Insight
Helping the Ministry of Justice work towards a net zero carbon prison estate
21 Jul 2021
Ali Ratcliffe
Director
There is no doubt that reaching net zero needs to be a central focus for everyone working within the built environment in order to meet both government and industry targets. This week marks Net Zero Week, the UK’s national awareness week highlighting and understanding the challenges and changes required, as well as sharing expert advice. Our Associate Director for Sustainability, Ali Ratcliffe, brings us up to date on one of the biggest schemes for the Ministry of Justice (MoJ), which is working towards its ambition to achieve a net zero carbon estate.
We were appointed to design building reference designs and four new prisons for the MoJ for its New Prisons Programme (NPP) in late 2020, and work is progressing really well so far, with the first prison – HMP Full Sutton in East Yorkshire – having submitted a reserve matters application already.
The designs are being developed through close collaboration with the MoJ on its existing ‘baseline design’ for prisons to deliver site specific designs for each of the new prisons. They will build on the ‘common’ design being implemented at HMP Five Wells and HMP Glen Parva to introduce further opportunities to implement modern methods of construction (MMC) and meet ambitious new sustainability targets in support of achieving a net zero carbon estate.
We cannot neglect sustainability aspects for new prisons, and any being designed and built from now on will need to deliver step change towards carbon neutrality, supporting the UK government’s overall goal to become a carbon neutral country by 2050.
The MoJ is looking to modernise its estate with the construction of new, greener prisons, cutting some 280,000 tonnes of CO2 and saving more than £100 million in energy costs over the next 60 years. Plus, future prison expansions will also adhere to similar standards.
All designs keep this in mind, incorporating a range of sustainability features to reduce carbon emissions by at least 70 per cent when compared to prisons already under construction, including heat pumps, efficient lighting systems and thousands of solar panels to reduce energy demand by half.
These four new prisons are also seeking to achieve the gold-standard ‘outstanding’ BREEAM Rating, positioning the MoJ as a leading public sector example in realising both sustainability and MMC advancements.
Achieving a net zero carbon estate is a complex problem, especially for such a vast and varied estate that has very specific security needs, but this is a key target for the MoJ and we are excited to be helping realise this ambition.
Our appointment to this project sees us operating under Perfect Circle’s unique collaboration, with procurement and delivery being accelerated through SCAPE, the UK’s leading public sector procurement authority. SCAPE’s direct award and fully performance managed framework will also help drive collaboration, efficiency, time and cost savings across the four sites.