Pioneer Park

The development is made up of two and three storey enterprise buildings, including external works and landscaping. The site is located approximately 1.5 miles north of the city of Leicester and is part of its hub for high tech, low carbon and innovative businesses, including high tech knowledge based and creative companies, covering a wide range of sectors from office based uses, such as software development, through to bespoke laboratory space. Pioneer Park is located as part of the National Space Centre.

The new offices will provide space for up to 45 businesses across c.43,000 sq ft, with the purpose-built industrial units providing more than 21,500 sq ft of workspace across nine units.

The proposed building specifications are as follows:

• UKGBC Net Zero Carbon Construction and Operation Certified.
• Prime specification to include low energy LED lighting, roof mounted photovoltaic panels, air source heat pumps, and super insulation.
• Dedicated on-site parking.

As part of their ‘Levelling Up’ funding application to central government, Envision developed a Net-Zero business case for a number of development sites being brought forward by the council’s development team. We demonstrated how exemplar levels of operational and embodied carbon could be achieved within the budget of the funding application. The council were successful and Envision are now directly supporting the council’s joint venture development partners in implementing the strategies on-site. This includes undertaking a Whole Life Cycle Carbon Assessment (WLCA) at key project stages to achieve Net-Zero Carbon in construction as per UKGBC guidance.

• Envision worked with the team to set targets to help drive embodied carbon reductions. This was implemented by working with Brackley to undertake an early stage WLCA and highlight the primary contributors to the buildings embodied carbon. From this, Envision worked to implement an upfront embodied carbon target in the tender specifications for both the overall development and specific building elements on the project to ensure the carbon reduction strategy was implemented by the contractor. This project is currently under construction and Envision is continuing our Net-Zero support on the contractor end to help them accurately track data and materials required for a robust As-Built WLCA aligned with UKGBC Net-Zero Carbon Construction certification.