ at BedZED. Households and businesses achieve significant reductions in environmental impact just by living or working at the development. However, sustainability cannot be achieved through bricks and mortar alone. In the UK, carbon emissions from our day-to-day lives are split roughly three ways between our homes, transport, and growing and transporting our food. Therefore, a development cannot be truly sustainable unless travel, food buying and waste are also addressed.

These ‘lifestyle’ aspects of sustainability cannot simply be integrated into the BedZED building fabric. How you travel, deal with your waste and buy your food are individual choices.

To help achieve One Planet Living at BedZED, BioRegional have worked with residents to extend their eco-living beyond bricks and mortar with fresh ideas for greening food, travel and waste.
 
For the first year of residency, BioRegional employed a Green Lifestyles Officer, to help residents maximise the green living potential of the development. A key part of the role was to offer training and support to residents to run these schemes in the long term. 
 


Approximately one third of the average UK resident’s eco-footprint comes from the production and transportation of their food. The current trend in the UK is for shoppers to expect to be able buy any food no matter what the time of year. Understanding the environmental and social impacts of food is very difficult, there are so many factors to consider from growing the food to transporting it, cooking it and dealing with the waste.

Reducing food miles is an argument that makes a lot of sense. But just "buying local" could actually drive up your ecological footprint if you buy out-of-season produce that was intensively grown in heated greenhouses, whilst harming countries in the global South that rely on exports for development. There are some simple steps that you can take to reduce the impact of the food you eat:

1. Only buy the food that you need, and use leftovers. In the UK we throw away more than 30% of our food!
2. East less meat and dairy, which accounts for over half the average UK resident's food footprint. Livestock are responsible for 18% of global greenhouse gas emissions, more than all transport!
3. Buy vegetables that are local (reducing transport needs), seasonal (rather than grown in heated greenhouses) and organic/non-intensive (reducing the use of oil-intensive chemicals).

To reduce these environmental impacts, the following initiatives were introduced at BedZED:

• Local organic box schemes provide local, seasonal, organic produce that supports the local farming industry. Hankham Nursery in East Sussex supplies fruit and vegetable boxes, and a range of organic wines and beers to stock ‘ZEDbar’.
• Buying locally Residents' welcome packs included details of local farmers markets – and residents have organised a series of on-site local produce markets.
• Internet shopping with delivery via a Homeport system which allows secure delivery to your home even when you are out. 
• Growing your own food Training and equipment was offered to residents to help them grow their own fruit and vegetables, in their gardens and on-site mini allotments.

The complementary Community Composting scheme turns kitchen and garden organic waste into nutrient-rich compost, for use in gardens and allotments. The scheme creates a closed loop system where organic waste is recycled into fruit, vegetables and flowers. Funding to establish the Community Composting scheme came from the Onyx Environmental Trust. 



If no action is taken, road traffic is set to increase by up to 50% by 2026 from the current level of 21 million cars. This is obviously something that needs to be urgently addressed when we consider the already congested state of our roads and the impact that cars have on the environment.

BedZED took the following measures to decrease car dependency for residents:
BedZED’s green transport plan was written into the land purchase contract. Private car ownership at BedZED was therefore limited, with the target for fossil fuel car miles to be 50% of the average. To formalise this agreement The Peabody Trust entered into a legally binding agreement – the first of its kind for a housing developer in the UK to sign up to. Residents and businesses pay an annual fee to park on-site and parking spaces are prioritised for disabled drivers, electric / LPG vehicles and cars with smaller engines.

The Green Transport Plan reduces car ownership and use in three ways:
1. Offering alternatives to private car travel
2. Promoting public transport
3. Reducing the need to travel

Alternatives to private car travel
Onsite Car Club: BedZED was the first low car development in the UK to incorporate a car club.The club was established in partnership with City Car Club (formerly Smart Moves) – the UK’s largest car club operator. City Car Club provided vehicles, an internet-based booking system and in-car technology whilst BioRegional employed a development officer. 

The car club service was introduced to potential BedZED residents at pre-sales open days and at monthly residents welcome evenings as people began to move in.

The first car club booking was made in March 2002. A year later, membership had risen steadily to 35 people, sharing the use of three vehicles. Roughly half of the club’s members work for BedZED-based businesses, and half are BedZED residents. The club has also attracted members from the wider community. As a result of the car club service, nine members had sold cars or deferred car purchases by March 2003.

Electric vehicles: BedZED is equipped to make running an electric car a practical option. Public transport or car club vehicles can be used for journeys beyond the range of an electric vehicle.

Cycling facilities: Cycling offers a practical and fun way of travelling for all ages. There are no vehicle emissions and cycling helps you to keep fit.

BioRegional and local cycling group Cyclism formed a partnership to run free Dr Bike Sessions. The sessions provided a 10-minute bike check and basic repairs for BedZED residents and the local community.

Free cycling packs were compiled for residents. The packs contain everything you need to know about cycling including a booklet, ‘On your bike’, produced by BioRegional with a grant from the London Cycling Campaign, information on local cycling groups, money off vouchers for local cycling shops, local and regional cycle maps and information about cycle club membership and insurance.

