Shining Earth’s™ expertise helps achieve first ever BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ rating
Gazeley’s G.Park Blue Planet distribution centre in Chatterley Valley, North Staffordshire is the first ever building to achieve a BREEAM Outstanding rating, thanks to its exemplary scoring in its BREEAM assessment and achieving an exceptional standard of sustainability as a carbon positive development.
Acting on behalf of both developer Gazeley and site vendor Advantage West Midlands, Shining Earth’s™ advice will help the 35,500m2 G.Park Blue Planet save up to £300,000 per year in reduced running costs, as Kevin Schofield, Director, Shining Earth™ explains.
“Shining Earth™ acted as sustainability consultants, focusing on sustainability monitoring and reporting to Advantage West Midlands and our client Gazeley. Specifically, we concentrated on assisting the design team on a number of sustainability initiatives including energy efficient technologies, such as T5 lighting, utilisation of natural light, building orientation, under floor heating, solar walls and rainwater harvesting, all of which are incorporated into the design.
“The design team did an outstanding job in developing thermally efficient air tight buildings that are capable of achieving a 25 per cent improvement over the requirements of the current Building Regulations and will contribute substantially to reducing running costs,” continues Kevin. “There is a lot of novel technology incorporated into the design of the buildings, including solar cell technology integrated with the roof lighting, which will minimise daytime light load as well as eliminating night time light pollution.”
In addition, a proposed micro power CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plant will provide enough extra energy to supply heat and power to 650 local homes, and kinetic plates located beneath the roadways will capture and store the kinetic energy of vehicles as they travel over them, allowing the energy to be reused elsewhere on the site.
“G.Park Blue Planet achieved exemplary BREEAM credits in the key areas of daylighting, reduced CO2 emissions, construction waste management and use of low carbon technologies. As part of Gazeley’s Virtual Team, Shining Earth™ is delighted to have been involved in G.Park Blue Planet, a leading-edge development that delivers significant environmental and financial savings and one which we hope will act as an exemplar project for the construction industry,” adds Kevin.
Shining Earth™ is the sustainability division of environmental consultants Delta-Simons; its stated aim is to help its clients improve business and the environment in harmony. Shining Earth’s™ core service areas are carbon, corporate social responsibility, energy and green buildings.