Sustainable building is now high in agenda. There is currently social, political, and legislative pressure to make sure that any new school buildings are noticed as “sustainable”. This is a a part of your drive to be an Eco-School. Including any shelters and gazebos, in addition to new classrooms.
With so much to think about whilst primarily centered on budget and deadlines, how can you ensure that your school building is truly sustainable, and causes minimum impact on environmental surroundings through manufacture, construction, life time; and, at the end of its life, demolition. Our recommendation is always to choose timber for sustainability, and off-site manufacture for budget and speed of delivery.
Timber is the planet’s only natural, renewable, recyclable construction material: it has been used in construction for many thousands of years. With FSC or PEFC certification you can rely in its sourcing as well.
In order to keep the focus about the budget at the same time as sustainability, we would suggest you look at off-site manufacture: buildings that are factory prepared just before delivery to site, and consequently provide large savings on construction costs through reduced build periods and site disruption: systems for example Cabinco’s MPL shell buildings. The logs are precision factory engineered after which sent to site ready for speedy, accurate, construction of the individually designed sustainable building.
The larger the proportion of timber inside your new school building, the greater possibility of a fully recyclable building envelope. Timber doesn’t have to become limited to only the outer skin which gives the appearance of sustainability, but can extend towards the inner walls, floors, windows, doors, roof structure and even the ultimate roofing material through such options as cedar shingles. A good wood solution.
Checklist for Sustainable Buildings
Sustainable sourcing of materials
Noise, Odour & dust during construction
Waste to landfill during manufacture and construction
Maintenance and required during utilisation of the building
Recyclability after the end of the building’s natural life.
Overall Carbon Footprint
Carbon Footprint
The carbon footprint is definitely an assessment from the impact from the school building about the environment. It looks at all aspects of the processes involved in delivering your built solution in great detail, and includes such things as the power used in manufacture, where that energy originates from, whether it is renewable energy; energy used in transportation of materials, such as the fuels used; construction phase energy and waste; in service energy consumption; and, finally, end of life energy use – or otherwise when it comes to timber, which may be reused as fuel.
