Queen's Award winners!
Dated: 20/04/2009
Green Building Store honoured in today's awards
Sustainable building products supplier Green Building Store has won a Queen's Award for Enterprise: Sustainable Development 2009, it was announced today (Tuesday 21 April 2009). The company has won the award because of its 'pioneering approach to sustainability' and for delivering 'cutting edge sustainable products to the market'. Earlier this year Green Building Store launched a range of Passivhaus products and is a passionate proponent of Passivhaus design, which can create buildings which use 90% less energy than the UK average.The company has pioneered sustainable practices in window manufacture through its own Ecoplus range of timber windows and doors and also offers leading edge water-saving products.
The Queen's Award recognises the role played by Green Building Store in developing the market for sustainable building products: "Green Building Store's actions and achievements have not only delivered cutting edge sustainable products to the market, but in so doing have progressed the nature of this market-place itself". Green Building Store's wider activities and initiatives were also praised for serving to "disseminate and normalise the concept of sustainable building products... driving broader competitor best practice in the process".
Launched in 1995, Green Building Store supplies timber windows and doors, water-saving sanitaryware, Passivhaus products and natural building materials throughout the UK, via its mailorder and online store (www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk). Green Building Store's Ecoplus range of windows and doors are made at its workshops in Yorkshire and have pioneered the use of FSC (Forest Stewardship Council) Pure 100% certified timber and ultra efficient glazing in window manufacture. Green Building Store is also a strong advocate of Passivhaus design which it believes offers the most effective - and cost-effective - way to improve the energy efficiency of buildings and respond to the urgent threat posed by climate change.
Chris Herring, Green Building Store Director said of the company's Queen's Award: "Our Queen's Award is a fantastic recognition of all the work we have done over the last 14 years in pushing the sustainability agenda in the building sector. We will continue to offer leading edge sustainable building products for homes and all types of buildings - providing radical solutions to the urgent threat posed by climate change".
The Queen's Award will be presented to Green Building Store Directors and staff at a ceremony later in the year.
Notes for the Editor
Also available:
Interviews
Interviews with Green Building Store Directors can be arranged either over the 'phone, in person or at our offices/ workshops. Please ring Chayley or Abi to arrange: 01484 461705
Photographic images
• High-res images of Green Building Store products and staff are available to download from: www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk/press.php
Background briefings
About Green Building Store
Established in 1995, Green Building Store is a specialist manufacturer/ supplier of: FSC timber windows and doors; water-efficient toilets and sanitaryware; Passivhaus products; and natural building materials. Founded by three experienced building professionals Bill Butcher, Chris Herring and Steve Slator, the company grew out of their frustration with the poor availability of ecological building products. The company is committed to doing all it can to help tackle climate change and to champion best practice in low carbon and sustainable construction. Green Building Store is based in Heath House Mill, Bolster Moor, Golcar in the hills above Huddersfield. www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk, Tel: 01484 461705
About Ecoplus windows & doors
Green Building Store's Ecoplus range of timber windows and doors is manufactured in Yorkshire and has been at the cutting edge of sustainable design since its launch in 1995.
Timber - Green Building Store has also been a pioneer in introducing Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified timber for fenestration products in the UK. FSC certification indicates that the wood used to make a product comes from a forest which is well managed according to strict environmental, social and economic standards. In 2005 Green Building Store's relaunched Ecoplus range was the first UK manufactured window range to use FSC Pure 100% timber. FSC UK commented: "Green Building Store has shown an outstanding commitment to offering products from well-managed forests". [The company has since launched three other window ranges using FSC Pure 100% timber, namely, Ecocontract, Ecopassiv and Ecoclad.]
Energy - When Ecoplus first launched in 1995, it offered U values at least 50% more thermally efficient than the then Building Regulations. Green Building Store has constantly worked to improve its thermal efficiency even further - with the Ecoplus whole window U value now as low as 0.8W/m2K.
[U values measure thermal transmittance through a building component eg a roof, wall, window, door or floor. The lower the U value, the better the thermal efficiency.]
About Passivhaus
Passivhaus design can help create buildings which use 90% less energy than standard UK buildings. It is based on the principle that reducing heating loss to the minimum is the most cost-effective way of creating a low carbon building. Instead of complicated design and expensive bolt-on renewables, Passivhaus design relies on a simple 'tea cosy' effect of maximising the use of super insulation and stringent airtightness. By combining this with passive solar gain and mechanical ventilation and heat recovery systems, Passivhaus design can create healthy and comfortable buildings that require minimal heating. Green Building Store believes the UK's strategy on 'low carbon' homes needs to be urgently revised to put greater emphasis on energy efficiency, airtightness and other Passivhaus design principles and away from 'eco-bling' and expensive bolt-on renewables. Green Building Store's Passivhaus products include: windows and doors; airtightness membranes and tapes; and mechanical ventilation and heat recovery systems (MVHR).
About water-saving sanitaryware
Green Building Store offers sanitaryware to high water efficiency standards supplying a unique range of water-saving WCs, urinals, taps, shower fittings and flow regulators. As far as we are aware, Green Building Store's ES4 WC is the most water-efficient siphon flush WC available in the UK, offering long term leak-free water savings. Its Airflush waterless urinal offers a revolutionary design which avoids the use of consumables, offering odour-free low maintenance operation. An independent Environment Agency report found the ES4 WCs to have high performance levels when installed in a Hastings primary school. (www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk/es4report.pdf)
PRESS CONTACT:
Chayley Collis or Abi Anderson, Tel: 01484 461705, www.greenbuildingstore.co.uk