Our Proposal: Sustainability and biodiversity

Carbon Reduction

The proposal has been designed as a sustainable neighbourhood. To achieve this a number of carbon reduction strategies have been deployed. These include:

• Gas free development.

• Air Source Heat Pumps (ASHP) fitted throughout. The heat pumps extract heat from the air outside and use it heat your home.

• Solar masterplanning has informed the design to balance solar gain and control overheating

• Photovoltaic (PV) panels installed on all buldings

• EPC’s at A/B with Environmental EPC’s high A’s

• Triple glazed passivehaus certified windows

• Air tightness below 2 ensuring that dwellings don’t require a large amount of heat/energy input

• Mechanical Ventilation Heat Recovery system – Provides fresh filtered air whilst retaining most of the energy which has already been used in heating the building, encouraging healthy living and reducing energy demands

• Part O - Solar shading to be installed to help prevent overheating. Windows will also have an integrated louvre system

• All houses to have EV charging capabilities and communal EV charging points for the apartments and offices

• Circa 300,000 KWH generated annually from PV panels across the entire development

•

Biodiversity

Biodiversity and ecological enhancement is a key element for the proposed development. The landscape design provides species rich wildlife habitats from the waterfront through to the hillside. Working with ecologists, arboricultural consultants and landscape architects, the design team have designed a diverse range of habitats to enhance and protect native wildlife which culminates in a Biodiversity Net Gain of over 30% (at least triple the policy requirement).

A dark ‘bat corridor’ has been created along the river and hillside to ensure the existing foraging routes are protected to support the local bat population.

Acorn has pledged to introduce bee friendly plants, peat free compost and wild bird boxes (Swift, Sparrow and Starling) across the site. In addition bee bricks/ boxes and hedgehog friendly gravel boards willl be installed.

A Sustainable Community

Regeneration of brownfield sites near urban centres is the most sustainable way to provide new homes and businesses. Baltic Wharf is, by location alone, a highly sustainable development as it provides:

• Facilities within walking distance helping to support the local economy

• Easy access to public transport including Bob the Bus reducing reliance on cars

• Carefully designed dwellings and fast broadband infrastructure to promote working from home

• Smart meters fitted to all new dwellings

• Sanitaryware specified to reduce water usage

• Water butts to all houses so water can be reused

• A mixed-use development enabling people to live, work from home, exercise and socialise without the need for a private car

Retaining a viable working boatyard is at the heart of the proposal. The new facilities will support the local economy and ensure an important local asset is secure for the use of future generations.

The existing boatyard however requires significant investment to adhere to current building regulations, environmental standards and address the demands of modern employees. It is not economically viable to refurbish the existing buildings.

Occupying an area of 11,500 sqm the new boatyard will be developed in Phase 1 of the new scheme to ensure its seamless operation during construction. The new boatyard will consist of modern buildings with offices above workshop spaces suitable for a huge variety of marine uses.

4,218 sqm of commercial space offering potential employment opportunities for 300 new jobs

In addition to the boatyard, a further 1,296 sqm of mixed-use commercial space is proposed across the remainder of the site. This will help create a vibrant new destination for Totnes and offer new employment opportunities.