First excellent environmental status for a UK care home

Castleoak, the specialist care development and build group has achieved the first “excellent” international, environmental standard for a UK care home.

Barchester Healthcare’s Wadhurst Manor has achieved the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method (BREEAM). This rates the sustainability of buildings, based on scores given against a wide range of areas including energy, transport, water, materials, and waste management.

Aiming to minimise environmental impact by ensuring sustainability best practices are in place while also lowering running costs through energy efficiency are also taken into consideration.

Wadhurst Manor in East Sussex is a 65 bedroom care home and was handed over to Barchester Healthcare last September. Development was backed by Bridges Sustainable Property Fund, which requires projects to demonstrate environmental leadership.

The home has achieved official BREEAM Excellent status following the post-construction assessment after already meeting the BREEAM Excellent requirements at the design stage.

Colwyn Knight, group innovation director, said: “This is a really significant step for Castleoak, reinforcing our position at the forefront of sustainable development in the care sector.

“We’re hopeful this success will be repeated at Juniper House, Brackley, another of our joint venture developments with Bridges Sustainable Property Fund for Barchester Healthcare, which is on track to become the UK’s first PassivHaus care home.”

Barchester Healthcare recently appointed Ben Collard as environmental manager and he is committed to increasing the energy efficiency across Barchester’s portfolio. He said: “Barchester is pleased to be working with a developer that is as committed to building energy efficient and sustainable care homes as Castleoak is.

“We are delighted to offer environmentally aware residents the ability to live in the UK’s first BREEAM Excellent rated care home.”

Wadhurst Manor includes many sustainable features including composting and recycling facilities, sustainably-sourced timber, strong day-lighting, low flow taps, energy efficient appliances, low-energy lighting and bat boxes built into the roof.

Photo: Barchester Healthcare's Wadhurst Manor in East Sussex