Morrisons scores 'excellent' green rating

A new Morrisons store has been awarded the BREEAM 2006 "excellent" rating.

Morrisons Kidderminster, which will open its doors in September, is the first retail development in the UK to be awarded the environmental award.

The building was designed by Bowman Riley Architects of Skipton with consultant Faber Maunsell acting as BREEAM assessor.

Susannah Goddard, Faber Maunsell’s sustainability consultant, said: "Morrisons wanted to find an environmentally sustainable store design and technology blueprint which embraced ecology, the health and wellbeing of occupants, pollution, water, materials and waste as well as transport and management with a view to establishing a target design standard for all its developments in the future."

Her firm was called in to review how the usual Morrison’s store design could be enhanced to achieve the "excellent" rating.

Built on a brownfield site which had largely been used for industrial purposes for the last 50 years, it has been designed to be environmentally sustainable and to provide Morrisons with a blueprint for future developments.

Darren Bush, design team leader at Bowman Riley, said: “The requirements outlined by the planners were for the design to be sympathetic to the existing listed building that has been retained on the site and I believe this has been achieved.

“The ecology of the site has been respected and enhanced and the team involved on the project has shown a genuine care for the wildlife and the natural habitat.

“Additionally, we have been able to provide a standard Morrison’s store layout whist retaining the heritage of the site.”

A holistic approach was adopted that would address all BREEAM sustainability criteria so that the site scored highly across all categories.

The development will include extensive landscaping, ecological improvements and woodland management to enhance the look of the local area and benefit local wildlife including birds, dragonflies, otters and fish.