Inside The Most Sustainable Construction Project In Europe

Added: 2026-05-14

[00:00:00]Okay, so I am standing in one of the most sustainable construction projects in Europe as we speak. This school is completely made from timber frame. The insulation that it's using is literally recycled newspaper. You can't get much more sustainable than that. This job is breaking boundaries and today I'm explaining it all. Not only does this building produce as much energy as it uses, it's also built almost entirely from timber and sourced from a forest just a few miles away. With every tree replanted afterwards, everything from the materials to the layout to the connection with nature itself has been carefully designed to make this one of the most sustainable schools in Europe.

[00:00:41]But trust me, that is just the start.

[00:00:44]Now, in order for this to become the most sustainable school in Europe, but has to achieve five different sustainability targets, most buildings don't even achieve one of these standards. This project is trying to achieve all five at the same time. And today, you're going to learn exactly how that's being done. And at the end of the video, you'll learn which one is the most important. This might just blow your mind. So, without further ado, ladies and gentlemen, let's get right into it. To break it down one by one, first of all, this building has achieved net zero carbon, which essentially means it uses as much energy as it creates throughout the entire year. On this job, we've got solar panels, which means that it creates energy using the sun. So any of the energy that the building uses is created by the sun, which essentially means it is self-sufficient, which is pretty awesome. This building has great levels of insulation, which I'll touch on in a second. It has airtight construction, meaning there's no air gaps throughout the building. Natural daylight comes in through all of the windows, and even the layout of the building has been optimized to maximize energy efficiency. Secondly, the school has achieved passive house standards.

[00:01:53]Now, back in the early 1990s, the word passive house was developed and the single goal was to reduce the amount of energy that a building requires to run efficiently. Now, this job has triple glazed windows. The insulation it is using is used from recycled newspaper that we're paying a factory in Denmark to bring over to Wales to actually install it. This is for sure one of the coolest parts about the entire project.

[00:02:21]Give me 50 seconds and I'll break it all down for you. This is how we insulate one of the most sustainable construction projects in Europe. This might just blow your mind. So, it all starts out here where we have bags of compressed newspaper that's basically in a packaging that we put in a grinder in the van and that will then shred it and then it will pump it into the building and into the cavity between the walls.

[00:02:46]So, this is it in action. You can see the hose that's connected to the grinder comes all the way through the building into the cavity of the wall and that is the newspaper right there. So, that's recycled newspaper. Yeah, you can see letters and stuff on it.

[00:03:00]>> That is wild. And we're putting that in the cavity to insulate it.

[00:03:04]>> Yeah.

[00:03:05]>> Wow. The professional tin for this is called cellulose insulation. And trust me, it's one of the rarest ways to insulate a building. Pretty cool if you ask me. Before we move on, please can I ask that you scroll down and hit the subscribe button because I'm only a small channel and it means so much to me. Also, feel free to follow my Instagram where I post daily. I'll see you there. Also on top of this, because it's timber frame, it's built with a lot of precision, which means that it has literally no air gaps, which means that no air leaks throughout the building, which means that any heat that is produced using heating from the energy made by the solar panels is kept within the building for a much longer period of time, which means that we are able to use it way more efficiently. In fact, on Tuesday, this job is an air test, which tests how airtight the building actually is. Now, on average in the UK, you're looking at around a score of 3 to five, but because this job is passive house, we are looking and aiming for a score of 0.6, which is crazy. When we air test a building, the whole purpose is to see how airtight it really is. Basically, we're checking how much air is leaking through tiny gaps and cracks around the building envelope. And believe it or not, the way we test this is pretty insane. We literally shut every external window and door, install a massive calibrated fan into the entrance of the building, then either suck air out of the building or blow air into it. That creates a pressure difference between the inside and outside. We then use a digital manometer, basically a pressure gauge, to measure how much air flow is needed to maintain that pressure. Okay, so the third key thing that this building has here is a standard called the wells standard. Now net zero carbon and passive house is all about how the building functions. But wells focus on the people and how the people interact with the building. This standard in fact is so detailed that it even goes down to the materials that we use. vinyl which is a floor and that is used across the entire of the UK within schools especially is not used on this job because of the toxicity levels it brings. That is pretty crazy and it's such an impressive feat for this building for this school to achieve such a good high standard. The world standard is less about the building and more about how the building makes people feel. Cleaner air, better natural light, more connection to nature. This school wasn't just designed to be energy efficient. It was designed to be healthier for the people inside it too.

[00:05:37]This is the job that keeps on giving.

[00:05:39]Title number four is Briam outstanding.

[00:05:42]Now Briam looks at the building as a whole. The water usage, the energy usage, the materials used within the building that we previously spoken about. It looks at all the factors of what it takes to construct and use a building and it gives it a score out of 10. Now, Briam outstanding is the highest you can achieve and only a few buildings in the entire of Europe have actually achieved them and this school is one of them. Now, before we move on, I just want to put this into perspective. Briam is used on projects all across Europe and in more than 100 countries worldwide. Over 600,000 buildings have been certified under the system globally. But achieving Briam outstanding, that's a completely different level. According to the MBS, an outstanding rating puts the building in the top 1% of sustainable projects.

[00:06:34]So, out of hundreds and thousands of certified buildings, only a tiny fraction have ever reached this standard. That means the school isn't just eco-friendly, it's operating in a worldclass level of sustainability that almost no buildings ever achieve. And finally, this job has achieved the title for constructing with nature. Now, the whole idea behind this standard is that you leave the construction site that you finish better than where you found it.

[00:07:01]And ultimately, this job is going to achieve this pretty easily with the amount of things it has and the amount of sustainable features it's got going for it. All in all, this job is pretty impressive. Most developments today remove nature. Trees disappear, wildlife disappears, and fields become concrete and roads. But building with nature flips that idea completely. It means the school has been designed to actually work with nature instead of against it.

[00:07:29]Things like sustainable drainage ponds, natural planting, wildlife friendly spaces, and green infrastructure have all been built into the project from day one. Even the timber used in the building came from responsibly managed forests where trees are replanted afterwards. So, this isn't just about building a school. It's about creating an environment that's healthier for both people and wildlife. You could even argue that this standard is the most important because around 41% of all UK species have declined and wild bird populations have dropped by millions since the 1970s. So, it's important that when we build these buildings, we also promote nature. I mean, I just can't get over the amount of timber there is around me. I know I said it's used, but timber frame, and it they it has used timber frame, but my gosh, this job is seriously impressive. And that is pretty much the video. I hope you enjoyed. I hope you learned something new. If you have taken away something, then please consider subscribing cuz I'm just a small channel and it means so much to me. But yeah, that is it. Thank you for watching. I hope you enjoyed and I will see you in the next one. Take care everyone. I'll see you soon.