Ecovillage Boekel: Discover the Netherlands' award-winning, sustainable housing community

euronews (in English)

Ecovillage Boekel was named the Netherlands' most sustainable organisation in 2021. With its own 'food forest' and a pioneering César heating system, this European project is setting the standard for green living.

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00:00 From the sky, it looks like a flower house. The eco-village Buckel is an almost self-sufficient

00:06 housing community that was voted the most sustainable organization in the Netherlands

00:10 in 2021. In a world beset by crises, war and climate disruption, this European project

00:17 offers concrete solutions for social, economic and cultural regeneration.

00:22 The United Nations said that in 2030, half of all humans will have problems with climate

00:31 change. We try to be self-sufficient on food and on water and on a lot of our energy. Eco-village

00:40 Buckel is part of a project worldwide of eco-villages searching how to be more resilient to climate

00:47 change. The eco-village Buckel in the south of the Netherlands is made up of 36 pioneering

00:56 sustainable flats. 48 adults, fervent campaigners for the circular economy, are involved in

01:03 this European project where nothing is wasted, not a drop of water nor a kilowatt of energy.

01:10 Anne-Marie has been living in this community for a year and a half. The houses are built

01:14 with bio-sustainable materials such as wood and hemp and this is one of the reasons why

01:19 she decided to up sticks and move to Buckel.

01:22 Values were the building with hemp. I thought it is a beautiful material and they make very

01:29 good isolation and healthy homes. These houses have absorbed more CO2 than they have put

01:36 in the air. And not only that, this beautiful garden here where we try to grow food for

01:42 all of us, the 50 people that live here.

01:47 They grow a food forest in which they have planted fruit and vegetables among the trees

01:52 and shrubs, making the garden more resistant to heavy rain, drought and heat.

02:01 The total budget for the project is 10 million euros, 2.5 million of which has been provided

02:07 by the province of Noord-Brabant, 1 million by the EU`s cohesion policy and half a million

02:13 by the Dutch Ministry of Energy and Climate.

02:16 Buckel is a testing ground for all kinds of innovations such as the Cezar heating system

02:22 which stores the energy produced by the eco-village`s 600 solar panels.

02:28 Storage medium will reach a temperature of 450 degrees and then afterwards the heat is

02:35 provided to - for the floor heating of the livings of the houses here. It`s a circle.

02:43 It`s an emission, a CO2 emission free system.

02:47 The Buckel eco-village has won several awards for the sustainability of its buildings and

02:52 it`s leading the way on the path towards a greener future.

02:56 [MUSIC PLAYING]

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