Hockerton Housing Project has scooped an award in the National Energy Efficiency Awards run by UK CEED in partnership with EDF Energy . The event was also sponsored by defra and The Independent .

Nick White & Trudi Macagnino on behalf of HHP collected the top prize in the residential construction and renovation category this week (6 December) at the Science Museum in London.

Judges commented: “This is a commendable project that demonstrates how community leadership can achieve inspiring living spaces in absolute harmony with their surroundings”

“Hockerton Housing Project is an eco-community which grows much of its own food, generates its own power and enjoys massive energy savings. Over the past few years, the project has helped to spread the word that sustainable living is within everyone’s reach. To date, more than 10,000 people have visited to see it for themselves. The families have their own water collecting system and environmentally friendly sewage system – and their lifestyle produces other eco-benefits, such as the reduction in waste from food packaging.”

There was a special supplement about the awards & winners in ‘The Independent’ on 11th Dec 2006.

In November 2006 we ran a visit for extremely able sixth form students from all over the UK as part of a one week intense, inspirational course brought together by Villiers Park Educational Trust. The course title is ‘The World in Crisis’. The aim of the visit to the Hockerton Housing Project was to provide an experience that anchored the whole course to the students own lives and to bring home how their daily lives will have to change in order for us to work towards a sustainable future.

The visit incuded a tour of the project, and a debate on ‘The Government has a duty to force individuals to lead a more sustainable lifestyle.’ Each student was assigned a role within ‘for’ and ‘against’ teams; such as: a politician, Friends of the Earth representative, Climate change expert,   Car industry representative, and a Representative of a human rights organisation.

After the visit specific feedback was collected from the students about the trip. During the general feedback session almost all of them said that the trip was one of the two highlights of the course.