September 2010

By Sarah McCarrick BREEAM Education Manager

Environmental standards are being raised. The Building Regulations Part L target will be tightened this year and increasing numbers of Local Authorities are setting high BREEAM standards as planning requirements within their Local Development Frameworks. Meeting these increasingly tight environmental targets whilst remaining within budget has been a cause for concern within the construction sector, however a brand new secondary school in South Wales is proving that it doesn’t cost the earth to build sustainably.

Newport High School in Bettws, Newport, is an exemplar in sustainable construction that also serves as a catalyst for social and economic regeneration. It was the first secondary school in Wales to achieve BREEAM Excellent and it may surprise some to hear that this was done without the need for increased funding.

Description
The £28.1 million school is designed for 1,100 students and provides for extensive community use.
The school provides pupils and staff with a first class learning environment as well as an array of sports and leisure facilities. The Active Living Centre is available for use by both the wider community of Newport and Newport High School and includes:

• 25 metre swimming pool
• 18-station fitness suite
• cafe
• sprung-floor dance studio
• large sports hall
• indoor cricket nets
• floodlit Astroturf pitch for hockey and football
• external playing fields.

The new school facilities now include 60 classrooms; 34 general teaching rooms, eight science labs, eight ICT suites and six special educational needs areas, plus a dedicated vocational training and learning resource centre designed to deliver skills-based adult learning. 

Keys to its success
The design, construction and ongoing use of the building have been specified with sustainability firmly in mind. The BREEAM Assessor was brought in right from the outset which was fundamental to minimising costs and maximising the number of BREEAM credits gained.
Achievements can also be attributed to the collaborative and holistic approach of client Newport City Council and its construction partners: HLM Architects, Leadbitter Group, Arup, Clarke Bond and Davis Langdon. The entire team, including the BREEAM Assessor, was assembled before the first concept was created, and they met fortnightly to ensure the project stayed on track. The BREEAM credits that would be sought were decided upon and responsibilities for achieving them were clearly set out.
Also critical to success was the extensive consultation and interactive design process which involved all stakeholders from inception. Both the school and the local community were involved. By addressing the concerns and requirements of these groups the design team was able to create a solution that met stakeholder needs whilst crucially allowing them to score the credits available in BREEAM that rely on consultation.

Environmental features
The extensive consultation and interactive design process resulted in a 73-point rated BREEAM Excellent status.  The building also secured a Category B energy rating with 30 points, only 5 short of an A rating, a great achievement given that a score of 39 is considered good for a new build of this scale and use.
Passive techniques rather than eco-bling were employed first to reduce the baseline energy demand and avoid the cost of unnecessary bolt-ons. The school was orientated, and the internal layouts developed, to:

• use the main school building as an acoustic barrier to Bettws Lane to allow maximum natural ventilation
• position the art classrooms facing north to maximise the natural light, minimise solar gains and provide the best possible teaching space
• orientate general teaching classrooms east and west to minimize solar gains
• provide cross-ventilation to all classrooms with stacks to high level on the ground floor classrooms and high-level openings to the rear of first-floor classrooms
• improve all U-values to 20 per cent better than Part L of the Building Regulations, and air tightness to 50 per cent better.

Each of the following was assessed on a lifecycle cost basis as well as carbon reduction basis to ensure best value:

• daylight/presence detection for lighting controls
• combined heat and power plant for the swimming pool; sized to run for the majority of the year, providing an excellent electrical offset (and hence carbon offset) for the whole school
• solar hot water system
• rainwater harvesting
• heat recovery on all ventilation plant and the swimming pool back-wash cycle
• underfloor heating from high-efficiency gas boilers linked with the natural ventilation system through the building energy management system (BEMS) to avoid conflict.

The design offered a 24 per cent carbon improvement over Building Regulations requirements, and turned the school itself into a learning tool, which has been identified within particular year group curricula.
Reducing waste was another key consideration.  Subcontractors and suppliers (largely local as identified through skills workshops) were involved early in the Site Waste Management Plan, and recyclable and recycled materials stipulated.Off-site prefabrication of various concrete elements, short driven piles, a structural metal wall system and preformed blocks all cut waste significantly, and waste that was generated was segregated or recycled according to WRAP standards. The team even created a sandpit for a local nursery with waste materials, while bricklayers' waste was crushed on site and reused for community projects.
Ecological considerations were discussed with the school's EcoGroup and final designs included the pond and wildlife area to educate pupils and increase biodiversity of bird, butterfly, aquatic and plant life.

Project outcomes to date
Every conceivable sustainability practice was considered at Newport High School, and the result is not just a BREEAM Excellent rating, but a Constructing Excellence Award for Waste Minimisation, shortlisting in the Innovation and Sustainability categories of the same awards, and an increase in pupil applications to Newport High School by 50 per cent. A dramatic improvement in GCSE pass rates is also predicted this summer which could put a once struggling secondary school up amongst the best in the county.

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