Sustainability & Planning

More than three quarters of all local authorities and councils in the UK have declared Climate and Biodiversity Emergencies, and have adopted polices and local plans to reflect this.  A Sustainability Statement is an accompanying report which seeks to cover all aspects of a design’s environmental impacts, and how it will meet local policies, ranging from Energy efficiency improvements through to nutrient neutrality statements.

We can assist in providing the following for projects requiring additional energy or sustainability reports, ecosystems services or nutrient neutrality statements.

Case Study – Enterprise Site in a National Park

ECE were approached by Wiston Estate in 2017 to redevelop the site at North Farm, with the primary aim of realising the estate’s strategic plan to create an exemplar enterprise site within the South Downs National Park (SDNP). The scheme comprises expanded wine production & storage facilities alongside a new restaurant with private dining room which has been created though sensitive restoration of two redundant agricultural barns. The demolition of an existing dilapidated storage buildings has allowed the recreation of the historic courtyard at the heart of the site.

From the outset a sustainable approach had been adopted towards the design, construction, and operation of the new Winery. An energy hierarchy of Lean, Clean and Green was followed to reduce operational energy use and carbon emissions, with passive design prioritised.

The retention and reuse of existing buildings reduced the developments embodied carbon, with air source heat pumps installed for both the historic and new buildings and electric car charging points provided. ECE also specified locally sourced materials where practicable, which included the oak cladding and flint which were sourced from the Estate.