Current research from the Equality and Human Rights Commission suggests that as many as one in five of the British population has a disability. In Essex this means there could be up to a quarter of a million people living with a disability or long-term health condition. Whilst much has been achieved in terms of independence and equality, there are still far too many disabled people who face persistent and economic exclusion. Since 1947 Disability Essex (previously known as Essex Disabled People's Association) has worked across the county supporting local people with disabilities. We want to continue our hard work well into the future so that we can help greater numbers to discover their true potential, but our previous accomodation was dated, inaccessible and insufficient in size to deal with the increasing demand for our services. We therefore need a new centre to operate from so the charity can deliver more effective levels of service and foster relationships with other organisations across the East of England. In fact as a result of this building we aim to help more than double the number of disabled people we help at present. What makes this appeal special is the fact that as a charity Disability Essex will be the only voluntary organisation aspiring to achieve a PassivHaus standard for sustainability. We want to demonstrate that being a charity does not restrict our ability to deal with environmental issues proactively. The 'Centre for Disability Studies' will create 95% less CO2 than a similar 'average UK stock' building and will make cost effective use of renewable energy and biomass (reducing our running costs to virtually zero). It will use locally sourced and sustainable resources, including recycled materials, and the centre itself will be used as a teaching tool to show a variety of students how the needs of the environment can be easily designed into the construction of a building. And because we specialise in disability access, we have the experience to combine pan-disability issues into such design - the building will address the generic needs of our beneficiaries, whether they have physical, sensory, cognitive, mental or learning disabilities. In June 2008 its design won the Climate Change and Health Mitigation Good Practice Award and we presented at the Climate Change and the Challenges for Public Health: Engaging the Regions" Conference in Brussels. With your support we can make a real difference to the lives of local people with disabilities. We only require £80,000 more to reach our £2million target - could you help?