06 July 2010
The garden taken at the beginning of the year has now seen many wild grasses and flowers take root and looks forward to welcoming a range of birds and insects to a new home.
If you take a visit to Mayfair, you of course expect to find an array of exclusive boutiques, restaurants and hotels. But what you don’t expect to find amongst the luxury is two bio-diversity gardens, sitting on top of a new, prestigious development that has sustainability incorporated into its very fabric.
50 New Bond St and 14 St George St are mixed-use developments with office and retail space and eighteen residential apartments. A focus on sustainability determined the design, procurement, construction, commissioning and future maintenance of the building which was significantly influenced by environmental, energy usage and carbon emission considerations. The re-development also had to take into account the need to retain and upgrade listed facades and elements of the interior.
Topping it all is a combined total of nearly 320sq m of bio-diverse green roof on the two buildings. The roofs have been planted with a variety of native plants creating a diverse environment to encourage foraging and overwintering for a range of insects and birds. The habitat is suitable for the black redstart, which is one of Britain’s rarest breeding birds, with fewer nesting pairs than the osprey or golden eagle. Boxes for sparrows, swifts, house martins and bats have also been installed on the roofs to provide nesting and roosting habitats.
Both buildings gained a very high BREEAM rating of ‘Excellent’ and scored above the required 70% to achieve this. The buildings are thought to be leaders, even amongst the top BREEAM-rated buildings in London.
Their sustainability credentials include: an air-conditioning system and façade developed to allow mixed-mode ventilation; roof-mounted photovoltaic cells; solar hot water panels providing sources of renewable energy; efficient lighting and ample provision for cyclists.
In addition, the Energy Performance Certificate rating for both buildings is B, another excellent result, given many commercial developments, particularly in the city centre only achieve a D, or at best a C rating.
Darryl Tidd, Investment Director, SWIP said:
“Our aim from the outset was to develop these building as leaders in sustainability and we are delighted with the ratings they have achieved. The green roofs are also a unique feature in this part of town and we are Iooking forward to watching the space develop and attract increasing numbers of wildlife. Outwith the obvious benefit of providing bio-diverse habitats, green roofs also make commercial sense – they have a longer life span, need less maintenance and initial capital outlays can be offset through energy savings.”
Jenny Pidgeon, Upstream Sustainability Services, Jones Lang LaSalle said:
“The completion of these two developments is a milestone for SWIP in its sustainability journey. We have been working closely with SWIP to develop an overarching strategy to cover all of its property investment, management and development activities, to enhance sustainability opportunities and to future-proof its portfolio. These two buildings epitomise the company’s approach to responsible property development - combining pragmatism and innovation to achieve strong results for all stakeholders whilst meeting its goals in environmental protection and enhancement.”
- Ends -
Scottish Widows Investment Partnership
- SWIP’s ultimate parent is Lloyds Banking Group, one of the largest financial services groups in the UK.
- SWIP has a geographically diverse client base with alliances, joint ventures and clients in the UK, across Europe, USA and Japan.
- SWIP is one of the UK and Europe’s largest fund managers with £148bn funds under management (Source: Internal, as at 31 March 2010).
- SWIP has a broad client base, managing assets for Pension Funds, Charities, Local Authorities, Life Funds, Unit Trusts, OEICs, Off-Shore Funds and Specialist Funds across all asset classes.
- SWIP is authorised and regulated by the Financial Services Authority and is entered on their register under number 193707 (www.fsa.gov.uk).
- Investment markets and conditions can change rapidly and as such the views expressed should not be taken as statements of fact nor should reliance be placed on these views when making investment decisions. Past performance is not a guide to the future.
