EDUCATION
DESIGNING SUSTAINABILITY INTO SCHOOLS Schools face a number of design challenges shared by few other construction projects. What other building has to accommodate specialist areas dedicated to scientific experiments, dramatic performances and diverse sports activities while also providing food, IT services, vital community services and more to thousands of people on a daily basis? David Rowsell, Area Director for Morgan Sindall Construction – Northern Home Counties, discusses further.
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or today’s new schools, it’s important to add to this list that a holistic approach to sustainability needs to be embedded within each element of its construction. This is crucial, as it’s likely that green building guidance is only going to become stricter as the Government looks to achieve its goal of a net-zero carbon society by 2050. This means that new-build school projects must carefully consider the entire lifecycle of a school, from how it’s designed and built through to how it’s operated and maintained to make sure that the overall carbon footprint is as low as possible.
Milton Keynes Council’s environmental ambitions When it came time to design a new secondary school at Glebe Farm in Wavendon, Milton Keynes Council decided that it wanted to go above and beyond the current green requirements to create a site that would set a new benchmark for sustainable school construction. This project, which is currently on site, is therefore a good case study in how to examine specific aspects of a school’s creation to minimise its environmental impact.
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Procured through the Pagabo framework, a £10bn six-year Major Works Framework, Glebe Farm School is the product of a long-standing collaborative relationship between Milton Keynes Council and Morgan Sindall Construction’s Northern Home Counties business. As the contractor confirmed to deliver the 1659-place facility, our team advised the council on how their green targets could be met through the use of new materials and innovative building processes. The council were quick to agree to these changes during the project’s design phase, in order to drastically lower the emissions that would be generated by both the school’s construction as well as its long-term use.
Creating a cleaner building site With construction of the school having started in February, many of the recommended green building processes are currently in action at the construction site. One of the most significant ways we’ve minimised emissions during the build is by using alternative and
renewable power sources for the equipment and temporary set-up. This was accomplished by using a solar-powered generator to provide clean, off-grid energy for the site’s cabins. For those less sunny days, the generator uses the bio-fuel HVO instead of diesel to make sure that the work can keep going without any disruptions. Even when not on solar power, this is still a much more sustainable energy source for the team on site, as HVO only creates 0.195kg of CO2 instead of the 2.68kg created when burning red diesel. The green benefit of using this system was proven over the first month of the development, as the site’s sunshine and bio-fuel-powered generator delivered a 72% reduction in CO 2 compared to what would have been expected from a diesel driven 40kVA generator running 24 hours a day over the same time period.
Going gas-free One of the most significant design changes came with the decision to remove the school from the gas grid, with all the heating to be provided instead by renewable energy via roof-
mounted air source heat pumps (ASHP). The emission-reducing effectiveness of this move was highlighted by the Committee on Climate Change1, which stated that carbon emissions for a home can be up to 90% lower for a house and 80% lower for a naturally-ventilated office when using ASHPs instead of gas. Unlike most developments, this decision has an interesting knock-on effect for a school, as typically every science lab will require gaspowered Bunsen burners. To solve this issue, the council decided to install electric Bunsen burners instead, so that no part of the building would require a gas connection for any reason. This is a good example of how this project is ahead of the curve, as gas Bunsen burners are still routinely specified for new schools despite the construction industry veering away from this fossil fuel in general. The move to drop gas is especially evident in the recent Future Homes Standard and its directive to take new homes off the gas grid – a direction that’s likely to be keenly felt in public sector construction over the coming years.
