Birmingham Offices Take the Lead With Sustainability

May 5 2009

Birmingham is leading the way in comparison to other UK cities when it comes to delivering sustainable office buildings, according to research announced this week.

The ‘Regional Reality’ report from leading property consultant GVA Grimley focused on office building specifications across the UK amongst recently completed new-builds or buildings currently under construction, with a view to establishing how best practice is actually being implemented on the ground.

Birmingham came top with 80% of the buildings studied delivering a BREEAM* ‘Excellent’ rating, compared to only 40% in Manchester, 33% in Liverpool and Bristol, 20% in Leeds and 0% in Glasgow.

BREEAM is the world’s leading and most widely used environmental assessment method for buildings. It sets the best practice for sustainable design and has become the default measure of a building’s environmental performance, awarding credits to produce a score of pass, good, very good, excellent and outstanding.

Carl Potter, office agency director in the Birmingham office of GVA Grimley, commented: “Calthorpe House in Edgbaston, being developed by Calthorpe Estates, together with Argent’s 11 Brindleyplace and Ballymore’s Snow Hill are all leading the way in achieving an ‘Excellent’ rating and pushing Birmingham’s sustainability credentials.

“It’s great to see that we are ahead of other cities in delivering sustainable office buildings. It can only be good news for Birmingham with organisations increasingly wanting to be located in buildings that have been designed and constructed in a sustainable manner.”

Since commissioning the research, the city’s reputation for sustainability has been further enhanced with Nurton’s no 2 Colmore Square development being awarded an ‘Excellent’ rating, the first for a refurbishment in Birmingham.

Back to news

To view a list of future events in Birmingham click here

add to print cart | view print cart