Target Zero

Asda, Stockton on Tees

The report provides invaluable information for designers, construction clients and their professional advisors on how to design and construct supermarket buildings that meet the Part L 2010 requirements and likely future low and zero carbon targets.

The study uses a recently constructed building as a benchmark, and investigates three priority areas of sustainable construction: operational carbon emissions, BREEAM assessment rating and embodied carbon. This is the third report in a series of five.

The base case¹ building for the supermarket report is based on Asda’s food store at Stockton-on-Tees in Cleveland. This out-of-town supermarket was completed in 2008 and provides 9,393m2 floor area, arranged over two levels. The supermarket is constructed with a steel frame.

The key findings of the study include:

• Carefully integrated efficiency measures, giving a 35% reduction in regulated operational carbon emissions can be achieved without renewable energy technologies
• It is predicted that the building can achieve true zero carbon using a package of compatible energy efficiency measures and on-site low and zero carbon technologies, i.e. 330kW wind turbine, biogas-fired CCHP and a 3,500m² array of photovoltaics. This is expensive however representing a 26.5% capital cost increase
• The greatest regulated carbon emissions reduction possible using a package of compatible energy efficiency measures and a single on-site low and zero carbon technology was 94%, using biogas-fired CCHP
• Lighting represents around half of the total operational carbon emissions for the base case building, therefore, efficient lighting and optimal rooflight design were key to achieving significant operational carbon reductions cost effectively
• The capital cost uplift of the base case supermarket is 0.24% to meet a BREEAM ‘Very Good rating; 1.76% to achieve an ‘Excellent’ rating and 10.1% to achieve an ‘Outstanding’ rating.

¹To create the base case supermarket, the actual building design was slightly modified so that the base case just complied with the 2006 Part L requirements. Operational carbon reductions reported are relative to the base case building performance. The estimated cost of construction of the base case supermarket building is £1,682/m².

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