Environment

As part of the University’s environmental sustainability strategy, we aspire to develop the University’s own campuses in a sustainable manner and to improve the efficiency of campus operations.

The Catalyst building has been designed with environmental sustainability in mind from construction to future end usage upon completion. Here you can learn more about the various features being implemented throughout the building related to environmental sustainability.

Building design and performance overview

The Catalyst Building has been designed to be highly sustainable through construction and when completed in the following key areas of carbon emissions and energy use:

Designed to achieve an Energy Performance Certificate rating of ‘A’ – well in excess of current Building Regulations requirements.
Constructed to high fabric standards (airtightness, insulation etc.) that are significantly better than the previous Brindley building.
Design and construction are being undertaken within the framework of a ‘soft landings’ process which helps to ensure that the actual energy use of the building is as close as possible to the low-energy design predictions.
Designed to minimise material waste in construction, exploiting techniques of prefabrication and pre-construction.

Specific building design features

The Catalyst project has been designed to be low energy and low water use and have a low environmental impact. The following aspects of the design have been incorporated to facilitate this.

Passive approach

The building fabric (walls, floor, roof and glazing) has been specified to be highly thermally efficient and airtight. This reduces energy associated with heating and cooling the building.

In addition, the specified glazing lets in plenty of natural light (to reduce energy use associated with artificial lighting) but reduces the transmission of heat from the sun by 40% compared to Building Regulations.

Thermal mass

The building will make use of exposed concrete which acts as “thermal mass”. This means heat that builds up during the day will be absorbed by the concrete and will be released at night, when temperatures are cooler. This reduces the energy associated with cooling the building.

In addition, utilising exposed concrete reduces the requirement for surface finishes to walls and ceilings, such as plasterboard, which helps reduce the embodied carbon of the building.

Flexibility

The building has been designed for future flexibility, to allow changes to layouts to be accommodated via partitioning relatively easily. This will reduce the recurring embodied carbon associated with refurbishing the building in future.

Setpoints

The heating and cooling set points within the building will be moderate to avoid the building being overcooled in summer or overheated in winter.

Metering, monitoring and control

Systems within the building will be metered, monitored and controlled through a Building Management System (BMS) which will optimise each system based on the operation of the building (e.g. to bring the heating on and turn it off at appropriate times). The BMS will also highlight if certain systems are using more energy than expected.

Soft landings

The design, construction and operation of the building is following a Soft Landings framework. The aim of this is to counteract the “performance gap” between the energy use estimated in design of the building and the actual energy use of the building in operation. Building User Guides, seasonal commissioning and post occupancy evaluation will be used to ensure the building users know how the building should be used, the systems are working efficiently and that the occupants find the environmental conditions satisfactory.

Eliminating waste

Following the demolition of the Brindley building, we’ve crushed much of the material of the old building and re-used this to form the piling mat for the foundations of The Catalyst, saving transport and reducing project waste.

So far on the project VINCI have been able to re-use around 3000m² of crushed material from the demolition of the Brindley Building to form the pile mat. The timber is being reused for falseworks and formwork prior to it going in the skip and being recycled.

The team is also working with the main contractor to eliminate waste through a Construction Environment Management Plan, with the standard to reuse or recycle wherever possible. Social enterprise waste management partner Recycling Lives is being used on site to manage, recycle and dispose of our site waste.

Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems

The spaces around the new building incorporate sustainable urban drainage systems to reduce flood risk and provide enhanced biodiversity through careful selection soft landscaping and planting.

Bat Conservation Initiatives

During surveys undertaken on the former Brindley Building in November 2018, ecologist discovered that whiskered bats were roosting within the building. Due to the bats being in their hibernation period, further exploratory works were placed on hold until the summer of 2019.

With the knowledge that bats tend to return to their roosting spots, the University has since taken steps to ensure that whilst the Brindley building is no more that, The Catalyst remains a place that the bats can call home - all overseen by qualified ecologists to comply with strict licensing requirements.

In the interim period whilst The Catalyst is being constructed, the University has created bat rooting provisions on the Ashley 2 building specifically for maternity roosts featuring heated bat boxes. What’s more, in collaboration with the architects of The Catalyst, roofing features have since been developed for the bats so that roosting features can be incorporated into the design.

The new features on The Catalyst building aim to replicate the old spaces the bats used and across the building over 20 roosting features have been incorporated into the building design. This means that our caped crusaders including Whiskered Bats and Pipistrelle bats (plus their infants) can safely roost on all sides of the building within walls and on the roof without being disturbed.

Social Schemes and Biodiversity

The planting scheme and biodiversity around The Catalyst has been a key consideration.

Against a backdrop of the 2020 Environment Bill and the forthcoming requirement for every new development to increase biodiversity by at least 10%. The Catalyst project will hit this target as a minimum, by developing student ideas and working with FCBS and One Environment (principle designers and landscape design planners) to retain hedges, introduce native trees and the introduction of a swale.

In addition, further suggestions are being assessed within the team that may lead to student projects, these include; wildflower planting between the hedgerow and Leek Road, supplement the already proposed planting at the top of the slope to create a ‘linear woodland garden’ and/or the creation of a wildflower meadow and pond on the Hammer head site.