OCON CELEBRATES ENVIRONMENTAL EXCELLENCE AT UNIVERSITY OF SUSSEX
Virtually unheard of in the Student Accommodation sector, the BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating reflects a post construction assessment score of 74.75% for phase 1 of the Northfield scheme.
The £26.2 million project saw Ocon construct 777 student units in 14 rectangular and L-shaped accommodation blocks on the University of Sussex’s Falmer Campus near Brighton. The contractor delivered the highest standards of environmental best practice throughout the build. The end result is both sustainable and makes best use of local materials and resources. The success of the project has led to a further £6.3 million scheme for Ocon to construct Phase 2 at Northfield, involving a further three blocks which will bring the total number of student accommodation units to 957.
Managing Director of Ocon Construction, Andrew Barker,(left) presented the accolades to the Northfield Building Manager Wai-Lan Lee (right) in a double celebration that also included a certificate presentation for the Green Apple Award. Designed to reward environmental excellence, the Green Apple Awards are part of a national campaign to find Britain’s greenest companies, councils and communities with judges drawn from the Environment Agency, the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, the Chartered Institute for Wastes Management (CIWM) and other independent bodies. The Northfield Project competed against 500 other entries to win the coveted award and Ocon travelled to House of Commons to receive the certificate. Ocon is now being considered to represent the UK in the European Business Awards for the Environment, an award scheme run by the European Commission which sees winners from 27 EU member states compete for the European accolade. Comments Andrew Barker: “From the beginning we knew that this scheme would set a benchmark for the student accommodation sector and we have worked closely with the University of Sussex to help them realise their vision for a sustainable student living environment that meets the needs of both its students and its semi-rural campus. It is tremendous that those efforts have now been recognised both by the high BREEAM rating and the Green Apple Awards and we look forward to maintaining that standard as we work towards completion of Phase 2.”
