Llanelli primary school on track to become most environmentally-friendly in Wales

LLANELLI’S Ysgol Ffwrnes is on track to become the first Welsh primary school to achieve an ‘outstanding’ BREEAM rating – the highest possible environmental rating for a building.

Currently under construction, the school has already received an outstanding rating at design stage from the Building Research Establishment’s Environmental Assessment Method, which is recognised as the standard for best practice in sustainable building design.

The building will be assessed again one year after completion – due January 2015 – and if it continues to achieve BREEAM outstanding it will be ranked in the top three most environmentally-friendly primary schools in the UK.

The 472-pupil nursery and primary school is also set to achieve an Energy Performance Certificate rating of A+, which means, when in use, it will have a carbon footprint of zero.

The Welsh-medium school is being delivered by Carmarthenshire County Council, in partnership with Llanelli-based contractor WRW Ltd, as part of the £167million Modernising Education Programme (MEP).

Designed by the council’s Property Projects and Design section, the school features a massive 700m2 of photovoltaic panels on its roof.

Other energy efficient features include its highly insulated fabric, solar shading and solar control glazing, hi-tech air control, air source heat pumps, highly efficient gas boilers, sensor-controlled lighting and an ecologically-rich woodland setting featuring a series of ponds.

Cllr Colin Evans, Executive Board Member for Technical Services, said: “We are hugely proud of this achievement, which puts the building on track to become the first Welsh primary school to achieve the BREEAM rating on completion.

“The fact that we have already achieved the outstanding rating at design stage illustrates the lengths to which we have gone to provide a school which is truly sustainable, not only in educational terms, but in social, economic and environmental terms too.”