There is good cycle storage provision around the site in the form of Sheffield stands and wall mounted locking points, and there are changing facilities in the club house.

Promoting public transport
The BedZED development site was chosen for its excellent public transport links. Hackbridge station (5 minutes walk away) offers regular trains to Victoria (20 minutes) and Kings Cross (40 minutes) and Mitcham Junction station (15 minutes walk away) is linked to Wimbledon and Croydon via tram system. Three local bus routes serve the development.
When residents first moved in, BioRegional delivered public transport information such as new timetables direct to the households and businesses.

Reducing the need to travel
BedZED’s mix of homes and workspace offers the option of working at home and cutting commuting.On-site facilities enable businesses and residents to meet more of their everyday needs without getting in the car. These include a 5-a-side football pitch with club house, a dance studio, nursery, multi-use centre which can be used for film nights and book clubs etc., village square, recycling bins, home food delivery and allotments.



BedZED has been designed to make it easy to recycle, with the aim of reducing household waste output and to attain a recycling rate of 60%.

Composting: The BedZED Community Composting scheme turns kitchen and garden waste into a resource for growing food.

Segregated under-sink bins: Every BedZED home incorporates a colour coded, segregated under-sink bin. The colours relate to the type of waste – green for compostable vegan waste, two grey sections - for glass, plastics, paper and tins and brown for non-recyclables. This makes separating and transporting the materials to the corresponding outside bins easy.

Local Paper for London (BioRegional’s office paper recycling scheme): is available to BedZED residents and businesses. White office paper is collected, cleaned at the local mill in Kent and bought back by the same offices as 100% recycled white paper. A Westminster Council Study showed that paper accounts for 40% of commercial waste from offices.

Clothes and furniture swaps: When residents first moved to BedZED a swap shop was set up. Residents took items that they no longer wanted and swapped them with other residents for items that they did. This continues in the BedZED Residents' Newsletter.

Monitoring

2007 monitoring results summary

BedZED was designed to minimise its ecological impact both in construction and operation – to help residents live within their fair share of the world’s resources. Monitoring progress towards achieving these targets is vital in order to assess the effectiveness of the development, identify areas for further improvement and highlight lessons that can be learnt and applied to future developments.

BedZED's original aims were:

• reduce water consumption compared to the UK average by 33%
• reduce electricity consumption compared to the UK average by 33%
• reducing space heating needs compared to the UK average by 90%
• reduce private fossil fuel car mileage to 50% of UK average
• eliminate carbon emissions due to energy consumption

BioRegional and Peabody Trust have carried out monitoring in 2003, 2004 and 2005. The latest monitoring was undertaken in 2007 by BioRegional, we interviewed 71 households (out of 100) about food, transport and waste habits, and their feelings about living at BedZED. We took meter readings to record water, electricity and heat consumption and carried out waste audits.

Energy & water use
We found that BedZED households use 2,579 kWh of electricity per year which is 45% lower than the average in Sutton. While the biomass Combined Heat and Power plant is not in use, BedZED uses gas to power the district heating system. On average, households use 3,526 kWh of heat (from gas) per year – 81% less than the average in Sutton.

We found that residents only use 72 litres of mains water per day, topped up by 15 litres of recycled or rainwater. This is less than half of the local average.

Green lifestyles
86% of BedZED residents buy organic food and 39% grow some of their own food and although this is encouraging, there is scope to build on this.

While BedZED residents have much lower car ownership and drive far fewer miles, they also fly more so the overall impact of transport is slightly higher than for the average resident in Sutton. Through waste audits with ten households, we found that 60% of waste by weight is recycled or composted, but this rate is likely to be lower for all households – people tend to try harder to recycle and compost while they are being audited.

Quality of Life
The sense of community at BedZED, together with BDa ZEDfactory’s innovative design, is the aspect of BedZED most valued by the residents. When we asked residents to name one or two things they particularly like about BedZED the sense of community was the most popular answer, followed by the design, sustainability and  a sense of wellbeing (quietness, quality of light and the feeling of space were all mentioned).

84% of residents felt that the community facilities were better here than in previous neighbourhoods and only one resident, out of 70 who answered this question, felt they were worse.

People living at BedZED know an average of 20 of their fellow residents by name and one resident was able to name 150 of her neighbours! This is significantly higher than for Hackbridge (excluding BedZED) where the average is eight.

Ecological footprint
The ecological footprint of the ‘average’ BedZED resident is 4.67 global hectares (equivalent to needing 2.6 planets of resources if everyone in the world lived like this). If the biomass CHP was working and BedZED was zero carbon as designed, the average resident would have an  ecological  footprint of 4.32 global hectares (2.4 planets' worth), while a keen resident, who made significant efforts to reduce their impact, could achieve an ecological  footprint of three global hectares (equivalent to 1.7 planets).
 
