Environmental Report 2006

1. Introduction

This report highlights actions taken and measures in place to ensure that the Trust continues to apply good environmental practice.

Waste Management

2. General waste

General waste continues to be collected by Grundon Waste Disposal and Recycling and transported to their modern Material Recovery Facility near Heathrow Airport.

During 2006, 3380 660-litre bins of general and kitchen waste were collected. This compares favourably with the 2005 figure of 3900 showing a reduction of just over 15 per cent.

Use of this facility by the Trust ensures that the waste we produce e.g. glass, cans, cardboard, paper, plastic and polystyrene etc requires no pre-sorting, all the work being undertaken by Grundon.

Grundon also provide an ad-hoc specialised collection service as requested, this allows for the collection of items such as florescent lighting tubes, fibrous plaster ceiling tiles, fridge/freezers and all types of clinical waste.

3. Confidential waste

Confidential waste continues to be collected and processed by On Time Secure Destruction Ltd; this service ensures that any confidential matter is shredded and the resulting waste recycled.

During 2006, 2830 sacks of confidential waste were collected. While this is a 13 per cent increase on the 2005 figure, it is felt that staff have become more security conscious by using the confidential waste facility rather than consigning paper to the general waste bins.

4. Catering waste

Our current catering contractors Leith's are part of the Compass Group, which has a clear social, ethical and environmental policy.

Waste produced by the catering department is disposed of in various ways. Approved licensed contractors recycle used and filtered cooking oil.

Leith's are categorised as minimal producers of by-products as they have a strict policy of minimal wastage.Any food waste that is produced is disposed of via waste disposal units thereby ensuring that no foodstuffs enter landfill sites.

5. Cutlery

A new range of cutlery called Vegware is now on trial. It is made from natural annually renewable resources and is fully biodegradable.

6. Stationery

The Trust is committed to ensuring that where practicable all stationery items purchased are as environmentally friendly as possible.

The Trust continues to be a member of the London University Purchasing Consortium (LUPC), which has selected a stationery company called Office Depot (formerly Guilbert UK), which is dedicated to managing their environmental performance.

Find out more about Office Depot's policy and commitment [Word 100KB]

In addition used toner cartridges from printers and photocopiers are collected by the British Brain and Spine Foundation, which is able to refill them and sell them on at a profit.

7. Vehicles

The Trust currently has two vehicles, one of which is a multi-purpose dual-fuelled vehicle (petrol and liquid petroleum gas).

Staff are encouraged to use public transport when engaged on Trust business within the London postal areas.

8. Mobile telephones

Damaged or redundant mobile telephones are recycled through an organisation called Environmental Mobile Control, where the phones are evaluated. All phones are then either reused or recycled in line with WEEE (waste electrical and electronic equipment) legislation and BPEO (best practice environmental option) systems.

9. Buildings

The Trust's maintenance department continues to monitor and reduce the use of energy within Trust premises. The reductions are achieved by better control of the heating and ventilation systems via the building management system (BMS).

Staff are also encouraged to contribute to saving electricity by turning off computers and printers when not in use especially at end of day and weekends.

Improvements have also been made to the toilet flushing systems in all buildings by reducing the amount of water used on each flush from 11 litres to 7 litres.

In addition to these ongoing activities the Trust has entered into some major construction projects, which offered opportunities to apply our Environmental Guidelines very positively.

10. Carbon footprint

The Trust, in conjunction with the CarbonNeutral Company, is currently trying to estimate its annual carbon footprint and consequently give thought to how to manage reductions or offset our emissions. This includes estimating waste recycling and energy use in Euston Road buildings and in support of staff and business travel.

11. Gibbs Building

The building was designed to consume significantly less energy than a standard building of the same size.

The following measures were designed into the building:

• Ventilated facades – in office buildings cooling can consume more energy than heating.The cooling load is made up of heat produced by the occupants, equipment such as computers, lighting, and solar gain from the sun.The solar gain alone can contribute 50 per cent of peak cooling demand.In the Gibbs Building the ventilated facade traps and ventilates the incident solar energy before it enters the occupied space and therefore removes the majority of this load from the building.
• High-performance glass to roofs and elevations – the use of solar control glass, ceramic glass 'fritting' and solar control blinds limits the solar gain of the atrium roof.
• High-efficiency light sources – the use of T5 fluorescent luminaires, with high frequency control gear and digital lighting control minimise energy consumption of the lighting system (and associated cooling – see above).Occupancy sensors control the lighting such that only occupied areas and corridor routes will be illuminated.
• Daylighting – the combination of highly glazed facades and lighting control means daylight penetration to the occupied spaces is very good, reducing the requirement for the use of artificial lighting.
• Environmental control: chilled ceilings and displacement ventilation – the provision of this system provides good comfort conditions and consumes less energy than a traditional fan coil or variable air volume air conditioning system.The system is largely passive with few moving parts, therefore will require less maintenance and component replacement than for a traditional system.
• Free cooling for chilled ceilings – the chilled ceiling system can be coupled directly to the heat rejection system when external temperatures are favourably low, bypassing the chillers, and thereby reducing the electrical consumption of the system.
• Demand-led BMS control – the building management system controls the plant to ensure that ventilation, heating and cooling are only provided when required and are not run constantly in an inefficient manner.
• Refrigerants – all refrigerants specified and installed are 'zero ODP', i.e. they do not contribute to ozone depletion as previous generations of refrigerants did.
• Low NOx burners on boilers – the installed boilers are fitted with high efficiency burners, which limit the production of pollutants.
• Energy monitoring – all incoming utility supplies, gas, water and electricity are monitored in real time
• Energy efficient humidification – humidification is provided by atomising water using compressed air (also used in 183 Euston Road), as opposed to the standard method of producing steam by boiling water.
• FSC certified timber - FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) timber was used throughout the building where new or replacement wood has been installed.
• Water consumption – all toilets are fitted with lo-flush cisterns, which consume 6 litres per flush rather than 9 litres used by standard cisterns.
• Transport planning – the building will provide 91 bicycle parking spaces when the 183 refurbishment is concluded.

