A new building for Bowbridge Primary School in Newark will incorporate a range of sustainability features including a Hoval biomass boiler, solar water heating, rainwater toilet flushing and a sedum roof. The building has also been designed to make full use of natural daylight and non-mechanical ventilation.
Bowbridge is a through-primary school with around 480 pupils ranging in age from three to 11. The new building, which is due to open in September 2008, is designed to replace an old army block which was converted into a 'temporary' school building in 1950.

Head teacher David Dixon is a champion of sustainability in the education sector and has already embedded the concepts of sustainability throughout the school's curriculum. The school also works to raise awareness of these issues in the wider community.

'The new building has been designed on the back of the work we've been doing in the school and with local people,' he explained. 'It is designed to be as close to carbon neutral as we can manage and will be an exemplar of what can be achieved,' he continued.

The school was designed by Nottinghamshire County Council and final year students from the Nottingham University School of the Built Environment were also invited to propose innovative designs. In parallel with the sustainable design, it was decided to use eco-friendly construction materials and to source as much from within a 50 mile radius as possible. This was one of the reasons for selecting Hoval biomass boilers, which are manufactured in Newark just a few miles from the school. This was one of many biomass boilers supplied to Nottinghamshire County Council properties as part of the council's Wood Heat programme.

The Hoval BioLyt boiler, which will be used for space heating and to supplement the solar water heating, will be fuelled by wood pellets produced locally from willow-based short rotation coppice plantations. The school is also planting its own small willow coppice to demonstrate the principles of biomass fuels to pupils. In addition, the ash from the boiler will be used to fertilise the school's kitchen garden, where it grows its own vegetables for school dinners.

A major attraction of biomass fuels is the contribution they make to carbon-neutrality. Although carbon dioxide is released during combustion, this is equivalent to the carbon dioxide that was 'fixed' by the plants while they were growing just a few years earlier. In contrast, with fossil fuels we are releasing the CO2 that was fixed over a period of millions of years in the space of just a few hundred years.

'We evaluated fuel costs and found that as gas prices continue to rise the wood pellets are on a par with gas and are set to become cheaper,' David Dixon explained. 'The boiler is also very easy to use as it has automatic fuel feed and ash removal. The wood pellets will be stored in a specially-constructed transparent pellet hopper so that people can see how it works,' he added.

A high level of visibility for the principles of the building and its services is a key element of the underlying philosophy. The atrium, which allows a lot of natural daylight into the space, will also feature a specially designed display to show information such as energy consumption. Similarly, there are plans to install a small demonstration wind generator, though this is unlikely to make a major contribution to the school's power supply.

The building will use recovered rainwater for the toilets and also have an area of sedum roofing to encourage biodiversity. Part of the soft-play area will be made from recycled training shoes.

Funding for the project has been achieved through a variety of sources, including the county council, the Bioenergy Capital Grants Scheme (Big Lottery Fund), the Carbon Trust and local businesses. A measure of its success is the fact that it is to be used as a case study in the forthcoming Building Schools for the Future primary programme.

Once the new building has been completed, part of the old building will be used to house an 'eco-centre' and the school's extended services scheme for local people. The latter will enable the District Council Energy Agency to use the school as a conduit for conveying energy advice to the local community, including how to reduce tariffs through energy conservation and accessing the best possible deal from utility companies. This is particularly important as many Bowbridge families suffer from fuel poverty i.e. they spend more than 10% of income on energy.

All this work builds upon several high profile European energy education projects Bowbridge and the energy agency have undertaken in the last ten years. The building was used for training soldiers in the use of Bailey Bridges in the Second World War so it will also include a Bailey Bridge museum.