The awards from the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers are the only industry awards that focus on actual, measured performance outcomes, and not just design intent or performance specifications.
The Project of the Year award recognises buildings that demonstrate high levels of user satisfaction and comfort, as well as delivering outstanding performance.
The data from the many sensors in the Active Office are used to monitor performance, optimise systems and develop innovative control strategies, with adaptations based on user feedback as well.
The building performance evaluation showed that for the Active Office:
- Net Energy consumption is just 0.5% of a traditional office.
- More than 70 tonnes of carbon emissions have been saved directly.
- Six electric vehicle charging points have provided 40,000 miles of fossil-fuel-free motoring.
The building at the Bay Campus was funded by Innovate UK and sponsored by Tata Steel and Cisco.
SPECIFIC’s Technology Director Justin Searle said:
“This commendation is a great recognition of the achievements of the team working on the Active Office.
It also helps in our mission to encourage change in the construction industry, by recognising that Net Zero emissions buildings can be achieved commercially now.”
The commendation also recognised the Active Office’s role as a ‘living lab’. The building is used to field-test innovative technologies and their performance when integrated with standard building services equipment – Naked Energy secured £5.25 million growth investment after being able to demonstrate success on the Active Office.
It is also used to develop innovative control strategies to minimise energy use. The FRED project explored Demand Side Response using the Active Office and electric vehicle charging points.
