City development named one of UK’s most sustainable

A Leeds office development has been named as one of the UK’s most sustainable office buildings.

11 & 12 Wellington Place which are both due for completion this winter, have become the first buildings outside London and only the fourth in the UK to achieve a NABERS Design Reviewed Target Rating of Five Stars or above.

Run by the Building Research Establishment (BRE), NABERS UK is an established system for rating the energy efficiency of office buildings across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Fast becoming the gold standard for assessing operational efficiency across the UK, it enables a fair comparison across the industry and involves extensive modelling to mitigate the performance gap between predicted energy consumption and the energy used in practice.

11 & 12 Wellington Place have been award top marks due to the fact they will run entirely on renewable electricity, by generating the equivalent annual electricity of more than 42 homes via 7,500 sq ft roof mounted solar panels.

Developer MEPC’s ambition is for the building’s to set a new standard for sustainable development in both Leeds and the UK through the use of smart building technology and sustainable transport infrastructure as well as a targeted EPC A rating and a Fitwel accreditation – a certification system that positively impacts health through buildings.

Ruby Smith, partnerships account manager at BRE, described the accreditation of the two buildings which will offer a total of 254,879 sq ft of space to the city market as “a huge step towards improving the energy performance of the buildings and acts as a prime example for the market to address the performance gap.”

Paul Pavia, commercial director at MEPC added: “As the latest additions to the neighbourhood, 11 & 12 Wellington Place are setting the benchmark for future-proofed, sustainable development in the UK.

“We’re incredibly proud to have the first NABERS Design for Performance Design Reviewed Target Rating of Five Stars outside London.

“Securing this rating has required a collaborative approach and a real team effort. We are particularly grateful to several of our close partners on 11 & 12 Wellington Place, including Arup, Gardiner & Theobald, TP Bennett, Mainer Associates and Wates Construction, for their expertise and hard work in helping to make it happen.

“We will continue to commit to both the future of Wellington Place and Leeds’s built environment, having recently received positive endorsement from Leeds City Council for the proposed 9 Wellington Place on account of its enhanced sustainability credentials.”