Our building
The Derbyshire Eco Centre has been built using sustainable methods, materials and technology to create an all weather facility to deliver heritage building skills, sustainable technologies, rural crafts, arts, environment and energy saving courses.
We've designed and built the centre and the surrounding landscape to gain an 'excellent' standard from the Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Measure.
We have been short listed in 2012 for a Green Gown Award by the Environmental Association of Universities and Colleges. It is in the category of 'Colleges and Smaller Institutions'. For more details about the awards go to Green Gown Awards (opens in a new window) (opens in a new window).
For our second round Green Gown submission we have referenced the various documents that are found in our related documents attachments below.
The centre is constructed using sustainable methods, materials and technologies including local stone, a living green roof, rainwater harvesting, air source heat pump and solar panels.
A second development phase is planned to provide further sustainable technologies with the aim of making the site self sufficient in energy.
Our facilities include:
a large, multi-purpose area for practical work in heritage building skills, renewable energy, arts and crafts
an adaptable 'clean' teaching space, with network connections, for theory, meetings and lectures
an outside area with canopy for practical work
an office base
outdoor areas for craft and energy demonstrations
a social and exhibition area
toilet, washroom and shower facilities.
The centre cost £1.34 million and was funded by Derbyshire County Council, The Skills Funding Agency and the Derbyshire Economic Partership.
The construction of the building is important in promoting sustainability to learners, partners, community groups, organisations and the wider public.
Related documents
The following documents are in Portable Document Format (PDF). You can download software to view PDF documents for free from the Adobe website (opens in a new window)
The following documents are in Word format. You can download software to view Word documents for free from the Word viewer page (opens in a new window) of the Microsoft website.
- The Travel Plan (215KB)
- The Renewable Energy Feasibility Study (5347KB)
- The Design Brief of the Eco Centre (1543KB)
- The Design Booklet (2484KB)