Since occupation of the building in 2004 detailed analysis of energy consumption has been conducted and the following details reflect the last 12 months' figures.

These figures are compared to the Econ 19 standards for offices [PDF 284KB].

As can be seen we are running better than best practice, which is not bad given that the benchmark office would not be fully glazed.

The current annual figures have been adjusted to take out some very specific elements such as three kitchens and book storage environmental conditioning etc.

Against the Econ 19 standards for offices [PDF 384KB], gas consumption in 2005 showed a modest improvement on best practice but in 2006 fell by 32 per cent to exceed the designers' forecast performance by some margin.

In large part, this was attributable to the warm weather in the summer of 2006 when temperatures often exceeded 33ºC. In turn, the unusually high cooling load for the building saw electricity consumption in that year rise above the best practice guideline.

Overall, however, the total energy consumption for the building for 2005 and 2006 has been 10 per cent and 5 per cent below benchmark respectively.

12. South Field Project- Wellcome Trust Genome Campus

Since the completion of the extension to the Genome Campus, known as the South Field Project, it has picked up the Royal Town Planning Institute's 2005 award in the 'planning for business' category.

NAI Fuller Peiser, the Trust's town planning consultant, was awarded the prize for the way in which they developed the site with the local council and residents, achieving high-quality architecture and design that incorporates the latest sustainable building techniques.

A key aim of the project was to ensure 'integration', so that the design and activities of the South Field development, as the extension is known, related to and fitted in with the existing campus buildings, the sensitive surrounding landscape and the local community. This was achieved through the use of appropriate materials, and in the consultation and partnership approaches the Trust and NAI Fuller Peiser took with the district council and the local community.

Good environment performance on the project was achieved through the master plan, building design and the construction process.

Sedum

5100 m² of sedum was planted on the ancillary and RSF roofs in March 2004. The high absorbency of substrate and the plants themselves dramatically reduces the rainwater run-off after a storm and therefore the flood impact is also substantially reduced. Sedum is a survivor in plant terms and is resistant to extremes of weather surviving from sea level to 3658 m.

By their nature green roofs are low maintenance. Once established they do not require irrigation and will continue to develop to create a self-sustaining plant community on the roof that will also provide habitat for invertebrate and bird species. Our roofs are maintained three times per year and during each visit are checked for pests and weeds.

Sedum is drought tolerant, and provides good insulation. The essential benefits of extensive green roofs are the following:

• Visually attractive with a range of flower and foliage effects.
• Low maintenance with little or no artificial irrigation requirement.
• Improved rainwater management. Volume and rate of rainwater run-off from the roof is reduced dramatically.
• Improved building thermal performance. The building is insulated from heat loss in the winter and heat gain in the summer.
• Reduction in sound transmission through the roof.
• Improvement of air quality by removal of carbon dioxide, release of oxygen and water vapour, deposition of particulate pollutants, and absorption of organic volatiles.
• Reduction of the 'urban heat island effect'.
• Provision of habitat for wildlife.

Trees
Nearly 12 000 trees were planted and only four trees for the roadway were removed. These trees have been crafted by Richard Bray into a sculpture taking pride of place in Murrays restaurant.

Swales
Other surface water, from car parks and roads discharges into swales where the water is gradually filtered into the ground rather than discharging into the River Cam.

Waste management

Over 3900 tonnes of waste removed from site, with only 7 per cent of the general waste going to landfill sites. All other waste has been recycled.

The site was assessed using BREEAM (the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method); the site has achieved an 'Excellent' rating – the highest available.

Grey water

We capture rain water on the new buildings (called grey water).This is used for flushing toilets and urinals with an auto changeover to mains in the event of lack of rain.

The project received a Natural Heritage award for the wetlands development, and the gold medal from the Considerate Constructors Scheme for the best site in the UK with special reference to community relations, conservation, and health and safety.

FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) timber is used throughout the building where new or replacement wood has been installed.

Since the last report was published the Campus has won another 'green travel award'.

The campus has received two awards from Travel for Work, in 2005 and again in 2006 [PDF 760KB].

