31/03/11 - Local Schools attend Sustainability Day at Woodcock Street Offices

To celebrate Climate Change Week 2011 and highlight the buildings key sustainable features Thomas Vale and Birmingham City Council organised the ‘sustainability day’ to educate 60 local primary school children about Sustainability. The event, which was in the style of a ‘market place’, took place on site at Woodcock Street and comprised of 10 different stands including Rainwater Harvesting, Waste Management, Wind Turbines and Brown and Green roofs. Display models of the Sustainable features made the day extremely interactive for the pupils.

Michael Harvey-Jones, Project Manager commented;

“Thomas Vale Construction has continued to work extremely closely with Birmingham City Council to ensure local schools, colleges and universities have been provided with as many opportunities as possible to integrate with the construction phase of this landmark project. I am particularly pleased with the latest of these initiatives to provide this `on-site` experience for Key Stage 2 children from two schools, located within ten minutes of the project.

We believe this is a unique situation within the UK for a live construction project to be able to provide a `hands-on and interactive demonstration` of sustainable technologies to our local youngsters which will integrate with their own curriculum back at school”.

Woodcock Street Offices will see the Council delivering on its promise to reduce CO2 emissions. Along with aiming to achieve an ‘excellent’ BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) rating, the building will include a number of innovative low carbon technologies such as solar hot water heating, passive ventilation, rainwater harvesting and the use of ‘living’ brown roofs to create a habitat for urban wildlife. The new office is also a key element of the authority’s plans to deliver over £200m of gross savings by streamlining its office portfolio through the Working for the Future Business Transformation Programme.

Due for completion in September this year, Woodcock Street is one of Thomas Vale’s largest projects to date, with the second half of the build well underway focusing on the remaining internal works leading right through to floor finishes, decorative works, final fit-out and the all important testing and commissioning of the highly complex building systems.