ARMSTRONG’S RECYCLED CEILINGS BROOK NO ARGUMENTS


W


ork is drawing to a close on the installation of more than 80,000m² of ceiling tiles on the largest construction project in Peterborough since the cathedral was built 800 years ago.


And thanks to an industry-leading


off-cut recycling scheme operated by interior solutions provider Armstrong Ceilings, some 8,000m² or 32 tonnes of the manufacturer’s tiles – equivalent to the weight of two double-decker buses – have been saved from landfill. Architects Nightingale Associates approved the use of Armstrong’s Bioguard Plain mineral tiles, which contain fungicides and biocides which actively combat harmful fungi, mould and mildew, yeasts and bacteria, throughout the new 612-bed major acute hospital that is the largest element of the £335 million Greater Peterborough Health Investment Plan. The new 95,000m² Peterborough City Hospital comprises the acute hospital and a 98-bed mental health unit on the site of the Edith Cavell Hospital (ECH), and a 39-bed City Care Centre on the former Peterborough District Hospital (PDH) site. Both ECH and PDH remained operational throughout their respective builds.


A PFI project backed by Brookfield,


HSBC and Macquarie Bank, it is due for completion in October 2010 after more than three years on the 14-hectare site. Ceilings installer Roskel Contracts, an Omega (Armstrong-approved) contractor, has been on the acute site for 18 months, combining a standard installation, albeit a major one, with the logistics of running its first off-cut recycling scheme. This proved particularly challenging because of the large number of relatively small rooms – a total of 4,500 different rooms, each of which required three handovers (after the initial trim, installation of the ceiling grid and service tiles, and then finally, the tiles themselves). This totalled 13,500 handover processes, approximately one every 15 minutes, although this was fine-tuned down to blocks of rooms.


Roskel’s team of up to 40 men filled wheelie bins with pre-sized bags inside, which when full, were wheeled round to a secure facility. When this was full, the contents would be removed by articulated truck to Armstrong’s plant in Gateshead, Tyne and Wear, where they were recycled. David Wilson of Roskel Contracts said:


“The supply was well coordinated and the quality of the tiles and grid were consistent as usual. We have been very happy with the overall concept and methodology.” www.armstrong-ceilings.co.uk


ELLEN


MACARTHUR LAUNCHES


FOUNDATION TO FOSTER RE-THINK


OF THE FUTURE Ellen MacArthur has launched a charitable foundation – supported by key business sector leaders B&Q, BT & CISCO (joint partners), National Grid and Renault – to focus on how young people in education, learning from the latest business thinking, can help to build a sustainable future.


The move is part of a very different journey for MacArthur, who became a sporting legend in 2001 after finishing second in the Vendée Globe solo, non-stop round the world race and again in 2005 as the fastest person to sail single- handedly around the world. It was during that epic voyage that she began to realise there was an even greater challenge ahead. Round- the-World sailing involved the management of limited resources at sea; to be fast you have to be light, so MacArthur managed these resources down to the last drop of diesel for her generator, and the last packet of food. “ Back on land it became clear that things are not so different,” she says. The Ellen MacArthur Foundation adopts the framework described as ‘The Circular Economy’, a longer- term approach which works alongside current practical initiatives.


The yachtswoman has spent the last four years working behind the scenes and talking with


government, business, NGOs and the public sector to learn more about the complexities of the challenges we face. Founding partners B&Q, BT & CISCO (joint partners), National Grid and Renault have come onboard to back this concept. For further information visit: www.ellenmacarthurfoundation.org


SUSTAINABLE FM | OCTOBER 2010 |33


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