Wolseley Sustainable Building Center

The Wolseley Sustainable Building Center is a purpose designed showcase for a massive range of more sustainable construction products and materials to promote sustainability. The award-winning building not only features the sustainable products and materials in the fabric and building services but it has rapidly become a centre of excellence for advice and guidance regarding national availability of lower impact products for green building.

The building took 10 months to complete and was officially opened during May 2008 and as well as 2 display galleries and a 40 seat lecture theatre, the SBC allows access to many sustainable products which are normally not available to view. Through the clever uses of cut-away panels and viewing galleries visitors can experience a real working example of a ‘sustainable building’.

In the first 2 years of operation the SBC has received over 12,000 visitors from a wide range of professionals, advisors, estate owners and government departments, all eager to understand the possibilities and practicalities of modern construction products.

The BREEAM ‘Excellent’ building has been featured in many publications and case studies throughout the industry and its location at Royal Leamington Spa is easily accessible by road, rail and air.

In terms of building services the facility includes working examples of:

Ground Source Heat Pumps
Air Source Heat Pumps
Biomass Boilers
Solar Thermal Systems
Micro CHP
Photovoltaic Systems
Ventilation Systems

Water efficiency is demonstrated with:

Low Flush WC Suites
Waterless Urinals
Low Flow Taps
Aerated Showering Products
Rainwater Harvesting
Grey water Harvesting

The site features a sustainable urban drainage system including:

Permeable Paving
Attenuation Systems

In addition visitors will be able to experience a wide choice of insulants, building materials and lighting systems.

The building continues to evolve reflecting the latest product and technology advances. Since opening there have been changes in lighting, roofing, heat pumps, photovoltaics, solar panels, MVHR, street furniture and CHP. The building will continue to showcase new developments as they become commercially available.

The dedicated team working from the building have extensive experience in the industry and they continue to monitor changes in regulation and incentive programmes ensuring that Plumb Center customers can fully exploit the flood of newly emerging opportunities with sustainable products and technology.

The latest exciting chapter to the development of the SBC is the establishment of training facilities to allow professionals to achieve nationally accredited skills training through a range of renewable energy and water efficiency courses.