When designing and building Toxteth TV reducing energy bills thereby improving economic viability was a major goal. We strive to achieve environmental good practise, we have been recycling paper, cardboard and glass for the last six years in line with our Environmental Policy. We have also recycled office furniture, computers and monitors, wooden palates, building materials, in fact anything that could be recycled has been.
In the last two years we have installed two living roofs on two of the four buildings that we own and manage. The first one was installed on the Toxteth TV studio roof in April 07 and is a Green Roof. It has at least four different types of Sedums (drought resistant plants) and sits on recycled crushed brick and recycled foam. Not only does it benefit local biodiversity, it also benefits the building in that it prolongs the life of the roof by up to twenty years and provides insulation during the winter. Throughout the summer it provides an ambient temperature lessening the carbon footprint of the building. Furthermore it utilises rain water so there is far less water run off from the roof and less work for the drains to do.
We’ve installed a Brown Roof at John Archer Hall which is also a “living roof” but different to a green roof in that most of the plants and insect life are left to their own devices to colonise the roof with little input from ourselves only to add some wildflower seeds and a very small number of natural aquatic plants.
The living roof at John Archer Hall has full disabled access and will be used by other agencies such as Natural England, Mersey Forests and the North Merseyside Biodiversity Action Agency to educate and promote living roofs in the North West.
The Project received £24,942 funding from SITA Trust, through the Landfill Communities Fund. SITA Trust distributes funding through the Landfill Communities Fund.Funding is available for community and environmental improvement projects within ten miles of an active SITA UK landfill site. Since 1997 the Trust has allocated over £54m to hundreds of projects across the UK.
For further information on funding, please call the Trust on (01454) 262 910
or visit www.sitatrust.org.uk
