Canary Wharf Group’s newest commercial address, One & Five Bank Street E14, has joined an elite band^[i] after achieving an Outstanding rating, making it one of the most sustainable buildings of its type in London.

The development achieved a design stage score of 87.1%, verified by independent assessors in accordance with BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Methodology). One & Five Bank Street is one of only three commercial developments in London to achieve a BREEAM 2014 Outstanding rating. BREEAM is the world’s leading design and assessment method for sustainable buildings.

Designed by world renowned architects Kohn Pederson Fox (KPF), One & Five Bank Street is a striking new 700,000 sq ft commercial scheme comprising high-quality office space with three levels of state of the art trading floors, a retail unit at ground level and public access to a new promenade along the South Dock. Developers Canary Wharf Group set out to ensure the 27 storey project, which is currently 40% let, was designed to be as efficient and occupant-healthy as possible as well as in keeping with the high quality placemaking, already established on the Canary Wharf Estate.

To achieve this, the Team deployed a number of innovative measures throughout the design, which will be implemented during construction and operational phases.

These include:

• Health and wellbeing provision: Optimised thermal comfort and enhanced ventilation rates. Highly glazed façade, providing connection between the building’s users and the outside, promoting a healthy environment within the building. Optimum indoor air quality levels: Low VOC paints and varnishes, indoor air quality plan, VOC levels testing at completion. Cycle spaces and cyclist facilities (showers, lockers, changing spaces). High security and safety standards
• Extensive Green infrastructure: 173m² of street level landscaping with trees, shrubs and wildflower plants, 170m² of Living Green Wall on the southern facade of the building 458m² of landscaped terrace on the 4th floor and more than 700 m² of brown and green roofs including habitat creation at roof level and in the docks for birds, invertebrates and fish.
• Energy efficiency measures including installation of a roof scape Photo Voltaic array, generating more than 24,533 kWh per year of renewable energy; a high performing façade design including ventilated facades with dynamic mid-pane blinds and high performance glass to minimise solar gain while enhancing day lighting levels; provision of high efficiency heat recovery system, centralised building automation and energy management system; LED lighting installed throughout. These measures will generate a saving of approximately 352 tonnes of carbon annually, reduce the heating and cooling demand by 39% and will make One & Five Bank Street the first building at Canary Wharf to achieve an A rated EPC, a feat for a high rise building of such scale.
• Water saving technology including provision of grey water recycling system and low flow sanitary ware, a high efficiency irrigation system, drought tolerant planting palette and leak detection system. This resulted in securing a 55% reduction in water consumption over a typical office building.
• Procurement of all major materials in accordance with a robust responsible sourcing and chain of custody policy including FSC and BES 6001 Certification.

In addition the Team developed a Climate Change Adaptation and Resilience Strategy for the building, by evaluating the potential effects of climate change and the impact of extreme weather conditions on the development. This resulted in implementation of viable design solutions to mitigate risk over the development lifetime.

Key insights from this project and others are being deployed across all future Canary Wharf Group developments.

Bianca Stendtke, Canary Wharf Contractors Ltd. Project Executive said: “This BREEAM 2014 design stage score is a special achievement for us. It is CWCL’s first project to achieve this level, it is an acknowledgement of our project and consultant teams’ diligent work, and reflects our commitment to sustainability. I’m very pleased that we managed to exceed our set target and that with extra effort, we were able to achieve this OUTSTANDING result.”

Martin Gettings, Canary Wharf Group Sustainability Manager, said: “We are absolutely delighted to achieve this level of performance on our very latest commercial offering. It is a true reflection of the team’s total commitment to delivering real sustainability within our developments and adds further value to the Canary Wharf Estate, both directly from the contributions of this project but also through the significant transferable learning generated because of our approach to sustainability.”

_{[i] BRE have confirmed that to date, 3 BREEAM 2014 (Offices) projects have achieved Outstanding rating in London: One & Five Bank Street / White Collar Factory / Kings Cross Building B5}

This press release was originally published here.