Hopkins’ approach to low carbon is to “be lean”, “be clean” and “be green” and they have a clear target of a 10 per cent reduction in on-site carbon by the use of renewable and/or low carbon technology.
At Alconbury, this has meant:
- Be lean – external consultants have worked with Hopkins’ in-house technical department to optimise the carbon saved through the fabric and passive design of the site – using heat gains and the orientation of dwellings to offset space heating.
- Be clean – optimising heating and hot water specification – using super-efficient LZC technology towards lowering their baseline total.
- Be green – use renewable and recoverable low carbon technology to meet the 10 per cent emissions targets such as: flue gas heat recovery systems; and waste water heat recovery systems.
In addition and in accordance with our wider site-wide principles Hopkins has:
- Supplied and installed internal recycling bins as well as external storage (sheds) for properties without garages. The sheds have built in cycle loops for cycle storage. Garages have space for cycle storage
- Sourced a large majority of labour locally to reduce the carbon footprint
- 80 per cent of Hopkins’ labour comes from within a 50-mile radius of Alconbury
- All labour is sourced from the East of England
- Utilised local building merchants and suppliers to reduce haulage. Ridgeon’s at Peterborough is their main supplier and central material storage facility for Alconbury, providing 40 per cent of material requirements for the site
- Procured 55 per cent of their materials within a 50-mile radius of Alconbury
- Ensured that their windows, doors and stairs are all BM TRADA “Chain of Custody” certificated and that all boards, panels, sawn timber, engineered timber and trusses for roof construction are also certificated with a BM TRADA “Chain of Custody”
- Relocated or stockpiled all excess arisings (topsoil and subsoil) and procured recycled aggregate from the wider site to use within their construction of drives, roads and paths
- Installed water restrictors to reduce the amount of water consumption per person per day. The restrictors will allow 113 litres of consumption per person per day, which is well ahead of Building Regulations, which stipulate 125 litres per person per day