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New Guidance Document On Designing And Constructing Sustainable, Low Carbon Warehouses

10 Sep 10 In the second of a series of independent guides providing detailed cost analyses and route maps for achieving low or zero carbon buildings, the Target Zero report on warehouses has now been published.

Commissioned by Corus and the British Constructional Steelwork Association (BCSA), the report offers good news to those responsible for warehouse design. Contrary to the perception that reducing carbon must increase costs, the report demonstrates how a 37% reduction in regulated carbon emissions (Part L 2006) can be achieved without incurring any additional capital cost.  

‘Target Zero: Guidance on the design and construction of sustainable, low carbon warehouse buildings’ is the first report of its kind to undertake a detailed comparison of different energy efficiency measures, low or zero carbon (LZC) technologies and allowable solutions in order to identify the most cost-effective means of achieving different levels of carbon reduction.  

The Target Zero methodology is to take a recently constructed building that is typical of current UK practice and use it to define a basecase building that just meets the 2006 Part L requirements for operational carbon emissions.  In this study the basecase building is less efficient than the actual warehouse on which it is based.  The basecase building is then used as a benchmark to assess the impacts and costs of introducing a range of sustainability measures to meet the likely future low and zero operational energy targets, the higher BREEAM ratings and improvements in embodied carbon.

The key findings include:

A package of compatible, cost-effective energy efficiency measures are possible that would yield a 54% reduction in regulated emissions relative to the Part L 2006 compliant basecase warehouse. The package could also yield a 25-year net present value of -£2,470,354.

The estimated capital cost uplift of the steel portal frame basecase distribution warehouse for achieving the following three BREEAM assessments is

0.04% to achieve BREEAM ‘Very Good’

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0.4% to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’

4.8% to achieve BREEAM ‘Outstanding’

A pre-cast concrete and glulam structure warehouse would have a 14% higher embodied carbon impact than the steel portal frame basecase.

For the latest warehouses report, the basecase was modelled on the DC3 distribution warehouse on ProLogis Park, Stoke-on-Trent, which is currently leased to a large UK retailer.  Changes were made to the fabric and services of the actual building to provide a basecase warehouse that is just compliant with the current (2006) Part L legislation requirements.  This basecase warehouse then formed the basis of modelling and associated costing to develop the most cost effective means of achieving low and zero carbon buildings and buildings with ‘Very Good’, ‘Excellent’ and ‘Outstanding BREEAM ratings.

Derek Tordoff, Director General of the BCSA said: “With a Government aspiration for all new non-domestic buildings to be zero carbon by 2019, the aim of the latest Target Zero report on warehouses is to support those developing solutions to meet this very challenging target.

“The report provides reliable data aimed at informing design decisions, with the aim of not only achieving different levels of carbon reduction but meeting them within the context of commercial reality, where the effect on initial capital cost and NPV is taken into account.”

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