The UK Green Building Council‘s (UK-GBC) headquarters in Central London has achieved the lowest embodied carbon footprint ever recorded for an office refurbishment in the UK.

Working in collaboration with London-based architects, Barr Gazetas, among other organisations, the landmark project has proven to be an exemplar for sustainable office refurbishment and also features a range of innovative wellbeing measures – such as an innovative ventilation system and an automated low-energy LED lighting system – to deliver an environmentally friendly workplace.

Notable statistics collected in the aftermath of the office refurbishment are: 48 per cent decrease in carbon emissions from lighting; 139 kgCO2/m² – embodied carbon footprint 22 per cent below a comparable ‘standard’ fit-out and the lowest ever recorded in the UK (under the SCP database, WRAP database); 98 per cent of original fixtures and finishes reused or repurposed; and 99.4 per cent of construction waste diverted from landfill.

Chief executive of UK-GBC, Julie Hirigoyen said: “UK-GBC’s purpose is to accelerate the transformation of places so that people and planet can thrive. In refurbishing our own office space, we had a fantastic opportunity to trial and showcase the very best solutions sourced from our membership. I’m delighted at the outstanding results we have achieved – both to minimise our environmental footprint and to improve the wellbeing and productivity of our staff.

“I’d like to thank all of our innovative product suppliers as well as our outstanding design and delivery team: architect, Barr Gazetas; services engineer and sustainability consultant, Cundall; project manager and quantity surveyor, Currie & Brown; main contractor, Morgan Lovell; and carbon consultant, Sturgis Carbon Profiling.”

The UK-GBC HQ will be subject to a ‘post-occupancy evaluation’ in order to assess its operational performance against performance factors such as energy efficiency and air quality. In addition, staff satisfaction will also be analysed through ongoing surveys, with results compared to previous data collected prior to the refurb.

To view an annotated diagram providing details of the suppliers and products used in the refurbishment, click here