Every two years the UN has a SDG Action Award to find those who #flipthescript and rethink how we live and what progress and development look like. Last time about 2.000 projects applied. These are projects that Mobilize, Inspire or Connect. The slogan of Boekel Ecovillage is Inspiring example of sustainable living in connection, so we applied too.
Boekel Ecovillage has a positive impact on all 17 SDGs! Our building plans were so innovative, we were obstructed by Dutch laws so we entered in the Crisis and Recovery Act, a law only for innovative, sustainable projects. We got four exemptions from the Dutch Building code and now the building code is updated with our exemptions. A law is changed!
The building sector is responsible for 35% of all carbon output. Boekel Ecovillage stores 808 tons of carbon in its 36 houses. This flips the script and makes them climate positive, but they are much more. They are 100% circular, made from waste from other industries or biobased. The houses are designed to be resilient to all weather extremes like drought, heat, extreme rain and hail. Our heating system is revolutionary, we store the summer heat at a temperature of 450 degrees Celcius and two meters of insulation keep the heat stored for the whole year. We use this heat to warm our houses for free!
When we applied for funding for this storage system, the EU sorted all 24 project that applied that year in order of potential impact and Boekel Ecovillage was nr 1. We were offered the maximum amount we could apply for because we had much more innovations to test in our ecovillage.
Being an inspiring example of sustainable building, Boekel Ecovillage has won the three biggest building awards last year.
Our province offered to lend us 1.2million euros and when someone asked the why, they said: We want all of our citizens to live like Boekel Ecovillage in 2050. As of 2022 Boekel Ecovillage is a showroom and a living lab to inspire others.
Ecodorp Boekel has made a pledge for the EU Climate Pact.
Monitoring our impact value with the MAEX Social Handprint
Each year we fill in facts of how we live in an extensive questionnaire designed by the Dutch CBS, the largest statistical organisation in the Netherlands that also generates the Dutch SDG report each year. Based on their statistical knowledge the CBS calculates what it would cost the society if they had to pay us and what we save society. In 2020 that impact value was € 60.000. In 2021 that was € 130.000. In 2022 that is prognosed as € 370.000. This growth is due to our biobased houses getting built and our temporary homes being removed.
The website MAEX is a platform for more than 2.000 citizen led initiatives.
