24/08/2011 - Showcasing how to build to ‘Carbon Neutral’

One of Staffordshire County Council’s incumbent principal contractors who are currently delivering the Staffordshire Construction Partnership, Thomas Vale Construction are re-launching their ‘Emerging Innovations’ Workshops – this time, at the purpose built £1million award winning Apedale Energy Station and Visitors Centre, Newcastle under Lyme.

The centre, which was completed in December 2010 and designed by Staffordshire County Council will play host to some of the UK’s most important public and private sector clients from a range of national local authorities and blue-chip businesses to review the concept behind the County Council’s forward-thinking carbon neutral delivery plan and how to reduce embodied carbon emissions in new-build facilities.

Adrian Sutherland, Project Designer, Staffordshire County Council adds: “To be able to showcase the impact that collaborative working can have on aiding the delivery and provision of environmentally sound buildings is important in allowing regional and national authorities and businesses to understand that this is achievable.

“We have learnt that sustainable construction is achievable today with careful design and material selection, appropriate choices of technologies that support the building and a commitment to sustainable thinking from the first design concept to the finished building.”

The £1 million building has been designed and built to Swedish thermal standards using materials which will allow the building to breathe naturally. Hygroscopic building materials are nine times more effective than mechanical ventilation in controlling indoor air quality. Also being led by the need to reduce carbon, the building fabric ensures the building is as sustainable as practicably possible, by using Hemcrete, a hemp system for the external walls, FSC chain of custody certified timber support structure and a roof made from 100 per cent recycled aluminium.

The building also incorporates other environmental features, such as a ground source heat pump, wind-turbines, septic tank and reed beds for sewage treatment, a pond and gabion retaining walls.

This Emerging Innovations Seminar, which is being held on the 21^st September 2011, is part of Thomas Vale’s demonstration of the role and commitment that they play in helping to shape the industry as we see it today.

Matt Wisdom, Environmental Innovations Manager, Thomas Vale added: “Knowledge transfer and sharing days that incorporate some of the most forward thinking buildings in the UK to date, are important to ensure that we realise government expectations and aspirations for a carbon neutral strategy for all Public Sector Projects. To be able to showcase that you can deliver sustainable buildings without any additional capital cost is exceptional and something we want and need to share with the rest of the industry.

Over the past 12 months, the business has invested heavily in the research, development and implementation of expertise for delivery in new target markets including Facilities Management, Sustainable Solutions and Consultancy; and in January 2011, they implemented a core strategy for Building Information Modelling and Management (BIM); ahead of the UK Government Construction Strategy noting aspirations and expectations for BIM to be utilized on all public sector capital projects before 2013.

Thomas Vale is currently on site with the UK’s first 2 Passivhaus accredited Schools for Wolverhampton City Council and in 2010, delivered the UK’s first Mainstream, Mainland UK BREEAM Excellent School – St Luke’s C of E Primary School.