Two schemes designed by NPS Group’s Exeter office - Montgomery Primary School and Bideford College - have received a special mention in an important report issued by The Zero Carbon Task Force, established by The Secretary of State for Children, Schools and Families.
The Zero Carbon Task Force was established to advise on how England can achieve the ambition for new school buildings to be zero carbon by 2016, whether the timescale is realistic and to identify any limits including any specific school types and locations where zero carbon cannot be achieved.
Devon County Council’s Montgomery Primary School in Exeter, which will be the first UK school to be built to the Passivhaus standard – energy efficient construction techniques commonly adopted in Germany, Austria and Switzerland – is singled out as setting: “benchmarks for new schools by redefining what is possible by also being the first zero-carbon school in the country.”
Another NPS scheme, Bideford College, Devon, currently under construction, receives a special mention as the College will: “achieve carbon neutrality in operation.” The report mentions some of the technological and construction energy reduction practices which have been incorporated into the design to achieve this. Importantly, students have been encouraged to take ownership of this project from the very outset with student representatives attending early design meetings and workshops to ensure they had the opportunity to contribute, and the operation of the building will be incorporated into the learning experience.
Bideford College is a Devon County Council project under the BSF One School Pathfinder Project scheme; it has already won the Partnership for Schools Excellence in Building Schools for the Future Award in the category of “Most Sustainable School Design 2008” and will open for teaching in September 2010.
Steve Daw, Managing Director of NPS Group Exeter said “We are delighted to have been given the opportunity to contribute to both these schemes which support the journey to zero carbon.”
You can download a copy of the report from the DCSF website by clicking here (3MB download).
