A brief looking at some excerpts from the latest issue of Building dealing with sustainability, from Erskine's Ark in Hammersmith to an interview with Hammerson boss Jon Emery

Environmental services in Erskine's Ark

The one element in Erskine's ark that had to be completely replaced was the air supply and return system. The original drew exhausted air from all floors down through the open atrium, but this fell foul of the spec developments demand for all floors to operate separately for different tenants. Costing £9million, the services contract amounted to 45% of the reconfiguration budget and was let to NG Bailey.
Also thrown out in the same services renewal was an innovative system of chilled beams. They were replaced by conventional fan-coil units installed in the ceiling voids. As Martin Taylor of environmental consultant RYB Konsult says: "Fan-coil units are well understood, and offer the best flexibility".

New vertical ducts were added to discharge the exhaust air, and the condenser units in the basement were retained and expanded into the adjoining loading bay.

Jon Emery on sustainability

"Using the same consultants all the time means they don't challenge us, particularly on sustainability. We've really had to get them to wake up to our aspirations and have brought in many new people in the past year.

"'Sustainability consultant' is now a role on our teams. All our projects will be BREEAM 'excellent' from now on. Bristol will be our first excellent-rated shopping centre"

Topics