26 Jan 2011 12:01:11
Zero carbon school contract awarded
A £13 million project to create one of the country's first zero carbon schools in London has been awarded to Willmott Dixon.
Located in the borough of Islington, the school will have a negative carbon footprint once it is up and running, thanks to a system which allows it to share its heat with nearby properties.
Once finished, the development, called Crouch Hill Community Park, will house Ashmount Primary School and Bowlers Nursery, as well as a community energy centre and a youth centre.
Heat and power will be generated from a biomass boiler and gas fired Combined Heat and Power unit, with any excess energy being used in the nearby Coleman Mansions development.
George Martin, director of Willmott Dixon's in-house low carbon consultancy Re-Thinking, said the project "will provide our industry with an important learning tool for a community-wide approach to low carbon energy that can be refined and developed on future schemes".
The plans for the building have been given a Breeam rating of outstanding.
In addition, a new shopping centre in London, One New Change, recently unveiled a green heating and cooling system, which it believes will have the potential to cut carbon emissions by ten percent.
