Sustainable Schools - Shropshire

Client: Shropshire Council

Gaia are providing real-time guidance, education, training and support to the client, design teams and constructors to enable sustainability to be integrated from the outset of each project, and to ensure that it is maintained through to handover. Our approach seeks to deliver much more sustainable, higher quality, healthier buildings at minimum additional cost. We have been fully engaged in the procurement process engaging developers in an exploration of the fundamental principles and ensuring that the requirements for time, cost and environmental constraints are understood and accounted for in tender returns.

The work involved assessing the quality of current buildings to demonstrate added value. An audit comprised of air-tightness testing of sample areas of each building, thermal imaging of external areas, dust-mite sampling and daylight analysis. This has enabled the Council to record the conditions for future reference, to identify the most important areas to target improvements and to develop the skills and tender documentation to ensure these are delivered. The audit was recorded on video for future reference.

The audit also involved a workshop with the school aimed at improving carbon literacy amongst staff and pupils. This is to assist in managing the building in the longer term to improve comfort and reduce energy consumption.