On Thursday 9th September, Springfield Meadows scooped the OxProp Award for Best Residential Development in Oxfordshire. Springfield Meadows is the UK’s most sustainable private residential property development site consisting of 25 beautiful homes, including nine managed by Sovereign Housing Association.
In winning the award, the eco-living site beat five other Oxfordshire developments shortlisted for the title. Ssassy Property and Greencore Construction – the developers of Springfield Meadows development in Southmoor – collected the prize, which was judged by members of the UK Property Forum, Bicester Heritage and presented by Olympic rower Greg Searle.
22 of the sustainable homes at Springfield Meadows are now sold with two under offer and just one available off. The homes that are all net-zero energy and better-than-zero carbon footprint, were developed using Greencore’s Biond system. Biond is a closed timber framed panel that is insulated with Lime-Hemp & wood-fibre insulation. The external wall panels lock up 32kg of CO2e per m2 of wall meaning that it out-performs almost all other construction systems in its impact on the environment. Early buyers had the opportunity to custom-build the design of their home, including alternative floorplans, kitchens, bathrooms and battery storage. The development is pioneering with its fully electric car club which is available to residents and all the houses have triple glazed windows, PV panels and are built the Passivhaus energy standard.
Ian Pritchett, Managing Director of Greencore Construction said: “We are absolutely thrilled to have won the ‘Best Residential Development’ award. We set out to build the most sustainable residential development in the country, an exemplar for others to follow, and we think we have achieved this. Unless the house building industry drastically reduces its carbon impact we will squander the allocated carbon budgets long before 2050. We’ve also worked with BBOWT – the local wildlife trust to help us increase the biodiversity of the site they designed the landscaping and communal gardens and will monitor the development for the next 5 years, a first for a developer.”
Bioregional, the environmental charity, has recognised the scheme’s attributes by awarding it One Planet Global Leader status. The certificate champions a holistic approach to new-build developments, ensuring that they are sustainable, environmentally friendly, and landscape-led to respect existing nature in the area.
The OxProp Awards are part of OxPropFest, an event tailored to the property, science, and innovation community from The Arc, Buckinghamshire, and Oxfordshire regions. It brings these disciplines together for a day of networking, knowledge-sharing, and celebration.
