The Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board’s plan to build an extremely energy efficient office building on Stoneleigh Park in Warwickshire has been approved by Warwick District Council.
The single storey 37,000 sq foot building is being designed and constructed to the highest standards with the help of £4.7million from regional development agency Advantage West Midlands.
The building will meet the BREEAM standard of excellence for eco-friendly construction and provide space for up to 250 staff.
AHDB Chairman John Bridge said: “This is excellent news. We need open plan offices to help us fully deliver the sharing of best practice and other operational efficiencies expected from the restructuring of the levy boards.
“Our staff are delighted at the prospect of only facing one more winter in our temporary offices, largely built as summer pavilions for the agricultural show season and not designed for year-round occupation.
“A real strength of the levy boards has always been in the expertise and quality of the staff. In my experience good working conditions helps to retain and motivate staff.
“The building design and specification reflects an organisation in tune with its commitment to the environment and the well-being of its employees.”
Stuart Kirkwood, Director of Development at Advantage West Midlands, said: “It is tremendously important – particularly at a time of economic uncertainty – that Warwickshire and the West Midlands are able to attract and retain key organisations and high quality jobs.
“This scheme is a major opportunity for the area’s highly skilled workforce and we are proud to work with AHDB to make this a reality and to create a centre of excellent for rural innovation at Stoneleigh Park.”
Construction of the new building should start in the next few months with an estimated build time of one year. A public tender process to appoint a building contractor is underway.
The new AHDB office building will use a range of renewable technologies to achieve the BREEAM standard of excellence and to help minimise the running costs of the building. These include:
• Natural, sustainable and locally sourced materials will be used wherever possible. The proposed design maximises solar gains in the winter, provides good levels of daylight and minimises heat gains in the summer;
• A ‘green’ living roof will add thermal mass - increasing insulation and reducing in heat loss. A green roof also helps with rainwater retention and a reduction in storm water run-off rates; it will also prolong the life of the roof by protecting the underlying waterproofing;
• Some smaller areas of the roof will be left without the green covering and water will be drained into a rainwater harvesting tank for use in landscape irrigation and for flushing toilets;
• Solar panels will help provide the building’s hot water supply and this will offset some electricity costs. Also waste heat from the building will be captured and re-used. We are also investigating the use of a woodchip powered boiler for heating;
• Overall, the building will have an Energy Performance Rating of A which means it is 64 per cent more efficient than a conventional office, and CO2 emissions will be about 11.9 kg CO2/m2/yr which is 66 per cent better than Government regulations currently require (35 kg CO2/m2/yr).
AHDB became operational on April 1, 2008 when five former levy boards were dissolved. It is a Non-Departmental Public Body with a £50m annual programme of work funded by statutory levies paid by farmers, growers and processors.
Its role is to help improve the efficiency and competitiveness of six agriculture and horticulture sectors in parts of the UK representing about 75 per cent of total UK agricultural output - pig meat in England, beef and lamb in England, commercial horticulture in Britain, milk in Britain, potatoes in Britain, cereals and oilseeds in the UK.
Further information on AHDB is available at www.ahdb.org.uk or guy.attenborough@ahdb.org.uk