Case Studies

One Brighton Summary full case study

One Brighton is a mixed-use development in the New England Quarter of Brighton, of 172 eco-homes plus office space and areas for community use. The development reflects the One Planet Living® principles of sustainability, which aim to make green living easy, attractive and affordable.

The development shows that buildings can be sustainable and offer exemplary architectural design at the same time. A zero carbon energy strategy underpins the whole development, from choosing sustainable construction materials to using renewable energy sources.

Services such as a car club, rooftop allotments and recycling facilities make it easy for residents to adopt green lifestyle practices. The eco-studios and apartments feature high-specification, energy-efficient lights, appliances and fittings, while sky gardens on every level provide communal space with views over Brighton.

The zero carbon energy strategy means that the scheme was designed to reduce energy demands and to supply all energy from renewable sources. The building fabric has a high thermal efficiency and a 500kW biomass boiler provides heating and hot water.

A portion of the electricity demands are met by rooftop photovoltaic panels. The remainder of the electrical demands are met via the bulk purchase of electricity from off-site renewable sources. This electricity is distributed around the site via a private wire electrical system.

The building also features best practice recycling facilities, including a communal composter, that will help residents meet a goal of diverting 98% of waste from landfill by 2020.

Brighton & Hove City Council's development brief required a 40% reduction in carbon emissions, based on a locally-set benchmark, but One Brighton delivers a 95% reduction. Martin Randall, head of planning at Brighton & Hove City Council, describes the development as "a real success for the city, the first of its kind in the country and indeed globally".

Bristol and Bath Science Park Case Study full case study

A flagship project with a strong focus on sustainability in both the construction and in-use stages of the scheme

Background

The Bristol and Bath Science Park is located to the north east of Bristol on a 59 acre site. It has been a long-held ambition to develop the site as a science park and has been more than 25 years in the making. The South West Regional Development Agency (SWRDA) began acquiring the site in 2002 and Quantum Property Partnership, a joint venture between Quintain Estates & Development PLC and Aviva Investors, was appointed as the Agency’s development partner in December 2006. Together, and with a substantial capital commitment, the partners set out to bring the project to fruition.

The concept for the site is the creation of a space and place for occupiers that reflects their professional and personal ambitions. The site has been designed for high quality buildings located in close proximity but surrounded by large, open and attractive shared green areas. This aims to avoid the isolation and exclusivity between companies that can be experienced on some business parks and to provide a simple means for the occupiers to meet other professionals in a conducive environment. There is also a desire to encourage the local community to make use of the common areas so that the Park is fully utilised throughout the week.

The space includes flexible offices, research space and laboratories. We expect high levels of interest from businesses in the region and across the UK. It will be a hub for the region’s science and technology businesses, bringing together a wide range of companies including entrepreneurs, fledgling businesses and established brands to form an inspiring scientific and technology community where ideas can be shared and taken to commercial scale.

How do you make a car park more sustainable?

Car parks aren’t exactly environmentally friendly but they do perform a vital function and are a necessary fact of life. Quintain operates a large amount of car parking at our Wembley City estate, all of which has to be well lit and some of which has to be available 24 hours a day. This creates a high energy demand for lighting but we have looked at ways to reduce this through good management and with some success.

The team at Wembley identified ways in which we could reduce energy consumption at our multi storey car park whilst maintaining sufficient light levels and providing 24 hour access. An obvious win was in re-lamping the lights with low energy bulbs but in addition to this lamp fittings were changed to require 1 lamp instead of 2. Lighting levels were checked with a light meter to ensure a good LUX level was maintained but the savings to be made here are obvious.

This car park has to provide 24 hour access for guests of the local hotel. This has traditionally meant the whole car park is lit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. However, by reconfiguring the parking entry systems we can now route all late night parking to one floor allowing all the other floors to be switched off, saving energy and improving security.

These are relatively simply low cost changes that, in the first full month following implementation, saved almost 7 tonnes of CO2 and reduced the energy bill by over 20%. That is how you make a car park more sustainable!

Promoting Energy Efficient Behaviour at our Student Accommodation

We currently operate 12 student accommodation buildings across the country with a further building expected to open in 2012. These buildings operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week and are energy hungry with a particularly high demand from small power items. Simple actions such as turning off lights, unplugging electrical equipment and chargers when they are not being used can make a big difference to consumption in these buildings. Our next phase of buildings will be equipped with hotel type key systems that automatically shut off some circuits when a room or flat is vacated. However in our existing buildings, reducing lighting and small power energy consumption relies on our residents getting into the habit of switching things off.

With this in mind February 2011 became ‘Energy Efficiency month’ in our student hall in Preston. Information leaflets were distributed on how to improve energy efficiency and an incentive was offered – the flat with the lowest energy use for the month would win pizza’s for an evening.

The results were impressive. Over the course of the month energy consumption fell by over 12%, more than covering the cost of the initiative.

The exercise demonstrated a number of things:

• The importance of metering – this was only possible because the building has energy metering at flat level
• The importance of incentives
• The value of regular data monitoring
• How critical occupiers are to achieving significant improvements in energy efficiency in buildings

We are now looking at rolling out similar metering arrangements at our other buildings. Combined with data analysis and display software we can run competitions between different Halls across the portfolio. Encouraging energy efficient behaviour in the short term might even translate into energy efficient habits that last a lifetime. And with a new crop of students arriving at our halls each year this programme is going to have to keep running.

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Our latest student accommodation building in London is based on Kingsland Road in east London with the first students taking occupancy in mid September 2011. It has 257 units offered in a variety of en-suite bedrooms and studio flats.

Sustainability has been designed into the building itself through specific sustainability measures including:

• LED lighting
• CHP for heating and hot water
• Individual flats sub-metering
• A central energy management system
• Green roof
• Bat box

The building has been designed to BREEAM Very Good and we expect to achieve this in our post completion assessment of the building. Once operational the building will be monitored using online software to ensure a clear understanding of its performance is developed. This will enable us to quickly identify inefficiencies and to engage actively with the residents to ensure they play their part in tackling climate change. The central London location, close to two underground stations and one mainline station plus ample bus services and ‘Boris’ bikes, significantly supports resident’s use of public transport. The building will also provide ample cycle storage.

The social element of sustainability is also being addressed. The design of the building encourages students from a range of education institutions, backgrounds, cultures and countries to integrate through the provision of ample communal social and study space and facilities. Support for local businesses has been encouraged through discounts for residents and we have looked to local suppliers where possible within the fit out process.

Post Occupancy Waste Strategy at Wembley City

Waste is a material issue for Quintain and one we focus on within the construction process and during the post occupancy phase of our developments. Our urban regeneration programme at Wembley City will inevitably lead to an increase in waste at the site as the number of residents and businesses accommodated there grows. With this in mind we made an early decision to invest in the Envac waste management system. This is central to our post occupancy waste management strategy for the site, providing a waste management infrastructure that enables recycling to be maximised. It accommodates both residential and commercial premises. Agreements to link in with and use the Envac system are contained within our leasing agreements with incoming tenants.

Click on the video below for a short film showing how the system operates at Wembley.

Wembley City Video

The system enables consistent, robust data-monitoring and shows that at our two completed residential buildings we currently achieve average recycling rates in excess of 50%. The system also substantially reduces refuse-collection lorry trips across the site generating further savings in carbon emissions.