Green Halls

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 unique 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 3 are specialist flats for disabled students. All of the accommodation is rated BREEAM Excellent and has been constructed using timber sourced from sustainable, managed forests. At Lancaster, 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 Virginia Woolf campus. Here, 544 eco-friendly rooms have been built in both the cluster and studio layout and it is hoped that CO2 emissions will be 25% lower than the rates required by building regulations. Students at Kent 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.

For more on this, have a look at the video on our video section.