CANADA HOUSE ACHIEVES GOLD SKA RATING, THE HIGHEST ACCREDITATION THAT CAN BE RECEIVED FOR THE SCHEME.

Canada House is a restored textile warehouse on Chepstow Street in Central Manchester. Manchester was predominantly an industrial area in the early 19th Century, home to cotton mills, engineering works and iron foundries. H.S. Booth & Company constructed a number of large modern packing warehouses on Oxford Street and Chepstow Street, culminating in the construction of their last building, Block D, now known as Canada House.

Designed by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) in 2009, the SKA rating scheme is an environmental certification system that evaluates commercial fit-out projects according to a set of sustainable ‘good practice’ criteria. The scheme consists of more than a hundred measures covering areas such as energy, CO2 emissions, waste, water, materials, pollution and wellbeing.

All of our Kinrise buildings are sustainably designed, centering human, social, environmental and financial capital at the heart of each refurbishment project. Our intent to create spaces that will enable the community and the environment to thrive is evident throughout – from building a relationship with tenants that is fair and equal, to sourcing furniture and materials from local craftsmen.

We partnered with Joseph Studios to design and build a moveable kitchen unit for the co-working space in Canada House. They build high quality furniture using new and recycled materials, while incorporating their social impact strategy of transforming the lives of local people through coaching and up-skilling.

A sustainably sourced ‘U-Build’ modular pod has been installed in the co-working space in place of a traditional meeting room. The innovative installation by London based architects, Studio Bark have an ethos engrained in environmental and ambitious design, while delivering a cost conscious solution to architecture. The pod has been sound-proofed with sheep’s wool, a material that we are keen to use to insulate more of our projects with in the future.

Rainwater harvesting systems have been installed in Canada House and connected to the existing pipework to save on water use throughout the building.

We are trialling the installation of air quality sensors in Canada House which are tracking the levels of:

- Humidity

- CO2

- Chemicals (VOCs)

- Temperature

- Fine dust

This gives us the tools to improve air quality for the health and safety of our tenants and improved productivity of tenant businesses. Air sensors can pick up when levels of CO2 are too high and help avoid any unpleasant side effects by prompting tenants to open windows.

We have a great responsibility in delivering the best we can to make the spaces we create for people work well for the environment too. We don’t believe in a supply chain that is single use or throwaway – we want to build communities and environments that will thrive for years to come.