DELIVERY SUSTAINABILITY
Green events venue making a social impact
TECA on shortlist for inspiring new building projects awards
BY NEIL EVANS I
t’s been billed as the ‘most sustainable venue of its kind’ in the UK. Now TECA in Aber- deen could gain another green feather in its cap.
Te Event Complex Aberdeen,
which includes the P&J Live concert and conference venue, has made the shortlist for the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) Social Impact Awards.
TECA is the only dedicated events
venue among the 35 construction projects on the shortlist, which also includes the new University of Glasgow campus, Dundee Regional Performance Centre for Sport and the GRID Building at Heriot-Watt University. Te awards were created to recog-
nise projects which are regenerat- ing, enhancing or transforming the built environment. Scotland is one of 12 regional awards, with a UK final taking place later in the year. David Brook Wilson, chair of the
national judges said: “Tis year’s finalists show the power of built environment professionals to make a lasting contribution to the bigger
picture, take on real responsibil- ity for the impact of their work and inspire the next generation of surveyors through teamwork and fresh thinking.” Since opening last year, sustain-
ability has been a major focus for the new complex, which also includes two onsite hotels. Most notably, there is a dedicated onsite energy centre and anaerobic diges- tion (AD) plant, which harvests hydrogen gas from Aberdeen’s food waste to provide heating, cooling and power to all TECA’s buildings.
AS WELL AS the AD plant, the cen- tre has committed that virtually all (98.8%) of the materials have been re-used on site. More than 29,000 trees and shrubs have been planted around the centre and a network of more than 7 kilometres of new footpaths have been created, with the aim of making the P&J Live a ‘living environment’ to attract both people and wildlife. Te complex has already been
awarded a BREEAM rating of excellent, which puts it in the top 10% of all UK new non-domestic
buildings, assessing a range of sustainable criteria including land use, energy, pollution, transport links and its impact on health & wellbeing. Te new facility replaced the
Aberdeen Exhibition and Confer- ence Centre and is part of the city council’s masterplan to grow the economy. It has already hosted leading conferences, including Offshore Europe, and is an attrac- tion for major artists – such as Elton John who is due to play at the P&J Live in November. Te venue is expected to bring an additional 4.5 million visitors to Aberdeen, contributing £113 million of visitor spending and £63 million to the Scottish economy. Te RICS Social Impact awards
are divided into nine categories – commercial, education, healthcare, heritage, infrastructure, land & rural, leisure, residential and stu- dent accommodation. Scotland’s winners are due to be announced at a ceremony being held in Edin- burgh at the end of April, with the grand final taking place in London in September. n
EVENTSBASE | SPRING 2020 | 59
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