September 2008
BUSINESS CENTRE PRACTICES WHAT IT TEACHES
The £2.5 million SmartLIFE Business and Training Centre based at Cambridge Regional College is set to "Save the Rain". A new rainwater harvesting system will be integral to the centre's purpose to teach Modern Methods of Construction (MMC) and environmentally-friendly building techniques.
"We use a lot of water in our practical area and workshop, where CRC students put the different construction methods into practice," explains Roger Havis, Technical Officer of the SmartLIFE Centre at the Cambridge Regional College. "We realised that, alongside our solar-heated water, wind turbine, ground heat pumps and other sustainability measures, we needed to teach responsible water use for duties such as mixing mortar and wash down.
"Hydro's StormBank™ is an ideal piece of rainwater harvesting equipment, because of its high specification and robust build, the tank is self supporting. For most people, this makes it easy to install under hard areas, but in our case it has enabled us to install it above ground as a demonstration unit.
"The Save the RainTM website, sponsored by Hydro, has also been extremely useful and will also provide a good resource to support our teaching."
A Hydro StormBank™ 3300 model has been installed at the centre, taking rainwater from the training centre roof and pumping it on demand to a mains ring used for water in the workshop and practical demonstration area. The large 3300 litres capacity model was specified to meet the projected water requirements of the workshop, where students learn to construct using timber frame, steel frame and concrete frame techniques.
SmartLIFE is an international project based in Sweden, Germany and the UK, dedicated to promoting, teaching and researching MMC and environmentally friendly building techniques. As well as facilitating knowledge exchange, SmartLIFE sets standards of excellence in training for students throughout Northern Europe.
The MMC techniques taught at SmartLIFE Cambridge are being put into practice for a development of 80 new homes at Chatteris, Cambridgeshire, as part of a project to tackle housing growth issues in Cambridge. SmartLIFE is a European and UK Government funded project.
The Save the Rain™ campaign was established to increase awareness of the benefits of saving water and in particular reusing rainwater. The website www.savetherain.info acts as a central point of information for any one wanting to know more about rainwater harvesting.
For further information about the campaign or a copy of the Save the Rain™ campaign booklet, or information about Hydro International's StormBankTM rainwater harvester, contact savetherain@iassmarts.com or call 01275 337977.