Solar panels, recycled water: a glimpse inside Britain's carbon-neutral estate

When Marianna and Steve Binks get up in the morning, their thoughts are typical, domestic ones - getting themselves and their two children ready for work, school and the normal activities of everyday life. That they are at the cutting edge of the carbon-neutral lifestyle is not uppermost in their minds.

But it is clear to newcomers at the Beddington Zero Energy Development, or as it is more commonly known, BedZED, in Wallington, Surrey, is no ordinary housing estate. 'To be honest, it's only when you see people from all over the world being shown around here, that you realise you are living somewhere very different," says Mrs Binks.

The wind cowls on top of the blocks of flats, sitting adjacent to the wildlife-friendly green roofs and the black-dotted photovoltaic solar panels on walls, immediately mark out the apartment blocks as out of the norm. What is less obvious is that the estate has been built so that the windows are south facing to maximise natural heat and light, and that the large, innocuous-looking building in the corner is in fact a wood-fired combined heat and power plant providing heating and electricity for the residents.

This development, a partnership between the self-confessed "hardline" carbon-neutral architects ZEDfactory, BioRegional, a local charity devoted to sustainable enterprises, and Peabody Trust, could be a model for the future of environmentally sound living of the kind being encouraged by the tax breaks announced by Gordon Brown in this week's Budget.

from the Independent (UK)