Westergate business centre

This state of the art scheme has been designed with a high regard to the environment to include solar panel heated water, geo-thermal heated central heating to office block and a wind turbine generating electricity, promoting the use of renewable energy and sustainability.

Westergate Business Centre is a sustainable development and has a BREEAM ‘Excellent rating. The design team carried out a full appraisal of the scheme pre and post build with regards to its materials, construction CO2 emissions and energy use.
The following key aspects were implemented to achieve the BREEAM status:

Insulation levels exceed current building regulations by more than 20%
Use of ‘north lights’ and ‘sun tubers’ to provide good levels of day lighting in order to reduce the need for artificial lighting.
Building components to be dismantled for reuse
Local sourcing of materials –e.g. sweet chestnut timber cladding and clay bricks from East Sussex
Material to have a recycled content if possible and/or be recyclable
Demolition materials from the original building are reused as sub-bases for new roads and pavements
Surface water is returned to the natural aquifer via interceptors and soak-aways
Use of low flush toilets and spray taps on basins and sinks to save water
Green walls used to provide more varied habitat for wildlife with swift nesting boxes
Solar thermal heating panels mounted on the roof for hot water
6kw wind turbine generating electricity for the ‘landlords’ lighting and power and external lighting.
Use of low energy lamps and light fittings
Monitoring of CO2 emmisions from construction phase to be offset by tree planting thereby in effect being ‘carbon neutral’
Driving to the centre is not encouraged as the centre wishes to promote its sustainability aspects – local public transport is easily accessible to/from Westergate and new real-time bus information displays were installed at the nearest bus stop as part of the scheme.
Comprehensive CCTV security system throughout the site