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17/10/2008 - New Students Get Eco-Friendly
This month, more than 1,000 students across the country will be moving into pioneering environmentally-friendly student housing developed by University Partnerships Programme (UPP), a leading provider of on-campus accommodation.
At Lancaster University, a new phase of UPP's award-winning Eco Residence is opening, following the initial launch of the Eco Residence model last year. This phase consists of 453 rooms - 234 are in a cluster flat design, 216 are in townhouses and three are specialist flats for disabled students. All of the accommodation is rated BREEAM Excellent and has just received a 2008 BREEAM Award in recognition of this. The Eco Residence has been constructed using timber sourced from sustainable, managed forests, which at Lancaster, has meant that the carbon footprint of the build was reduced by 30%.
A similar scheme is being used for the first time by students at the University of Kent's new Woolf College. Here, 544 eco-friendly rooms have been built in both the cluster and studio layout and students will also benefit from a new 500-seat lecture theatre built by UPP, which is due to open in the new year.
At the residences, sustainable features range from roof mounted solar thermal panels for preheating the hot water and lighting controlled by Passive Infra Red (PIR) units to enhanced air tightness and insulation levels. Furthermore, the occupying students are encouraged to live an eco-friendly lifestyle - they can monitor utility consumption online on a real time basis, while recycling schemes are integrated into the accommodation.
Sean O'Shea, chief executive of UPP, said:
"With sustainability high on everyone's agenda, we believe that students should be setting an example of living in an environmentally-friendly way. Our Eco Residence model, first introduced in Lancaster, has been a real success. Now that more universities are signing up for sustainable accommodation, their students will reap the benefits and be able to set the standard."
Next year, students at Leeds Metropolitan University will also be able to move into sustainable accommodation, as the University has just entered into an agreement for UPP to develop the Eco Residence model at its Carnegie Village campus. This will include two sustainable units which are being built to German passivhaus standard, in order to ensure they are so well insulated that no heating will be necessary.
ENDS
For more information, please contact:
Ian Lindsley, Ben Russell, Fran O’Leary, Jefferson CommunicationsTel: +44 (0)20 7256 8912
Email:
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Notes to Editors University Partnerships Programme (UPP) is the trading name of the UPP Group of companies. It specialises in funding, developing and operating student accommodation schemes. It has invested almost £1 billion in the higher education sector and plans to invest a further £1 billion over the next two years.
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