While this is a significant decrease in ecological footprint compared to the UK average, it is still not sustainable. The limiting factor is that so much of BedZED residents’ impact occurs outside of the estate; their schools, workplaces and the goods and food that they buy for example, and we have not so far been able to influence this. In 2005, Sutton Council committed to becoming a ‘One Planet Living  Borough’ by 2025 and will be working with BioRegional to reduce the ecological footprint of the whole borough. By working at this scale, and applying lessons learnt from BedZED to the whole borough, we hope that that we can make significant reductions in ecological footprint, for BedZED and for all Sutton residents.

Visiting

BioRegional's BedZED Centre houses a small exhibition about BedZED and our other projects, the BedZED show home, shop, meeting and seminar facilities and our head office.

The exhibition was designed by Oliver Heath and his team of sustainable design specialists. Developers, planners, architects, students and anyone interested in sustainable living are invited to find out how they can live a “one planet lifestyle” and be inspired by the practical sustainable projects, such as sustainable communities and woodchip for energy that BioRegional are developing. Exhibition visitors can work out their own eco-impact and get a personalised plan to reduce it.

In the BedZED show home all materials have been chosen for their environmental sensitivity, such as: kitchen cupboards made from recycled vending machine coffee cup plastic, natural flooring and low toxicity ecopaints to reduce allergies, organic, fair trade bed linen, and bathroom towels made from bamboo.
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Opening times
Entrance to the BedZED Exhibition is FREE.
Open: 9.30am to 5.00pm, Monday to Friday, except bank holidays.
*PLEASE DO NOT VISIT ON WEEKENDS - this is to respect the privacy of residents*.

Respecting the privacy of residents
BedZED is a living, working model of sustainability. It is essential that visitors respect the privacy of BedZED residents and businesses. We therefore request that visitors do not walk around the BedZED development unless doing so as part of a guided tour.

Photography
Please do not take photos/videos of residents' private homes. We can provide professional digital photos free of charge from our on-line library.

Accessibility
The Centre is fully accessible with disabled access toilets. The show home is not wheelchair accessible but there is a video showing the interior.

Large groups (5 people or more)
If your group would like to visit the exhibition and show home without coming on a tour, please contact us first to arrange a mutually convenient time.

BedZED guided tours
For those who would like a more in depth introduction to BedZED, we offer guided tours, led by a member of staff from the BioRegional  team – BedZED co-developers and sustainability consultants. Find out more.

Travelling to BedZED
BedZED enjoys good public transport links. We strongly encourage visitors to arrive by sustainable transport (foot/ bike or public transport). Car parking spaces are strictly limited and must be booked in advance. More travel details.

Continuing Professional Development
BioRegional run Continuing Professional Development training from BedZED. Find out more.

BedZED seminar facility for hire
BedZED is an inspirational location for a meeting or seminar.  BioRegional has 2 meeting rooms that can be booked. BedZED is easily accessible by train from Central London either from Victoria (20 minutes) or Kings Cross (45 minutes) stations to Hackbridge station. Contact: tel. +44 (0)20 84044880 email info@bioregional.com.

The BedZED Pavilion (on-site community centre) is also available to hire, for day, evening and weekend events. Event catering can also be arranged. For enquiries regarding Pavilion hire please tel. +44 (0)208 544 5113 or e. bedzedpavilion@yahoo.co.uk www.bedzedpavilion.org.uk.

BedZED property sales & lettings
Please note that the BedZED Centre does not handle sales or lettings of BedZED properties. For commercial and social letting enquiries please contact Peabody Trust tel.+44 (0)20 7928 7811 and for residential sales contact local estate agents.

What next?

Since BedZED residents moved in March 2002, BioRegional has continued to work on other new and existing sustainable communities.

One Planet Living principles framework
One of the key evolutions from BedZED was the development of the 10 One Planet Living principles with WWF. It became increasingly clear to us that we needed to take a holistic approach to developing new and regenerating existing communities. This is the framework that we now use for many projects around the world in: North America, South Africa, Portugal and the UK:

 


We encourage as many people as possible to use this framework for projects, business etc. Find out more

Looking close to home – a One Planet Living plan for BedZED’s wider neighbourhood
We are working with Sutton Council and local residents and businesses to develop a One Planet Living strategy for the entire borough of Sutton – the borough that BedZED is located within.
The strategy will be piloted in the Hackbidge suburb first and then rolled out across the whole area. The big aim is for Sutton to enable One Planet Living by 2025.
Find out more www.oneplanetsutton.org

UK Eco-towns
Our experience in sustainable communities has led to BioRegional becoming involved in the eco-towns debate. Sue Riddlestone, BioRegional’s Director has been a member of theeco-towns challenge panel, helping to set challenging standards for proposals to meet.

From this we worked with Cabe (the government’s advisor on Architecture and the Built Environment) to produce a report giving clear sustainability criteria against which the proposers can judge their plans, and offering ways to monitor progress.
Download What makes an eco town?

One Planet Products
From our experience at BedZED, and from speaking with other industry players, we could see that it was difficult for developers and housing associations to find and specify green building products. There are many products on the market, but it was difficult to find out how they compared and if they would help them meet planning legislation such as BREEAM and the Code for Sustainable Homes.
This led us to set up One Planet Products – a not-for-profit service to help the industry to specify and purchase green construction products, saving time and money.
Find out more www.oneplanetproducts.com