Thanks to the joint role Grimsby solicitor Stephen Savage has as managing director of Innovate, I was privileged to be invited to the launch event for what is officially the UK's greenest building.
While Icelandic president Olafar Grimmson was the guest of honour, it was a pleasure to go along and see exactly what can be done on a small scale to halt something that will have global effects.
At £12-million the building was by no means cheap, but it is sustainable and may well be the start of something amazing. The event too was green. We were positively encouraged to travel by train, and one bus collected us all and made the journey from Leeds Station to Thorpe Park, where the office is located.
Name badges were old invites, all food was local and even the wine was of UK origin. Then there was some excellent regional entertainment from the poet Ian McMillan.
Business just doesn't have the space to repeat in full, but the internet has no word limit I have yet found, so here goes:
You may have seen green buildings before
But you’ve never seen one like this;
Green from the ceiling to the sustainable floor
Step into this green-themed bliss;
Let me welcome you to this building
And in years to come you’ll say
When they opened the greenest office in the land
I was there that day!
And the toilets flush with rain!
Let me say that again:
The toilets flush with rain!
That’s what I call sustain...
Ability!
And its BREEAM rating
Is a dream rating
It’s a clean building
From top to toe!
This innovation
Will get a reputation
For showing the world where to go!
It’s a green building
No hesitating
So let’s get on with the show!
Because the toilets flush with rain!
Let me say that again!
The toilets flush with rain!
That’s what I call sustain...
Ability!
You’re in the greenest building in the UK
A palace of invention and thoughtful design
A place to come and marvel at every day
And think: this is green, this is fine!
This building’s a beacon, this building is local
This building’s determined to point out the way
This building is startling, this building is vocal
The ideas in this building will never decay!
(Unlike recyclable building materials
Which can be employed in construction
and sow the seed of their own regeneration
In their own destruction!)
And this building is as beautiful, believe you me
As a sunset stroll in Reykjavik beside the jewelled sea!
It’s like Iceland, this building, it’s clean and it’s green;
It thinks far outside the boring old zones;
with the best TermoDeck system I’ve ever seen
And a wall built entirely of old mobile phones;
And a roof that’s been seeded with beautiful plants
Of the local native variety too;
There’s cycle bays and cubicles to change your biking pants
And places to store your old walking shoes;
(and this building will grow and blossom
From a green idea’s germination;
It’s a monument to determination
And (recyclable) perspiration!)
And this building is as beautiful, let me tell yow
As the entire Maersk container fleet, from its stern to its prow
And the toilets flush with rain
Let me say that again
The toilets flush with rain
That’s what I call sustain...
Ability!
(Repeat chorus with audience...)
