The Sheepdrove Eco Conference Centre achieved first place in Green Award category of the Event Awards on Friday last week.
The award, which rewarded the most outstanding environmental achievement in the Event’s Industry, was presented to Sheepdrove’s Russell Downing at the Hilton park lane .
Sheepdrove’s centre manager, Russell Downing commented: “A huge amount of time effort and money has been invested at Sheepdrove to create what is clearly one of, if not, the world’s most environmentally friendly conferences centres. Having this recognised, in front of so many industry peers, suppliers and clients is the pinnacle of all that achievement.
Sheepdrove had entered their ongoing project to become the World’s Greenest Conference Centre in the hotly contested category.
Some of the details from the winning entry have been listed below.
Construction
The Centre sits on the ‘footprint’ of the previous farm office to minimise the physical demands on land.
Materials from the demolition of the redundant buildings were re-used.
Chalk from the excavations was re-used to create the ‘rammed earth’ walls.
New timber products are from responsibly managed and renewable sources.
No PVC was used in the centre, including electrical wiring.
Toilet cubicle partitions are made from recycled toothpaste tubes and wash basin panels from recycled CD’s.
Energy
A solar heating panel preheats the water for the boilers.
Only two small boilers are required to heat the building due to high levels of insulation.
Controls allow areas of the building not in use to shut down.
Heat exchangers are used in the kitchen to recover heat.
Natural daylight bathes the interior, saving lighting.
Water
Water is drawn from a 300ft deep well located on site.
Water is recycled by a reedbed system. When clean, it returns to the water table.
Rainwater captured by the roof goes into the reedbed system offsetting water demands.
The Reedbed System annually cleans and recycles 7 million litres of water, which equates to a 3,080kg CO2 saving per year.