About us
Sustainable Living
Unique measures are integrated in every aspect of Eddington to encourage residents and visitors to lead more sustainable lives.
This means using resources in a safe and efficient way, minimising carbon emissions and pollution to help the environment now and in the future.
The buildings have all been designed and built to the Code for Sustainable Homes Level 5 and BREEAM Excellent.
The design process ensures wildlife and biodiversity are encouraged across the development, as well as extensive travel planning and advice for residents to lead more sustainable lives.
Energy
The design of the homes and buildings makes extensive use of photo-voltaic roof panels (solar panels), and the centralised energy centre and district heating network.
The energy centre uses gas to generate heating and hot water for the homes at Eddington distributed via a district heating network. This means for efficient use of resources, providing greener, more environmentally friendly heating, hot water and energy. It is a vital part of the sustainability strategy.
Waste and Recycling
Underground chutes replace thousands of traditional wheelie bins in an innovative waste disposal system, the largest of its kind in the country.
Under each stainless steel bin is an underground sealed container which collects the waste and recycling.
The systems have been designed to incorporate technology that sends a signal to the collection company when they are 80% full, alerting them to empty the container only when required.
Sustainable Urban Drainage System
Rainwater attenuation helps to prevent localised flooding.
The sustainable urban drainage system channels rainwater through blue and green roofs and swales, which is then collected in the newly formed lakes: this aims to minimise the risk of localised flooding.
Biodiversity
Creating an environment for people and nature is what you’ll find at Eddington which include a range of integrated features and open space to help creatures flourish, these include enhancements for birds, bats, amphibians as well as meadow-flower and wetlands.
For example, the school building incorporates six nesting features designed specifically for swifts; key worker housing provides nest sites for house sparrows, swifts and starlings. In addition, features to encourage use of new buildings by roosting bats have been incorporated into the design of the sports pavilions and the cluster of utility buildings in the southern part of the site.
Some 2000 trees, plants and brambles will be planted in the first phase of the development with layers of maturity to create a sense of place.
Biodiversity Watch at Eddington:
This new blog series by our Project Ecologist, Mike Dean, highlights some of the native species that can be found in the wildlife at Eddington, which supports the University’s ambition to create a sustainable neighbourhood.
Read the full articles here: Otters; Birds; Wildflowers; Water voles; and Bats.