LONDON, CANARY WHARF: Canary Wharf in London’s Docklands is well known as a case study for the redevelopment of an old industrial site, but it’s also a leader in sustainable buildings.
The office blocks on Bank Street boast many sustainability features, and with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) – which finances many green operations mostly in Eastern Europe – moving its London headquarters to Canary Wharf number five, it seems a good opportunity to cover these.
Five Bank Street is “one of the most environmentally advanced offices” in the UK, according to developers Canary Wharf Group. It has a shell and core building achieving BREEAM Outstanding certification in 2020, as well as an Environmental Performance Certificate (EPC) A rating. The environmental features of the building include:
- over 30 per cent improvement over building regulations for energy performance and carbon emissions
- 40 per cent reduction in heating and cooling demands
- energy strategy focused on passive design and fabric-first approach saving 600 tonne carbon dioxide a year
- rooftop solar delivering almost 20,000 kilowatt hours a year – enough to power five homes
- 857 cycle spaces, more than 500 lockers and 60 showers
- a 706 square metres of biodiverse roof and 245 square metres of terrace and planters
- efficient planting irrigation system linked to weather data and moisture sensors
- all timber used in the building and in the construction phase is 100 per cent certified Forest Stewardship Certification
- almost 60 per cent water savings achieved using low flow fittings and a grey water recycling system.
Underwater living wall
The 111,484 sq m building has three levels of state-of-the-art trading floors, a retail unit at ground level and public access to a newly created promenade along the South Dock. The project has features to attract wildlife such as a living wall, the first on the Canary Wharf estate, and an innovative underwater living wall designed to attract fish and marine wildlife.
For the delivery of this project there was zero waste to landfill during construction and this has now continued for building management.
What it lacks, that might be done nowadays, is an assessment of its embodied carbon or of its life cycle carbon footprint.
The project has delivered the first Outstanding rating for Canary Wharf Group and the first A rated Energy Performance Certificate, an accomplishment made possible through close collaboration with CWG tenants EBRD and Societe Generale, and the dedicated interdisciplinary team of architects, structural engineers, building systems engineers and ecologists.
The EBRD is also on target to achieve EPC A-rating and BREEAM Outstanding certification for the fit-out, design and construction, which it says “have been guided by a desire to reduce waste and incorporate the bank’s green values”.
The building has been designed to support the new ways of hybrid working that emerged during the pandemic, enabling staff to easily connect to virtual meeting platforms, collaborate and work flexibly across the building.
Biodiversity and net zero
Canary Wharf Group has a partnership with the Eden Project, an environmental showcase organisation in Southwest England, to create a model of how biodiversity can thrive in urban environments.
So there is a biodiversity action plan, with an online map showing the biodiversity hotspots, and there has been a campaign for residents to eliminate single use plastic called Break the Habit backed by Surfers Against Sewage.
Targets are in place to reduce waste to zero, with a complete reduction and reuse strategy.
They also have a Net Zero Carbon Pathway that is aligned with the requirements of the Better Buildings Partnership Climate Change Commitment, detailing the steps they need to take to become net zero carbon by 2030. This pathway is underpinned by Science Based Targets and provides clear KPIs.
This is the context for Canary Wharf Group’s work at Five Bank Street, the experience of which is informing its approach to another seven BREEAM Outstanding buildings within its development pipeline to “build back better” from the pandemic.
The EBRD has pledged to become a majority green bank by 2025 and to align all of its activities with the Paris Agreement from the end of 2022.
