Greener Than Green: Find Out More About The World’s Greenest Building

We’re constantly being urged to think about the environment, and rightly so. Traditional fossil fuels are fast depleting, resulting in energy costs reaching new highs globally and unless we do more things are only going to get worse.

Every one of us needs to make more of a conscious effort to utilise less energy in our homes which you can do in various ways such as the installation of new energy efficient windows and doors. Workplaces also need to contribute.

Now if you were to guess where the world’s most eco-friendly building in the world was, what would you say? It’s probably safe to presume that most people would name somewhere in the Far East.

Wrong! It’s a lot closer to home than that. It’s the recently opened headquarters of the Co-operative Group in Manchester.

Known as One Angel Square, costing £100million to build and consisting of 14 storeys, BREEAM the world’s foremost environmental rating assessors for buildings, gave the structure its highest-ever eco-rating of 95.16%.

How has it achieved ‘Outstanding’ status? The building is powered by rapeseed oil sourced from the company’s own farmland, with any surplus power produced being supplied back to the grid so that it can be used by other buildings on the same complex. It also boasts a heat recovery system that captures wasted heat and recycles it, with its distinct design specifically thought out to enable certain areas of the building to attract heat from the sun.

A double skin façade runs around the perimeter of the building that insulates in winter and cools in summer.

Further features include:

– All LED lighting and IT equipment is low energy.
– Toilet flushing and irrigation is conducted via greywater and rainwater systems.
– All lifts within the building are high efficiency.

The Co-operative’s new HQ is a significant step-up from their former home as in comparison it reduces energy use by 50 percent and carbon emissions by 80 percent.

The building was impressive enough to attract the attention of Her Majesty The Queen who together with the Duke of Edinburgh officially opened the building last November.