Sustainable warehouses to meet demands of modern city
Planning permission has been granted for ‘green’ warehouse developments at two sites in central London. Located in Brixton Hill and Greenwich, the schemes are some of the first to be implemented by Bloom and will transform under-utilised real estate into ultra-urban warehouses to enable businesses to thrive and become more sustainable.
The units will target high-level environmental ratings to meet Bloom’s core sustainability objective to reduce greenhouse gas emissions through construction and operational efficiency. Motion supported the industrial investor and developer with transport and travel advice, including access, parking and servicing arrangements, as well as measures to encourage sustainable travel.
Council concerns allayed
Chris Leonard, Development Director at Bloom Developments, comments, “Motion certainly faced a challenge due to the location of the sites, the proximity to residential areas and the types of flexible use class required.” Chris adds, “The team did well to model, analyse and interpret complicated vehicle movement numbers, managing to allay council concerns, sufficient to grant consent.”
To meet additional requirements stipulated by planning and highway officers, the team supplied supplementary ‘dark kitchen’ trip analysis for the Brixton site. Motion Technical Director, Phil de Jongh, explains, “The need to accommodate bicycle and scooter demand associated with a potential dark kitchen operation was assessed, and the increased development demands were deemed to have minimal impact on the local junction operation.”
Councillor concerns about traffic generation for the Greenwich site were also addressed by Motion. Phil adds, “Measures were explored to promote electric vehicle use for the movement of outbound goods and local aggregate wharfs to reduce road trips for the delivery of goods and construction materials to the site.”
Renewable energy
The warehouses will feature green walls, green roofs, increased landscaping, bird boxes and insect hotels. Renewable energy from solar photovoltaic panels on roofs will power the warehouses. The sites will be equipped to service the latest in sustainable delivery vehicles with enhanced power supply and electric charging facilities to enable e-cargo bikes and electric vans.
Since the inception of its £250 million joint venture with Angelo Gordon in 2021, Bloom has acquired six London assets in Brixton, Greenwich, Hackney, Fulham, Camberwell and Park Royal.
Image credit: © Bloom
An abridged version of this article first appeared in the Sustainability Special Issue of Insight
