Ev0: UK's first net-zero office building

Bruntwood’s Ev0 building is a £30-m commercial development with impressive sustainability credentials. The team was not only tasked to design a commercially viable net zero carbon building but to develop thinking and challenge each other to understand how to design a building with the highest environmental performance, recognising the importance of accelerating learning and development in the net zero carbon field collaboratively.

Located at the heart of Didsbury Technology Park in Greater Manchester, the 6-storey building will set the bar high for future workspaces. It will be Bruntwood’s first project to meet- the LETI 2020 design targets for ‘upfront carbon’, RIBA’s 2025 targets for whole life carbon and the UK Green Building Council’s Paris Proof operational energy use targets. Ev0 also aims to achieve the BREEAM Excellent certification and NABERS 5.5 stars for its operational carbon emissions.

Ramboll is providing sustainable building design, building services, BREEAM and structural engineering design expertise to Bruntwood, working alongside the development team; Sheppard Robson architects, Deloitte Real Estate planning consultants with JLL acting as agents.

A blueprint for ultra-low carbon workspaces

The Ev0 building’s exceptional performance is underpinned by complex design approaches, with the use of timber being the most visible. Timber is used extensively throughout the structure, which will store approximately 4000 tons CO2e of CO2. The use of timber and low-carbon concrete minimises upfront embodied carbon emissions to ~500 kg CO2e/m2.

Smart net zero design

Almost all the energy required for the building will be generated on-site (94%). Ramboll has used parametric design principles and hybrid engineering to guarantee an ultra-low carbon footprint for the building that displays innovative architecture and interior design, smart building management systems, and a fully electric building. Ev0’s façade has also been optimised to minimise solar gain and overheating, while the building has been designed to reuse and recover energy as far as practical, using technologies such as an ambient loop system as well as allowing for the most efficient plant to be selected based on the external conditions.

The remaining 6% of energy demand will be sourced from Bruntwood’s co-operative owned wind farm in Ayrshire.

With these innovations, Ev0 is expected to be one of the most operationally efficient office building in the UK, culminating in running costs 58% cheaper than a traditional new build. It is a model for future sustainable commercial developments.