A UK heating and plumbing merchant has achieved a BREEAM 'Excellent' rating for the building management of its head office, which features a wildflower meadow to aid biodiversity and nurture wildlife. This was a debut BREEAM assesment for Wolseley UK which is part of Wolseley plc, the world’s largest specialist trade distributor of plumbing and heating products.

A variety of habitats occupy an outdoor space of approximately 3000 sq metres, which links the firm's head office and national distribution centre (NDC) in Royal Leamington Spa. This includes a pond, woodpiles, trees and shrubs, bird boxes and bat boxes. The meadow has also been allowed to grow long to encourage ground nesting birds and voles and will be seeded in the new season with indigenous flowers.

BREEAM In-Use is a scheme to help building managers, investors, owners and occupiers reduce the running costs and improve the environmental performance of existing non-domestic buildings. It consists of a standard, user-friendly assessment methodology and an independent certification process that provides a clear and credible route-map to improving sustainability credentials of existing buildings.

In order to develop the Biodiversity Policy, an ecology survey was carried out by the site facilities team. The purpose of this was to describe and map the habitats on the site. The presence of any protected or notable species was then identified and recommendations were made for habitat enhancement where possible. John Page, Site Facilities Manager, said: “There are many reasons why we wanted to achieve a BREEAM rating for our site, the main one being that it provides us with an industry standard to showcase our existing green credentials. We believe this standard provides a management tool to help keep delivering achievements.”

Over the past six years the company has implemented a number of successful initiatives on the Leamington site as part of its corporate social responsibility such as; zero waste to direct landfill for the entire site and installing 8,000 solar panels on the roof of the NDC reducing the dependency on grid electricity.

The biodiversity plan adheres to the Warwickshire Biodiversity Action Plan in partnership with Warwickshire County Council and Warwickshire Wildlife Trust. Page concluded: “We are extremely pleased with our ‘excellent’ rating and have worked extremely hard to achieve it. Wolseley UK is committed to protecting and enhancing the built and natural environment of its operational locations and we will work to encourage our supply chain to support us in working to our Biodiversity Policy.”