The Oxford Institute for Sustainable Development (OISD) at Oxford Brookes University and sustainability charity BioRegional have launched a new initiative designed to share the knowledge and experience gained from creating the UK’s first eco-town. The Eco-Bicester Living Lab (EBLL) will bring together research and disseminate lessons learned thus far as the Bicester eco-town in Oxfordshire continues to take shape.

Cherwell District Council and A2Dominion, lead developers of the eco-town, are key stakeholders in the project that will capture the research and innovation taking place in constructing the major eco-housing development. 393 high-performance homes are being built on site, with plans for a further 6,000 homes in the near future. The first residents are expected to move in from spring 2015.

A number of demonstration projects have already been carried out, involving innovative retrofit technologies, new business models for the roll-out of renewables, and future-proofing the eco-town for a changing climate. There has also been a carbon mapping project on homes in a Bicester neighbourhood using the DECoRuM (Domestic energy, Carbon Counting and Carbon Reduction model) approach to identify opportunities for reducing energy use and fuel costs.

The key aims of the EBLL are to:

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  Bring world-leading academic research and innovation to Bicester to enable the creation of a truly sustainable town for the 21st century

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  Develop a test-bed of innovative solutions in sustainability, building a framework of learning for dissemination across the global construction industry

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  Capture learning for continuous feedback and improvement, and enable knowledge-sharing with industry and policymakers

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  Promote Bicester as a centre for research and innovation

Speaking at the launch, Professor Rajat Gupta, director of OISD and co-director of the EBLL said: “Eco-Bicester Living Lab is a unique cross-sector initiative in which novel ideas related to sustainability will be tested in the urban realm with the explicit goal of learning for continuous feedback and improvement. The rigorous academic evaluation will underpin knowledge-sharing with industry, policy-making and voluntary sectors across the UK and around the world.”

“It’s a place where we can explicitly look at how well our projects are delivering true sustainability,” explained Nicole Lazarus, senior programme manager of Eco-Bicester and co-director of the EBLL. “It also allows us to bring the learning together in one place and tell the story of a whole town’s journey.”

For more, visit www.bicesterlivinglab.org