Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) is an environmentally friendly housing development in Hackbridge, London, England. It is in the London Borough of Sutton, 2 mi north-east of the town of Sutton itself. Designed to create zero carbon emissions, it was the first large scale community to do so.

Background

BedZED was designed by the architect Bill Dunster to be carbon neutral. The project was led by the Peabody Trust in partnership with Bill Dunster Architects, Ellis & Moore Consulting Engineers, BioRegional, Arup and the cost consultants Gardiner and Theobald. The project was the first construction project where a local authority sold land at below market value to make sustainable development economically viable. The 82 homes and 1405 m2 of work space was built within the period of 2000–2002. The project was shortlisted for the Stirling Prize in 2003.

Performance

Monitoring conducted in 2003 found that BedZED had achieved these reductions in comparison to UK averages:

Problems

A review of the BedZed development in 2010 drew mainly positive conclusions. Residents and neighbours were largely happy. However, a few significant failures were highlighted, for example: The results show that the average ecological footprint of a BedZED resident is 4.67 global hectares (2.6 planets), which is 89% of the baseline. This would reduce to 4.32 global hectares (2.4 planets) if the energy was all zero carbon. However, a keen resident at BedZED (if the CHP was working) could achieve an ecological footprint of 3.0 global hectares (1.7 planets) which is 57% of the average. The target was 1 planet.

Awards