Go ahead for green office

PLANS by the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board to build an extremely energy efficient office building on Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire have moved a stage nearer with approval of the designs by Warwick District Council.
 
The single storey 37,000 sq foot building is being designed and constructed to the highest standards with the help of £4.7m from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.

The building will meet the BREEAM standard of excellence for eco-friendly construction and provide space for up to 250 staff.

John Bridge, AHDB chairman, said: “This is excellent news. We need open plan offices to help us fully deliver the sharing of best practice and other operational efficiencies expected from the restructuring of the levy boards.

“Our staff are delighted at the prospect of only facing one more winter in our temporary offices, largely built as summer pavilions for the agricultural show season and not designed for year-round occupation.”

“The building design and specification reflects an organisation in tune with its commitment to the environment and the well-being of its employees,” he added.

Stuart Kirkwood, AWM’s development director, said: “It is tremendously important – particularly at a time of economic uncertainty – that Warwickshire and the West Midlands are able to attract and retain key organisations and high quality jobs.

“This scheme is a major opportunity for the area’s highly skilled workforce and we are proud to work with AHDB to make this a reality and to create a centre of excellent for rural innovation at Stoneleigh Park.”

Construction of the new building should start in the next few months with an estimated build time of one year. A public tender process to appoint a building contractor is underway.

The new AHDB office building will use a range of renewable technologies to achieve the BREEAM standard of excellence and to help minimise the running costs of the building.

These include: the use of natural, sustainable and locally sourced materials; a ‘green’ living roof to add thermal mass and harvest rainwater; solar panels and re-use of waste heat.

Overall, the building will have an Energy Performance Rating of A which means it is 64% more efficient than a conventional office, and CO2 emissions will be about 11.9 kg CO2/m2/yr which is 66% better than current Government regulations.

The AHDB’s role is to help improve the efficiency and competitiveness of six agriculture and horticulture sectors in parts of the UK representing about 75% of total UK agricultural output – pig meat in England, beef and lamb in England, commercial horticulture in Britain, milk in Britain, potatoes in Britain, cereals and oilseeds in the UK.

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