Sustainability Case Studies

Carran Hill Water Treatment Works

In August 2006, Northern Ireland Water commissioned its new £10 million Carran Hill Water Treatment Works – eight weeks ahead of schedule and within budget. This design and build project encompasses the entire rationale of the Achieving Excellence programme and exemplifies the benefits to be gained of adopting ‘lean thinking’ modern construction techniques.

In recognition of its environmental efforts, the Carran Hill project has been awarded ‘Excellent’ status in the Whole Project Category of the 2006 CEEQUAL Awards for excellence in civil engineering.

Further Information

For further information please contact Brendan O’Hare (Northern Ireland Water) on 028 90354813 x20350 or see Carran Hill Water Treatment Works Case Study on Northern Ireland Water’s Best Practice web-site.

Waterways Ireland’s New Headquarters in Enniskillen

The new £9m Waterways Ireland Headquarters in Enniskillen is a state-of-the-art three storey building, constructed within budget and on programme. The building includes an exhibition space, car park and jetties, is located on the shores of the River Erne within walking distance of the town centre. Users of the building enjoy splendid views of Enniskillen Castle, Castle Island and the Town Centre beyond.

The project complies with the Government’s 'Achieving Excellence in Construction' initiative, which promotes design quality and sustainability in construction whilst achieving best value for money.

The building complies with the Low Carbon Design Initiative and has achieved the highest Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment (BREEAM) ‘Excellent’ score of any building in Northern Ireland to date. It is orientated and configured to optimize passive solar opportunities for heating, cooling and day lighting. The building has been designed with high levels of floor, wall and roof insulation to aid thermal comfort during the heating cycle. These levels greatly exceed standard Building Regulation requirements. During the cooling season, the design has incorporated a night time cooling strategy, which enables the building to “cool itself” by passive means, avoiding the necessity for any mechanical air control. Solar panels on the roof provide 80% of hot water demand and a carbon zero wood pellet boiler has been installed in the building.

Further Information

For further information, please contact Derek Hart, telephone 028 9081 6268 or see the BREEAM; Waterways Ireland Case Study

South West Hospital, Enniskillen

Health Estates Investment Group has integrated the full range of Economic, Social and Environmental outcomes within its contract documentation for the South West Hospital at Enniskillen. For example, the Project Agreement for the scheme, signed by the Western Health & Social Care Trust and the successful PFI bidders Northern Ireland Health Group (NIHG) South West Partnership Group Limited, included a Socio–Economic Regeneration Plan (SERP) embracing:

• Training, Placement and Employment Opportunities
• Tackling Social Exclusion and Long Term Unemployment
• Equality and Diversity
• Supply Chain Opportunities
• Community Engagement including the provision of public access to environmentally sensitive areas associated with the site and engagement with the community in respect of them.

To progress this initiative a SERP Employment and Supply Chain Working Group has been established which is made up of representatives from the Department of Employment and Learning (DEL), Jobs and Benefits Office, the South-West College, the Western Health and Social Care Trust, FCC Elliott Healthcare and the NIHG.

Further Information

For further information please contact Philip McClay (Health Estates) on 028 90523867

The collection and re-cycling of dry office waste

A contract has been awarded by Central Procurement Directorate (CPD) to cover the collection and recycling of dry office waste across the NICS and other participating bodies. The contract, which will be effective from 1 April 2010, replaces the previous arrangements which only included confidential and non confidential waste paper. The contract was divided into a number of schedules, including confidential, restricted/sensitive and dry office waste, allowing access to small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) to bid. A key objective across all the schedules is the requirement for the service providers to work with the client to ensure continuous  improvement  with the objective of increasing the levels of dry waste material being recycled and thereby achieving a  reduction in waste going to landfill, resulting in an improvement in sustainability. CPD will be monitoring the contract to ensure best value for money and targets are being achieved.  For all users the waste streams within the contract are paper, printed literature/ newspaper, cans, plastic, glass, cardboard and mingled waste.  In addition for users within the Stormont Estate, a new stream for the disposal of food waste has been added, which when developed will greatly improve their targets for increased sustainability.

Further Information

For further information, please contact Grace Knox, telephone 028 9081 6314.

Sustainable Regeneration of the former Mackies Complex

This project involved the sustainable redevelopment of a brown field industrial site in west Belfast. Significant cost savings to the client were identified during both the design development and construction stages.

The main works associated with Phase 2 Site Development were:-

• Provision of site access road and infrastructure;
• Breaking out, crushing and re-use of existing concrete structures;
• Excavation and re-use of the existing bituminous materials on site;
• On site treatment of contamination;
• Drainage system compliant with the principals of Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems (SUDS);
• Construction of timber crib walling to retain unstable embankments;
• Perimeter fencing; and
• Provision of services for future business and industrial development.

Site investigations, a "downtaking" project and Phase 1 were undertaken prior to Phase 2 Site Development.

Further Information

For further details please view the project report.

Practitioners

Email us at procure.policy with examples of how you have incorporated Economic, Social and Environmental objectives into your contracts