Eco Facts
As with all modern buildings, environmental issues are at the forefront of everyone’s mind. As a result Northumbria University have made huge efforts in attempting to reduce energy usage and ultimately decrease carbon emissions. An emphasis has been placed on making this building highly efficient yet environmentally friendly and has been designed to deliver a BREEAM Excellent Rating. Here are just a few interesting Environmental facts about the new development:
- The new building has been developed on a ‘brown field’ site i.e. an area that has been already developed and used previously. 95% of the materials from the Warner Brothers cinema, which previously occupied the site, has been recycled.
- The lightwell in the centre of the building that runs from the top of the building to ground floor level allows natural light to penetrate into the middle of this deep plan building. This provides a better environment for building users and reduces the need for artificial light, ultimately saving on energy.
- Solar shading or brise soleil to the buildings in the form of stainless steel mesh panel and aluminium tube arrays reduces solar heat build up which reduces the requirement for air conditioning.
- Rainwater from the roofs and surface areas will be collected in the underground tanks, filtered and reused to flush toilets. Saving on both water as well as the energy normally required to pump mains water to the campus.
- Heated by sun tanks on top of the building and with thanks to a solar tube hot water system the new building will create a proportion of its domestic hot water, for use in toilets for handwashing for example. This will reduce the need for energy and could save up to 30 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions going into the atmosphere.
- The building has been equipped throughout with intelligent lighting. This allows almost all areas to be illuminated only when needed. Lights will dim down or turn off automatically when not required.
- Waste materials during construction for example plasterboard off-cuts have been returned to the manufacturers for reprocessing and use.
- The ground floors of the buildings were raised to allow the majority of the waste from the development to be buried under the buildings which reduced the need to take 2,500 cubic metres off site for disposal.
- A wide range of trees and shrubs have been specially selected for use around the new development, contributing to the attractiveness of the landscape.
- Last but not least the University is implementing a ‘Green Travel Plan’ encouraging students, staff and visitors to travel to and from the campus by more sustainable means. As part of the initiative 160 places have been provided for cyclists to park their bikes, 60% of these are covered spaces and all are covered by CCTV. Plus showers will be on site for your use.
