Remember the movie „The Truman Show“? The ideal suburb, ideal neighbours and the ideal life – everything too good to be true. Watching the movie I constantly thought: how can he not see or feel or both that all of this is just too perfect, hence can not be real? Well, I experienced my own Truman Moment when I first read about BedZed (short for Beddington Zero Energy Development) – just the other way around!
This one and only carbon-neutral eco-community in the UK is located in the south of London and is a “dream come true” for all environmentalists. Developed and built in 2002 by the Peabody Trust in cooperation with the BioRegional Development Group, it is designed to produce at least as much energy as it consumes. Only energy from renewable sources is used to meet the energy needs of the community, literally not emitting any single carbon dioxide into the atmosphere (therefore being called carbon-neutral). Not to say that the buildings have been constructed from natural, recycled or reclaimed materials.But this is by far not all: in order to support the residents living in the community to achieve a sustainable lifestyle, they address topics like transportation, food and waste management. All community members have access to the carsharing service at the community based car club. BedZed also offers several charging points for electric vehicles – making running such a car a practical option. Farmers markets for fresh food supply are in walking distance. And the list goes on.
Unless your name is Truman, you might now ask: there must be a downside - like: The buildings might be carbon-neutral but ugly. The apartments might be sustainable but too expensive to buy.The monitoring charts will prove you wrong on the last point: the price for a sustainable residential home might be up to 20% higher than what you would pay for a conventional house, but the savings in space heating, hot water and electricity will make more than up for it in the long run. And to dispel the worries about the looks: In 2003 BedZED did not only win the Stirling Prize, a national architecture award, but also the Housing Design Award for their ‘Completed Scheme’. Eco- Celebrity-Designers like Oliver Heath use BedZED and its surroundings as their showroom.

But the best proof that the concept works are the residents being proud of where they live and considering that they are living somewhere special. The lesson we learned from the Truman Show seems not to apply to this community: for now it is the closest version of a perfect green community – so good it better be true!
BioRegional also offers seminars/educational program about the lessons learned from BedZED:Fotos: www.sustainability.com