The Believe in Better Building is the tallest commercial timber building in the UK, demonstrating the potential of switching to renewable materials in the built environment. The structure houses Sky’s training and development suite, office space for more than 200 employees, and is a venue for community events and school visits. Instead of typical construction materials, the project made use of wood due to its potential to not only reduce emissions but also sequester carbon. Additional circular economy strategies used to reduce the environmental impact of the building included prefabrication, which shortened the build time considerably, and designing for adaptability, so that spaces would remain useful to users over the long-term. Overall, the building achieved a BREEAM ‘Excellent’ environmental rating, yet it was delivered within the cost of a traditional commercial office building.
Biodiversity benefits
Using timber instead of concrete as a renewable, low-carbon material allowed for the Believe in Better Building to reduce its dependency on the extraction of finite resources like sand and gravel, which has been associated with detrimental effects to biodiversity. The structure locks in 1,242 tonnes of CO2, even after discounting the 200 tonnes of emissions associated with manufacturing and transporting the timber from Austria. This is equivalent to 12 years of regulated operational carbon or 6 years of total operational carbon.
This page is part of a deep dive into biodiversity and the built environment, where we delve deeper into leaving room for biodiversity by reducing pressures on natural resources.
