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Ben Stubbs is Head of Sustainable Built Environment at UCL
Ben Stubbs, Senior Sustainability Manager at UCL
I'm head of sustainable built environment, part of Sustainable UCL. I've been at UCL for eight years. My particular area is the built environment, which includes the design, construction, operation and maintenance of our buildings.
For new developments, we often have the biggest opportunities to make an impact in terms of sustainable design and construction.
Building sustainability is often invisible. It's in the materials, insulation buried in the walls, lighting systems. People shouldn’t notice it, as long as they're comfortable and happy in their environment.
We're not interested in bells and whistles. Sometimes people say: ‘Oh you're the guy that puts solar panels and green roofs on buildings…’. Those things can be very important elements of a wider project, but aren’t the be-all and end-all.
I work closely with the design team, the architects and engineers to pin down what the sustainable design requirements are. We have national requirements, building regulations that come through our local planning system. We also have UCL’s Sustainable Building Standard, that goes over and above the regular standards.
I'm on a constant learning journey. I'm not an expert in lab operations, so you have to listen very carefully to your colleagues to see what they need and what will work for them. “I'm on a constant learning journey. I'm not an expert in lab operations, so you have to listen very carefully to your colleagues to see what they need and what will work for them. I'm on a constant learning journey. I'm not an expert in lab operations, so you have to listen very carefully to your colleagues to see what they need and what will work for them.
Our standards covers things like energy efficiency - making sure that our new buildings have good levels of insulation and air tightness, so that they're easier to heat and cool, efficient electrical and mechanical systems and ensuring that we manage those systems efficiently.
We look at renewable energy – we have some solar panels installed on the building and on the student accommodation behind, which provide us with some carbon operational energy.
We try to use materials with the lowest possible environmental impacts, like putting recycled content in concrete and using timber from sustainably-sourced forests. All construction projects produce a lot of waste, so we look at how this is minimised and materials are recycled or reused wherever we can.
Health and well-being is also part of our remit and work closely with Pip Jackson and the inclusive environments team on this. It’s very important given the type of building that we're working in. We look at levels of daylight, thermal comfort, and the acoustics.
Everything we do around sustainability should provide value. We may ask for things which cost more, but they should save us money over time. Health and well-being are a really important part of value. We’re not just investing in a box to do a function, we’re investing money to make sure that the people that work there, and patients visiting, have the best possible environment.
I'm particularly pleased with the work we have done around active transport. We’ve created new routes through the site and there'll be good facilities for cyclists.
We have a really good process at UCL, Soft Landings, which is used across the construction industry. Its about planning buildings from the earliest design stages and making sure that what has been designed is what is delivered. We have checkpoints throughout the project and do a lot of work post-occupancy to understand how the buildings are working, and what adjustments need to be made. The work doesn't stop once the building is handed over.
We’re working towards a BREEAM certification and have been awarded an interim certification of ‘outstanding’. We have to achieve a rating of ‘excellent’, as a planning requirement from Camden, but are working to get the best rating we can. It provides us with a structure to assess a wide variety of sustainability indicators. We're lucky because ISG have their own sustainability managers, so we have regular catch ups to make sure we stay on track.
The building is performing well in terms of sustainability, but it’s not a carbon neutral building. It's always a careful balance between our sustainability ambitions at UCL and the realities of the building’s function.
Labs are incredibly energy-hungry, so we haven't always been able to hit the highest standards for energy-efficiency that we would like to. We have to be pragmatic about how we apply the sustainability principles.
I'm on a constant learning journey. I'm not an expert in lab operations, so you have to listen very carefully to your colleagues to see what they need and what will work for them. We may challenge in certain areas and see if there are slightly different ways of doing things, for example using different equipment or closing things down at night that are usually left on. But ultimately we have to make sure that the work can be accommodated.