Dawn Wise, Green Travel Plan Coordinator, has been highly commended in the ACT Travel Planner Awards held in July 2006 for her work at the Genome Campus.

13. EBI (Hinxton) extension project

The building is currently under construction and is due for completion in mid-2007.

Building design

• Lighting
  The offices utilise energy efficient lighting with optimal control measures, such as daylight and occupancy sensors. The design will also maximise natural daylight in to the office spaces. This will reduce energy consumption from lighting, which is one of the highest energy uses in offices.
• Plant equipment
  The heating equipment has been selected to have low NOx emissions, in order to reduce the effect of the building to the local and global environment. For the cooling plant, refrigerants with low environmental impact are used.
• Air tightness
  All buildings will be pressure tested for air tightness. Airtight buildings are essential for ensuring energy efficiency.
• BMS and metering
  The building's plant is controlled and monitored by a BMS system. This will be set to control the plant efficiently while also providing warnings and alarms should equipment fail to perform correctly.The BMS also monitors energy usage, which allows targets to be set and monitored.
• Water efficiency
  The building utilises water-efficient sanitary ware to ensure that water consumption is minimised.
• Materials
  Attention will be given to specifying materials that have low environmental impact, in terms of their embodied energy and to sourcing materials from sustainable sources.

Construction
The contractor implemented a project-specific Environmental Management Plan, which covers all aspects of an environmentally friendly construction project, such as noise, dust and tipping.

BREEAM
A preliminary assessment of the offices has been carried out using BREEAM (the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), and an 'Excellent' rating was deemed possible. The development aims to achieve this score.

14. Wellcome Building (183)

41.1 Introduction
The Wellcome Trust's building located at 183 Euston Road, London, has undergoing substantial refurbishment over a two-year period to convert the building from largely administrative uses to public spaces, enabling the Trust to engage with a wider audience.

The purpose of this statement is to summarise how environmentally sensitive design has been incorporated into the engineering services installed within the finished building.

For clarity, this statement is broken down into engineering system headings, and for each system a brief description is provided explaining where low energy and environmentally sensitive concepts have been integrated into the design.

An overriding environmentally sustainable principle that has been adopted broadly across the whole project is that wherever possible materials, equipment and plant etc have been reused and this is in line with the Government's sustainability policy.

14.2 Ventilation and air conditioning
The system generally comprises a centralised air handling plant with local in-room fan coil units providing supplementary cooling and heating, although for the more specialist areas such as exhibition and iconographic spaces the room conditioning is achieved via all air systems to avoid running wet services through these spaces.

Variable speed fans have been utilised on the centralised plant to ensure optimum operating performance and efficiency. On the plant serving the majority of the building, a run-around heat recovery system has been employed to make use of energy that would have otherwise be discharged to atmosphere.

The building's usage, where many areas are used for display of books and artifacts, dictates that humidity control is required in many areas and this is mostly achieved using adiabatic humidifiers that use significantly less electrical energy than the alternative steam equipment.

The vast majority of the in-room fan coils that are installed within the building are existing units that have been retained and reused; however, all these units have been fully overhauled to maximise their operating efficiency.

Most of the all-air systems that have been installed to serve the specialist areas mentioned above are of the variable air volume (VAV) type, which modulate the air supply volumes to suit demand, thereby avoiding unnecessary energy use.

14.3 Building management system
A new state-of-the-art, fully user adjustable and demand-led building management system has been installed throughout the building, which allows close monitoring and adjustment of the environmental conditions such that ventilation, heating and cooling are only provided to spaces when and where required.

14.4 Chilled water
Although the majority of the existing pipe work distribution system has been retained the opportunity was taken to replace the existing centralised water cooled chillers with new more efficient air cooled chillers that utilise screw-type compressors that modulate to closely match the cooling load of the building.As chemical refrigerants are known to contribute to both depletion of the ozone layer and global warming, the chiller plant was selected to operate using refrigerant R134A, which has a zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) and a relatively low global warming potential, thus minimising the impact on the environment.

The chilled water system comprises both low-temperature and high-temperature circuits, reducing the volume of water to be cooled and hence minimising the work and energy consumption of the refrigeration plant.

14.5 Cooling equipment
Similar in principle to the main central refrigeration plant, the new local equipment installed in the building uses refrigerant R410A, which has a zero ozone depletion potential (ODP) and thus minimises the impact on the environment.

Where existing cooling equipment has been retained and reused, the replacement of the existing refrigerant is to be undertaken as part of the Wellcome Trust's operating and maintenance regime and in line with the government's directive on the use of chemical refrigerants.

14.6 Lighting
The building form includes two light wells, which provide natural daylight to the inner areas of the building down to 2nd-floor level, minimising the requirement for artificial lighting during daylight hours.

Where artificial lighting is required, high-efficiency luminaries have been utilised in many areas, which incorporate T5 florescent lamps and high frequency control gear.

11.7Fire suppression
Environmentally friendly Argon gas is used in the newly installed fire suppression systems protecting the Iconographic Collections.

11.8 FSC certified timber
FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) timber is used throughout the building where new or replacement wood has been installed.