119 Ebury Street has become the first listed residential building to achieve BREEAM “Outstanding.”

Following a final review from BRE, a globally recognised sustainability benchmarking organisation, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland (Grosvenor) has secured the first ever BREEAM Outstanding rating for a listed residential retrofit.  The three apartments at 119 Ebury Street in Belgravia secured final scores of 89.2, 90 and 90% - the highest ratings to date for a BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment - and have been designed to reduce carbon emissions by more than 75% from the property pre-development, 30 years ahead of the national target of 80% by 2050.

Grosvenor, in collaboration with Westminster City Council and Historic England, chose the project to investigate the extent to which listed, heritage buildings can be made more environmentally sustainable. Its performance will be monitored and compared with a neighbouring property during the next two years using real-time data to accurately gauge the success of the project.

Victoria Herring, Director of Refurbishment and Retrofit, London estate, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland, said: “Meaningful carbon reduction is a huge challenge for Grosvenor, the wider property industry and the country as a whole.   That is why we’re taking these measures and we hope 119 Ebury Street will make a valuable contribution that we can apply across our estate and that others can learn from too.”

The property, a previously run-down hotel in need of renovation, was carefully reconfigured by David Morley Architects and construction firm Grangewood to create three bright and spacious apartments ranging in size from two to three bedrooms.

The property’s original period features have been preserved and enhanced, whilst innovative new sustainable designs have been introduced to help minimise emissions. These include internal wall insulation, rainwater harvesting, PV panels and whole house ventilation and heat recovery.

As well as setting a new industry standard, the apartments also offer a number of benefits to residents including lower energy bills, improved indoor air quality and better sound proofing. Tenants living in sustainably retrofitted properties such as these can expect to save up to 50% per year on their heating bills due to better insulation.

119 Ebury Street forms part of Grosvenor’s wider sustainability initiative which seeks to reduce carbon emissions across its London estate by 50% by 2030. This goal is made more challenging due to the fact that 25% of properties on the estate are listed.

The completion of 119 Ebury Street follows Grosvenor’s delivery of several other sustainably retrofitted properties across the estate. Three rental properties (one in Mayfair and two in Belgravia) last year set a new industry standard, becoming London’s first ever rental properties to achieve the highly regarded “EnerPHit Passivhaus” accolade.

David Morley Architects’ Head of Environmental Design, Jennifer Juritz said: “This exemplary retrofit project has been a fascinating creative challenge from conception to completion. The opportunity provided to us by Grosvenor and Westminster City Council has allowed us to reimagine a neglected property of historic significance into highly sustainable 21st century homes.

“119 Ebury Street shows that with sensitive design, innovative low carbon solutions can be combined with historic fabric enabling our city’s heritage of older buildings to remain protected whilst contributing to a modern environmentally conscious built environment that is well suited to contemporary lifestyles.”

Eight Associates acted as the Energy specialist, BREEAM Assessor and BREEAM Accredited Professional for the refurbishment. Ben Holmes, sustainability consultant, Eight Associates said: "Achieving the first BREEAM Outstanding certification for a listed domestic refurbishment, and the highest BREEAM Domestic Refurbishment score achieved to date, sets the standard for what is possible in a heritage context. Grosvenor's commitment to raising the bar on sustainability standards in listed buildings empowered the design team to be innovative in how they tackled the challenges and achieved the targets." 

Mike Stevens, Grangewood Managing Director said: “The project is the culmination of three years of hard work and commitment by the team. We’re incredibly proud of what we’ve achieved and what this means for the wider industry and many thousands of heritage buildings that make up the unique fabric of Greater London.”  

This press release was orginally published on the Grosvenor website, here. 

For more information contact:
Naomi Curtis
Press Office
020 7312 6479/6101
pressoffice@grosvenor.com

Notes to Editors
Grosvenor Britain & Ireland

Grosvenor Britain & Ireland creates and manages high-quality neighbourhoods across the UK and Ireland. The company’s diverse property development, management and investment portfolio includes Grosvenor’s London estate, comprising 300 acres of Mayfair and Belgravia, in which it has a £1bn planned investment programme. Other developments include elsewhere in London and Oxford, Cambridge, Edinburgh and Southampton. As at 31 December 2015, Grosvenor Britain & Ireland had £5.7bn of assets under management.

Grosvenor Britain & Ireland is part of Grosvenor Group, a privately owned property group active in some of the world’s most dynamic cities. www.grosvenor.com   
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