This Generation Green think tank was held at Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED), the UK’s largest low carbon community, on 16th November 2009.
Our enthusiastic Think Tankers arrived at the futuristic community to learn how everyone can be re-educated to save energy and live more sustainably: both by making big changes (like building sustainable homes) and small ones (like using foil behind radiators).
How the day began
Our Think Tankers updated us on the fantastic work they’d done over half-term, surveying people on their ideas for making schools more sustainable and designing their own sustainable school. Joe Murphy, from Southampton, managed to gather ideas from a whopping 470 people, and Rachel Scales, from Romford, made a model of her design, complete with hen house and vegetables on the roof.
Green inspiration from BedZED
Sue Riddlestone, the founder of BedZED, told us why and how BedZED was created, and took our budding green designers on a tour of the community. In the BedZED show home, our Think Tankers were inspired by innovative green design features like flashing water meters, recycled plastic desks and south-facing solar panels.
We then heard from British Gas Energy Expert, David Franks, and champion energy saver Ian Lewis. Ian, along with his neighbours, won the Green Streets competition to work with British Gas and save as much energy as possible in their homes – he had loads of energy-saving top tips to help us all.
Putting it to the test
The pupils were then challenged to insulate model houses with different materials. In three groups, the children competed to keep their house as warm as possible – some children even sat on the roof of their houses to keep them warm with their body heat!