BEC’s North Shore development wins prestigious International Green Apple Built Environment Award

Cumbrian property company scoop win in Built Environment category for Sustainable Development.

26th June 2019: BEC’s transformational North Shore scheme has won an International Green Apple Built Environment award.

The scheme ‘recognises, rewards and promotes environmental best practice all over the world’, aiming to improve environmental performance and encourage more efficient use of resources. It also advocates sustainable development through open collaboration with local communities.

North Shore is regenerating neglected places in Whitehaven to create a destination quarter. Phase-1 proposes a £55m development: a hotel, multi-story carpark with carbon-capturing living walls and a c.75,000sq-ft office development sited alongside the ‘Buzz Station’ – a creative and digital hub housing start-up space and artisan food offerings within an abandoned bus station. Earlier this year an extension to the Buzz Station plan was announced in the form of the ‘Watershed’ to give Whitehaven a business incubator to rival the UK’s biggest cities, complete with a digital suite and co-located business support functions.

In response to the claim that the built environment industry is responsible for up to 45% of total UK emissions BEC intends North Shore to be a flagship Zero-Net-Carbon (ZNC) construction project in the North of England.

BEC has worked in partnership with Copeland Borough Council to ensure the scheme meets the evolving needs of the community and has been supported in the development of its low-carbon-strategy by specialists at SUSTaim and Sonas Energy. Sellafield Ltd and the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority are investing £3.5m to assist the conversion of the old bus station.

BEC’s CEO Michael Pemberton commented, “We are delighted to be recognised by The Green Apple awards and consider this as confirmation that our North Shore plan is on the right track to be a leading project in sustainable development. Our team and partners have poured heart and soul into the project and the award is recognition of this commitment.”

Head of Energy for BEC, Joe Martin added: “The construction industry needs to step up and play its part in reducing global emissions. Every small difference we can make as part of North Shore is part of a wider global course of action and we hope other local firms will join us on our journey to building more low and zero carbon developments.”

BEC will be inducted into the “hall of winners” at an awards ceremony in London on the 22nd July, where Judges will reveal if the company has also been named a Green Champion or a Gold Award winner.