Photography courtesy of CA Building Products
Client: Tesco / Prologis®
Project Architects: SGP Architects
Main Contractor: Volker Fitzpatrick
Roofing Contractor: CA Roofing Services
System Manufacturer: CA Building Products
Products: Colorcoat HPS200 Ultra® in Goosewing Grey, Colorcoat Prisma® in Oyster and Alaska Grey
Year: 2011

The 88,000m² distribution centre, was built for Tesco at Prologis’ International Rail Freight Terminal (DIRFT II) in Daventry, and was designed to achieve BREEAM ‘Excellent’ accreditation and an EPC ‘A’ rating, helping Tesco in its goal of becoming a zero carbon business by 2050. 

The challenge

Prologis is the leading developer and owner of logistics property in the UK and worldwide. As part of their business strategy, in the UK, all new Prologis buildings are designed to be sustainable and their environmental performance is measured, this includes the carbon footprint of all the components used and the operational energy performance.

As part of this requirement, the building had to achieve an air-tightness of 2.5m³/hr/m²@ 50Pa. High levels of air-tightness reduce the need for heating, enhance the EPC rating and help ensure compliance with Part L.

The solution

To meet Prologis’ requirement for measured and reduced embodied carbon, CA Group supplied Colorcoat HPS200 Ultra® and Colorcoat Prisma® pre-finished steel with Confidex Sustain^®. A combined guarantee that covers the durability of the Colorcoat^® product for up to 40 years, whilst also ensuring full tracebility and carbon offsetting of all the elements of the pre-finished steel and cladding system, including insulation and fixings; ultimately providing a carbon neutral building envelope. Any further carbon emissions were then mitigated by Prologis through their environmental charity Cool Earth’s work to reduce tropical deforestation.

According to CA Group Development Director, Tesco’s approach to the reduction of CO₂ emissions is having positive impact all the way down the supply chain. He explained: “The targets set by Tesco, and other companies committed to aggressively reducing their carbon emissions, can only be achieved if the same rules apply to each link in the supply chain.”

“Over the past five years we have successfully reduced our CO₂ emissions, resulting from the distribution of materials used in our roof and wall constructions, by more than 35% by changing our procurement and delivery processes.”

To reduce the operational energy Prologis specified CA Group’s Twin-Therm® built-up system for the roof and walls, which on testing gave an air-tightness of 1.47m³/hr/m² @ 50Pa, which was below the required 2.5m³/hr/m² @ 50Pa and helped greatly in achieving the EPC ‘A’ rating.