Eh, well, the wood-burner is broken - we're stuck with gas, and the water recycling doesnt work well enough so after recycling it's dumped in the sewers - that is if the water company can spare someone to run the recycling plant.On the surface, Kendal Murray's life looks utterly average. Each morning, she showers, makes toast and drops her children off at nursery before going to work. Only on closer inspection do the details of her routine reveal some remarkable features: her shower is heated by solar panels on her roof; the electricity for her toaster comes from a local wood-burning generator; and when she takes her children to nursery, she walks - naturally.
Murray lives in BedZED, the Beddington Zero Energy Development in Sutton, south London, the first large-scale 'carbon neutral' community which, by using energy only from renewable sources generated on site, does not add significant amounts of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
'People have a hair-shirt image about green living but it can be easy, affordable and attractive,' said Murray. 'I live with a clear conscience and haven't had to give up a single thing to live this life.'
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And in the end, we will all benefit, according to Kendal Murray. 'I have never lived anywhere remotely as friendly as this,' she said of BedZED. 'There is a sense of community here that is a direct result of the fact we all feel linked by the common cause of environmental living. When I tend to my vegetables in my allotment or walk to the recycling tip, I meet my neighbours and we talk. Everywhere else I have lived, people go from their doors to their cars and disappear in a gust of petrol fumes.'
I love where I live, and my energy bills are a tiny proportion of my income, but it's a hair's breadth away from full-on consumerist living. 'Live with a clear conscience?!' I wish. Its only real advantage is the sort of environmentally conscious people it attracts.
