Birmingham Friends of the Earth’s building ‘The Warehouse’ is typical of much of Birmingham’s housing stock. The majority of it is Victorian, but it has a few 1950’s and 90’s add-ons. This makes it ripe to become a demonstration building, showing how we can lower our dependency on fossil fuels.
To do this, we will be starting a few substantial refurbishment projects:
Centralising our heating system and stopping our reliance on fossil fuels by purchasing a biomass boiler that will be fuelled by the waste from British tree surgeons;
Installing solid wall insulation in the reception area, adding more natural lighting and laying a natural rubber floor – this will increase our energy efficiency whilst providing a more pleasant reception where the Birmingham Environmental Education Project can give more support and guidance to people that want to live more sustainable lifestyles.
We will also be making substantial improvements to the accessibility of the building by putting in an accessible loo and an access ramp to get from the meeting room to the reception, kitchen and toilet areas.
This is just the start though. Next year we hope to see even bigger and better projects to make the building more sustainable. Watch this space…..
