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Lighting the way to sustainability
William McDowell of Hambleside Danelaw explains how recent innovations in GRP rooflights can help specifiers contribute towards BREEAM and sustainability
t is impossible to be unaware of the drive to increase our sustainability in building design. However, many architects are unaware that by looking upwards they can shed light on a simple way to help increase a building’s sustainability.
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A solution is rooflights manufactured from glass-reinforced plastic (GRP), whether designing a sustainable new build, fit-out or refurbishment project. GRP rooflights can make a positive contribution towards a building’s construction and operating energy efficiency, and its lifetime carbon footprint.
It is accepted that rooflights contribute towards BREEAM. They provide natural daylight, reducing the need for artificial light, and enhance occupant health and wellbeing. The contribution is seen as difficult to quantify – but is it? Rooflights that carry an Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) can make a tangible, proven contribution of 1.5 points towards BREEAM in the Materials (Mat 02) category. Now, for the first time, there are GRP rooflights that have attained an EPD (Environmental Product Declaration), from
the Building Research Establishment. The concept of rooflights being able to quantifiably contribute towards a BREEAM rated project in this way is a major innovation for the market. It provides massive potential for a change in the way we conceive, plan and construct the roofs of commercial and industrial buildings in the private and public sector. It builds on the historic platforms for rooflights within BREEAM. Now, GRP rooflights can ‘tick the boxes’ in all of the three most heavily weighted BREEAM categories – Materials, Energy, and Health & Wellbeing. To address energy, both as part of BREEAM and beyond, the natural daylight transmitted through rooflights reduces the amount of supplementary, artificial lighting. A rooflight allows up to three times more daylight into a building than an equivalent- sized wall light or glazed penetration. Historically, it has been accepted that a 10 per cent rooflight to roof area was the optimal ratio. The National Association of Rooflight Manufacturers (NARM) has commissioned independent research on the subject. The conclusion was that a 12 per
ADF FEBRUARY 2020
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