The UK?s leading provider of gardening and wild bird care products unveils plans of its new purpose built warehouse, which represents a significant investment of over ?30m, demonstrating the commitment of Gardman and Rutland Partners to further support its growth and the gardening industry.
A key consideration of the project was to reduce the environmental impact of Gardman?s UK operations. By working with project partners Winvic and Prologis, the new facility has been designed to achieve ?beyond compliance? in all areas and has realised significant improvements over building regulations in terms of energy efficiency by using the following various methods to reduce not only the environmental impact but also to harness low or zero carbon technologies.
When completed, the facility should achieve a BREAAM (Buildings Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) certified ?Very Good/Excellent? rating.
Environmental credentials
- Reduce inter-site transport – The consolidation of stock to a single site will reduce the inter-site transport, whilst the new central location reduces the transport requirement to our international customer base, delivering the benefit of over 20% reduced product miles (approx 382k miles, the equivalent of 1.5 moon trips).
- Energy consumption – 34% CO2 improvement and a 29% energy consumption improvement.
- Roof lights will be fitted to circa 15% of the warehouse roof area and offices designed to maximise the availability of natural light.
- Cladding – High reflectivity (80% rather than normal 70%) liner panels have been installed to reduce the need for lighting.
Brise soleil ? has been fitted to the office elevations to reduce solar gain and improve thermal comfort - LED lighting will be installed throughout the development with movement controls, daylight sensing and dimming to make use of natural light wherever possible.
Rainwater harvesting – A 10,000 litre system providing water for non-potable use and a mains water leak detection system
Publicly assessable nature walk – Site plans include a publicly accessible Natural walk area directly adjacent to the site.
Low or zero carbon technologies
Solar panels – 265kWp grid connected photovoltaic (PV) array, which is expected to generate in the region of 230,000 kWhrs of electricity.
Rooftop solar thermal system – provides a renewable source of hot water.
Rain Forest Protection – by investing in protecting 328 acres (75,000 trees) of endangered Amazon rainforest through environmental charity Cool Earth we have also mitigated 110% of the building?s embodied carbon footprint.
