Gardening and wild bird care products supplier Gardman has unveiled plans for its new purpose built warehouse, which represents a significant investment of over £30m.
A key consideration of the project was to reduce the environmental impact of Gardman’s UK operations, the company explains. By working with project partners Winvic and Prologis, the new facility has been designed to achieve ‘beyond compliance’ in all areas and has realised significant improvements over building regulations in terms of energy efficiency by using various methods to reduce not only the environmental impact but also to harness low or zero carbon technologies.
When completed, the facility should achieve a BREAAM (Buildings Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method) certified ‘Very Good/Excellent’ rating, the company adds.
Among the environmental credentials at the new location will be the reduction of inter-site transport. Gardman says that the consolidation of stock to a single site will reduce the inter-site transport, whilst the new central location reduces the transport requirement to Gardman’s international customer base, delivering the benefit of over 20% reduced product miles.
Other advances that will reduce energy consumption, including high reflectivity liner panels to reduce the need for lighting, a 10,000 litre rainwater harvesting system providing water for non-potable use and solar panels expected to generate in the region of 230,000 kWhrs of electricity, are all part of the develop.
