The Earth Trust Innovation Hub

The Earth Trust Innovation hub is located in glorious Little Wittenham on the south bank of the River Thames. Pavatex ISOLAIR insulation and airtightness products were used to create a green roof system, allowing the building to blend with the beautiful scenic background. A special thanks to the Earth Trust, and our partners at Beard Construction & Minster for making this project a success.

The following is an overview of the project from the Chief Executive – Jayne Manley:

Our ambition at Earth Trust was to seize an opportunity to do something forward-thinking and truly special but like everything that breaks new ground, we understood that we could not do this alone and we needed to work with new industries and partners.

We wanted to apply the same care to our building project that we do to managing our green spaces coaxing people to have a positive relationship with the environment. We need to strive for sustainability balancing people’s access, learning and wellbeing with thriving biodiversity and healthy ecosystems.

As you have been working with us, climate change has been rising up the agenda and there has been a marked shift in the last year with central government committing the UK to achieving net-zero carbon by 2050; and parliament, county and district government passing climate emergency declarations ahead of the COP conference in the autumn.

The success of this project is down to you, our partners in crime, who I now hope we can count as friends. Remembering those first conversations we had with you, we were looking for people who shared the Earth Trust passion and ‘got’ what we are about, creative and innovative, wanting to push the boundaries whilst of course keeping to time and budget!

What we have done together is truly special and we should find opportunities to celebrate and share: the design team who have experience, knowledge and creativity; construction industry and professional services team that understand our scale of ambition and buy into the importance of our project, and who went the extra mile when it comes to finding acceptable materials and tracing their origin. And of course, none of this would have been possible without the funding partners who needed to be very much forward thinkers, willing and able to be investors in the future.

Our ambition was to create a building that would ‘speak Earth Trust’ and influence people, policy and practice through its design, build and execution. We aimed to encourage sustainable behaviours and some of the main areas we have focused on are working practices, materials and collaboration to reduce construction waste. We have explored close-to-market sustainable materials (which contain lower embodied carbon) whilst thinking about the long term performance of the building. Who will forget those conversations about that roof! All this has been done through COVID which demonstrates your commitment to the project and our vision.

This is a building to inspire and excite so our work is far from done. We want visitors, school aged young people and adult learners that will use the Earth Lab to be part of ‘sustainability in action’, whether it’s the wildlife that will find a home on its walls and roof, the water collection and recycling from its curved landscape-esque roof or the timber that locks up carbon at a rate of about one tonne of CO2 per m3. Once inside, the inspiration will continue with climate science meeting art and technology.

The breathable, ventilated roof insulation system from PAVATEX was the perfect solution for this project with it beautiful flowing design and green roof. The ventilation gap helps moisture escape the construction whilst allowing for a solid deck to support the weight of the green roof. The choice of woodfibre as the main insulation product further improves the carbon credentials for the building as it is a sustainable carbon locking material.

Unity Lime products used on this project: