NEWS
SMALL IS SUSTAINABLE FOR GREEN CITY OFFICE BROCHURE
23th January 2008
Emma Bowd, Trigram Properties showing off possibly the smallest, greenest property brochure in Birmingham.
Birmingham based property developer Trigram Properties along with partners Folkes Holdings and Corum Property Investments is backing up the green credentials of its latest city centre office development. They have printed, they believe, the smallest marketing brochure of its kind in order to demonstrate their environmentally friendly philosophy.
Langley Point, a new 44,500 sq ft office, off Bath Row, has just been granted formal planning permission by Birmingham City Council with construction work expected to start within a month and completion of the offices by Spring 2009.
Director Bill Houle explains,
“Langley Point has been created to be a new milestone in the city for ‘green office’ specification and is expected to achieve the highest possible BREEAM Excellent rating. We then thought how wasteful office schemes sometimes are when it comes to their marketing and particularly with regards to the paper consumption of elaborate development brochures. Our new Langley Point brochure is therefore just credit card sized but still contains all the salient information a potential occupier could need to understand the proposition. ”
The BREEAM rating is the most established environmental assessment of buildings judged on a variety of criteria by independent assessors including the management, energy use, health and well being of users, air and water pollution, transport, land use, materials and ecology.
“The way we will build the office will ensure both short and long term environmental savings.” Bill added.
Typical of this will be the use of chilled beams for temperature regulation. Against more conventional fan coil air conditioning systems chilled beams use natural air-flow. They require fewer people to install at the build stage and critically require less maintenance over their longer life cycle. They are more energy efficient and therefore more cost effective to run with a reduction in CO2 emissions. Research carried out by Trigram Properties on chilled beam systems also concluded that more end users preferred the climate within a chilled beam system office. A power factor correction system will also be included to reduce energy consumption caused by voltage being out of phase across the offices.
Langley Point is located on one of Birmingham’s strategic signed cycle routes. Secured bike storage will be included in the undercroft car park to encourage cycling, with shower facilities provided on each floor of the building.
“Protecting the environment is also about ease of accessibility, making it beneficial for people to live and work within close proximity. It is a short walk into the city centre and less than ten minutes walk from New Street station. Bus routes are also plentiful from Bath Row.”
The 44,500 square foot scheme, off Bath Row, is being released to the market for pre-letting with a probable rent in the low £20s.
One of the first people to showcase the credit card sized brochure will be Philippa Pickavance of Drivers Jonas, Commercial Agent for Langley Point, who is planning to take a quantity to the International property event, MIPIM in Cannes.
“Drivers Jonas is a carbon neutral company, so any initiative which is energy saving is always welcome news. There’s always so much literature you can pick up at MIPIM so, apart from the fact that it highlights what Langley Point is all about, it also makes great sense to slim down the message to save people getting snowed under. These fit easily inside your wallet or pocket, which is great. “