Newsletter Summer 2010 - the Benenden School Trust

“
Sustainable development is development that meets the
needs of the present without compromising the ability of
future generations to meet their own needs.The main
measurable contribution is to environmental sustainability
by: protecting the physical environment; conserving natural
resources; enhancing ecology; and increasing biodiversity.
The Design Team have designed the building to
have an annual energy consumption of well below the
requirements of the current (2006) edition of the Approved
Documents L2A (Part L) of The Building Regulations 2000.
This has been achieved primarily through careful
consideration of the building’s form and envelope,
supplemented by the design of efficient mechanical
systems and the employment of various renewable energy
options. A strategy has been developed to generate a
proportion of the building’s electrical and heating energy
needs from renewable sources.
Annabel Hollick,
Associate Partner, Hopkins Architects
“
The new Science Centre will be
packed with substainable features.
Donations are invited to fund specific aspects of the new centre’s
sustainable development, for example:
• Photovoltaic cells £100,000
These are photovoltaic cells laminated within the
glazing in the roof. These cells generate electricity
when exposed to sunlight and, to a lesser degree,
daylight.
• Visual display boards for energy monitoring £3,500
Three in total - one per department ie: each of
Physics, Chemistry and Biology will have a panel. It is
expected that the departments may even aim to
compete to use least energy using these panels to
monitor their respective consumption
• Living wall £20,000
This is a wall with growing planting covering it
• Breeam Excellent rating £150,000
This is an overall rate and includes costs for some
of the items listed here.
BREEAM (Building Reasearch Establishment’s
Environmental Assessment Method) is the world’s
leading and most widely used environmental
assessment method for buildings, with over 115,000
buildings certified and nearly 700,000 registered.
It sets the standard for best practice in sustainable
design and has become the de facto measure used
to describe a building’s environmental performance.
Credits are awarded in ten categories according to
performance. These credits are then added
together to produce a single overall score on
a scale of Pass, Good, Very Good, Excellent and
Outstanding. We are aiming for Breeam Excellent
for the new Science Centre which for an
Education building is a challenging target.
• Solar water heating £10,000
Solar water heating consists of evacuated glass
tubes located in a southerly aspect on the roof.
Water pumped through these tubes is heated as
solar energy is absorbed.
• Biomass boiler £130,000
• Rainwater harvesting £30,000
• Variable volume low flow fume cupboards £50,000
• Automatic lighting control £5,000
• Free cooling to Lecture Theatre £3,000
• Water feature with evaporative cooling £40,000