Bowmer & Kirkland Builds UK’s Most Eco-Friendly Supermarket

Bowmer & Kirkland Builds UK’s Most Eco-Friendly Supermarket

Bowmer & Kirkland, one of the largest privately owned construction engineering and development groups in the UK has this week revealed its latest project for retailer ASDA in the form of the UK's most eco-friendly supermarket.

The £12m (store build only) project has taken 13 months to complete and is the first supermarket in the UK to feature doors on every chiller cabinet - reducing the building's electricity bill by 8%.

The building, located in Bootle near Liverpool, incorporates a number of additional environmentally responsible features including Geothermal pumps to bring up hot water from underground aquifiers, enhanced use of natural daylight using 'north lights', translucent cladding and sun pipes in the roof, ventilators recycling ambient air, environmentally friendly CO2 refrigerant, a grass roof with the entire place heated using a wood pellet-burning boiler. The building has no gas connection and its total electricity bill will be reduced by over 35%.

The appearance of the 40,000 net sq ft store is also very different from that of other supermarkets. The FSC-approved timber framed building is clad with FSC-approved timber and has been constructed using reclaimed brick sourced from Liverpool's docks. In addition to this, the roof has been constructed from recycled aluminium foil with recycled plastic bags making up the kerbs in the car park. The design has been submitted for an 'excellent' rating under the BREEAM For Retail programme.

Bowmer & Kirkland Regional Director John Carlin said: "This project is truly groundbreaking in terms of the sustainable features that have been incorporated into its construction as well as the actual materials used to form the structure of the building such as reclaimed bricks and recycled materials."

John Carlin added: "As a company we are committed to the future of sustainable building and the ASDA Bootle store has been a fantastic project to be involved in. The plan is to work with Asda to gauge the success of the features used in this store and adapt them for use in future projects."

For further information, please visit www.bandk.co.uk or call Sarah Congiu at Bowmer & Kirkland on 01773 857514