New Green Shop building will showcase sustainable construction

Earlier this month, April 2003, the Green Shop made a planning application for new building on our current site. This will be offices and store for Rainharvesting Systems and Green Shop Solar Systems plus a flexible space for meetings, seminars and training in practical green ideas and practices.

click on any image to see larger pictures of the new building, site plan and green design features

You can find out more about the building if you scroll down this page. If you would like to help support our plans it'd be helpful if you could write to Stroud District Council please include the planning application number S.03/632 in your letter and send it to:

Stroud District Council
Planning Department
Ebley Mill
Westward Road
Stroud
GL5 4UB

Aims and Use of the building

The aim of this building is to provide space for a rapidly growing business,
and at the same time allow space for training and demonstrating the new technologies open to the construction and building industry.

Design of the building - an exemplar of sustainable construction

The aim of this design is to create an exemplar of sustainable construction - a building which is of its time, yet is also of its locality. A new vision for the new century we have recently entered.

It will be constructed of locally sourced sustainable materials, that will blend into the context, but will look different from cotswold stone buildings.

The building will be timber framed with straw bale infill. The majority of the roof will be a 'living' roof of grass and wild flowers. Parts of the south roof, at a much steeper pitch to maximise solar gain, will be photovoltaic and grid connected. Solar thermal (water heating) will also be included. Due to new technologies, the merging of PV and thermal systems is to be considered nearer the installation time. The orientation of the building is for maximum solar gain.

A small free-standing wind generator is added (in addition to the one already on the Green Shop), not only as a demonstration model of our stock, but also to be connected to the National Grid feeding in surplus energy.

The Architects - leaders in ecological and sustainable architecture

The architects, Architype, are a company from the Forest of Dean who have enabled our vision to be put into form on the site. They have wide ranging experience in ecological building design including recent work on Stroud Co-housing scheme. For more information about Architype visit their website: www.architype.co.uk which is headlined

"ecological and sustainable architecture and building design: ideas into practice"

Building materials from local sources

The building will be constructed using a timber frame with straw bale infill. Timber will be from local woodlands and straw bales will come from surrounding farms.

The Rainharvesting system will obviously be our own as will the wind and solar systems as part of the continuing work we do with water and renewable energy systems.

The types of technologies demonstrated and promoted on this site are all high in added value, knowledge, and application. Only small, high tech components are stocked and distributed. All large components, such as tanks, are supplied direct from the manufacturer to the construction site.

The building will be used as an, exemplar demonstration and as a venue for courses on sustainable building techniques. We will be able to run our own training courses here.

Employment and sustainability

Bearing sustainability in mind, people who live in rural areas, should ideally not commute 15 miles each way to work in town every day. Jobs should be available where people live. I have, as you will know from my past applications, always employed local people. At present 36 plus, in both full and part time capacities. Most of these (80%) live within 3 miles, with nobody more than 5 miles away. From the Bisley Parish Appraisal (2000) it can be seen that the vast majority of people in the parish, travel more than 5 miles to work. Many of our staff cycle to work, particularly in the summer. This development will enable the employment of a further six full time jobs immediately, plus the usual supporting part time posts. There has been an increase in staff numbers in the last year, 4 more fulltime people have been employed, 1 living within a 100 yards of the business.

Impact on local vehicle movements

The development will make very little difference to vehicle movements on and off the site. At the moment on a typical summer day there would be nearly 500 vehicles a day calling at the site (from petrol station till count, and workshop daybook) plus Green Shop visitors and staff.

Increasing biodiversity on the site

The plan includes planting (other than the turf roof), animal habitat, and a small wetland area to deal with surface run-off. The biodiversity of this site will be far greater than before, due to the variety of different habitats that will be created. This plan is on-going and will be developed further.

In Summary

The following is a quote from the Government Green Paper on "Planning - Delivering a Fundamental Change"

"A system that underpins our desire to improve productivity by being capable of reaching a proper balance between our desire for economic development and for thriving communities."

There is no better way of achieving this than putting jobs back where the people live. The large housing numbers near us and lack of local employment opportunities encourages high vehicle numbers passing the site, around 450 an hour (Bisley Parish Appraisal 2000) in peak times, all adding to CO2 emissions.

We believe this new building will not only be an asset to the business but also the local community providing both jobs and vocational training opportunities for young and old alike.

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