We are delighted that our members Ecological Building Systems and EcoCocon have created a partnership to promote the wider use of EcoCocon straw panels in the UK and Ireland.
The exciting news was announced at the Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards, where EcoCocon was voted the Winner of the Product Award. Ecological Building Systems’ Penny Randell joined Paul Lynch of EcoCocon on the winners podium to receive the award.
Celebrating the Sustainable Development Foundation’s 20th anniversary, the Exemplar Sustainable Buildings Awards united two leading award schemes from SDF Alliance partners the Passivhaus Trust and ASBP. They build on the UK Passivhaus Awards’ data-driven approach and the ASBP Awards’ focus on embodied carbon and healthy buildings – aligning with the SDF’s holistic high-performance sustainability indicators.
This is not the first time that ASBP has recognised EcoCocon with an Award. In 2019 the Old Holloway EcoCocon home by Juraj (George) Mikurcik, was highly commended in the ASBP Awards, and natureplus presented the Innovative Product Award to Barbara Jones (SNaB) for the EcoCocon system.
Barbara and George continue to be involved with promoting the use of straw panels in construction. Barbara Jones (School of Natural Building) is acknowledge as a straw building guru and gives advice and practical lessons for all types of straw building. Barbara has been instrumental in introducing EcoCocon panels to the UK. This system has been of special value in the self-build market, where George’s own self-build continues to receive much acclaim.
For the past seven years George has been EcoCocon’s UK Technical Consultant alongside his work with the award winning architectural practice, Architype. With the launch of Ecological Building Systems’s collaboration with EcoCocon, however, George has decided to join the Ecological Building Systems Technical Team in addition to his role at EcoCocon. After 19 years with Architype, George will be leaving. Of his time at Architype he comments: “I have had the privilege of working with brilliant colleagues on some genuinely sustainable and transformative projects. The use of timber and other biobased materials were the common theme running through the projects long before carbon assessments were a thing. But the most important aspect has been the positive and lasting transformation of people’s lives.”