The Dyson blog: Escaping the Devil's Snare: Pioneering sustainable and innovative approaches in construction

He is committed to the betterment of lives through individual and collective endeavours.. As well as his business and pharmaceutical experience, Dyson is Professor of Human Enterprise at the University of Birmingham, focussing on project management, business strategy and collaboration.. Additionally, he is a qualified counsellor with a private practice and looks to bring the understanding of human behaviour into business and projects.. To learn more about our Design to Value philosophy, read Design to Value: The architecture of holistic design and creative technology by Professor John Dyson, Mark Bryden, Jaimie Johnston MBE and Martin Wood.

The precious metals are obtained in raw form from many sources, but most come from catalytic converters in car exhausts.The metals, once purified, don’t look like much – a grey powder – but they are hugely expensive..

The Dyson blog: Escaping the Devil's Snare: Pioneering sustainable and innovative approaches in construction

They take a product like a catalytic converter, and the first process is to smelt it.They start with just 0.3% of valuable metal by volume and after smelting, it's still a very small quantity of metal, but it’s at a size that they can put it in the back of a truck to be taken to the refinery where the valuable metals are extracted.. Their present refinery was built in 1965, and is in need of replacement.Our first job was to look at all sorts of options about where they might build a new refinery, from the UK to Europe to Asia.

The Dyson blog: Escaping the Devil's Snare: Pioneering sustainable and innovative approaches in construction

For a number of reasons, the UK was the best option.Then of course we had to find a suitable location in the UK and masterplan the site.

The Dyson blog: Escaping the Devil's Snare: Pioneering sustainable and innovative approaches in construction

The conclusion we came to was to knock down a series of existing buildings close to the current facility.

This would allow us to build the new refinery while keeping the old one going for as long as possible, before transferring operations to the new one.. As you can imagine, a refinery is a hugely technical building and the M&E element is the most significant part of the project.Comparison embodied carbon targets from RIBA, LETI and GLA.

Achieving net zero operational and embodied carbon with lean design and modern methods of construction.Bryden Wood’s strategy to achieve net zero carbon building is based on the adoption of a clear hierarchy for operational and embodied carbon..

In order to substantially reduce operational carbon, our designs will adopt the following hierarchy:.Be Lean (passive): minimise the use of energy via passive design measures such as optimised form, orientation and window-to-wall ratio (WWR); design energy efficient facades that incorporate thermal insulation, high airtightness, external shading and solar control glazing; use of natural ventilation and thermal mass and design transitional spaces and low thermal expectation spaces.. Be Lean (active): minimise the use of energy via energy efficient lighting (LED, daylight and presence control sensors) and ventilation systems (demand control ventilation, low SFPs, heat recovery); use technologies such as waste-water heat recovery and specify energy efficient lifts and appliances/equipment.. Be Clean: connect to district heating networks that have plans for decarbonisation; explore plans and feasibility of local hydrogen district networks.. Be Green: use onsite low and zero carbon technologies such as air source heat pumps (ASHP), ground source heat pumps (GSHP), photovoltaic panels, solar collectors for domestic hot water and wind generation among others.. Be Smart: implement innovative technologies such as electric batteries, heat storage, post-occupancy evaluation and develop smart-metering systems..