Behind the Building

 

In the fifth of our #BehindtheBuilding series looking at the new Emergency Care Building (ECB), we talk to Grant Thompson who is a Net Zero Carbon Consultant at Mott Macdonald.

Can you tell us a bit about your role?

I work with a lot of new builds like the new ECB at Derriford Hospital, advising on how they can effectively design the building to be more sustainable. So I work with design teams and challenge design teams to bring in principles for that. I also work with existing buildings to try and help decarbonise them, which involves surveying buildings, understanding what the existing systems are and what they use, as well as what the existing building fabric is like, to essentially try to work out ways to improve things. 

How are Mott Macdonald involved in the ECB?

We’re quite a large engineering consultancy that do a wide variety of things, so you could come to us about almost anything. Working on the Derriford scheme, we have a couple of different roles. First, we have structural engineers working to embed modern methods of construction, so advising on things like certain elements being prefabricated off-site to try to speed up construction. My personal involvement is as a net zero adviser, so I help the design teams and the contractor to apply principles of the NHS Net Zero standard toolkit. We’ve had some good feedback from the New Hospitals Programme on how well the building is performing so far. 

Why is it important for the ECB to be more sustainable?

There’s a lot going on in the world at the moment around climate change and there is a desire to reduce carbon emissions. If we’re going to meet our targets to try to reduce the impact of climate change, then new buildings like the ECB need to be designed to be more sustainable. Removing things like gas fired appliances and boilers that are emitting local gases will improve air quality and improve not only our local environment, but the world we live in.

There are lots of other benefits to the building itself. If the fabric of the building is thermally efficient, it will help to keep in the heating and cooling, depending on whether you’re trying to warm or cool the building. If the building is airtight, it will hold in energy, rather than it leaking out. If you’ve got ventilation that is recovering as much heat as possible, then you also won’t be losing energy that way. So it’ll make the building lower cost to run.

It’s also important for systems to meet the demands of the space and optimise their usage, for instance lighting adapting to daylighting. Not only does it reduce energy consumption, but it also benefits the users as optimising daylighting helps with productivity and makes it a nicer environment to be in too. 

Do you work closely with the Trust’s Sustainability team?

We work really closely with David Lawrence and Elliott West from UHP on a number of schemes and have coordinated quite well on the ECB, so that not only does it meet the net zero requirements, but also the Trust requirements as well. We’ve done some work on how the ECB will integrate with the wider site to enhance the overall sustainability benefits, rather than just act as a standalone building. 

Are other teams involved in the ECB supportive?

I think for the most part that everyone we speak to is on board with what we’re trying to achieve. With the design elements they’ve been willing to take a step back and relook at some things. Everyone seems to be in a similar space in terms of wanting to deliver sustainable buildings. Ultimately, they want to be involved in projects that set the benchmark and strive to be better. 

What do you think about the new building?

Over the years I’ve used numerous A&E facilities wherever I’ve lived, from South Wales to Bristol and now the South West. Being a sportsman and having young children has meant several visits, as I’m sure you can imagine. With older facilities, it’s not always easy to find your way around or know where to go next. The new Emergency Department in the ECB is designed more with patients in mind, to make it easier for them to understand the journey they have to go on, with a better flow through it. Although it’s obviously a difficult experience going to any A&E, having a more comfortable, pleasant place to be treated in will soften that experience and make it nicer to be a patient. Its going to be a real asset to the people who use it. 

What’s it like to be involved in the ECB?

For me, although I work across a number of projects around the country, I’m based in the South West, so I’m quite passionate about local projects. I like being able to visit the site regularly and see it progressing. It’s actually quite exciting to see concrete being poured and the cores going up, having been involved in the discussions around how low carbon that concrete could be and the challenges faced with designing that. Now it’s coming into existence, it’s great to know we’ve done our best to make it as green as we possibly can.