Our large range of Eco Modular Classrooms offers a whole host of benefits to your school, including offering extra space to accommodate increasing pupil intakes, whilst saving you the cost of extending your main school building. Despite not being a conventional extension to your school, Modular Classrooms are permanent structures that are as durable and attractive as they are practical and spacious- but what makes them eco-friendly?
Electricity – From smart boards to computers, schools rely on electricity for teaching and learning more now than ever before. Wherever possible, the aim of the electrical features of our Eco Modular Classrooms is to be as energy-saving as possible. This also helps keep your school’s energy bill to a minimum!
Cosy – All our Modular Eco Classrooms are well-insulated guaranteeing a comfortable and productive learning environment that your school can utilise all year-round. Each classroom is constructed using Structural Insulated Panels (SIPs), which consist of an insulating foam core sandwiched between two structural facings. The roof also provides high-quality insulation, with the roof panels being pre-insulated with an Isover mineral wool. The wool traps air, making it one of the best insulating materials around. Enhanced insulating properties means energy isn’t wasted as all energy used to heat the building never escapes the Classroom.
Offsite Construction – Our Classrooms are predominately constructed off-site. This not only means that they can be conveniently installed during a short period of time like the school holidays to keep term-time disruption to a minimum, but also means carbon emissions from a large volume of vehicles constantly delivering different materials and removing waste from the construction site at your school is non-existent.
Certified – We pride ourselves on following all laws and regulations when sourcing our products. However, some countries do not have laws that equate to sustainability- a quality we instil in all our products. Therefore, we only obtain materials we use in our products from companies that manage their forests responsibly and we can demonstrate this through independent certification according to internationally recognised standards, rather than the laws of individual countries.
These certifications include using timbers certified by the PEFC (Programme for the Endorsement of Forest Certification), which have forests’ best interests at heart as they encourage sustainable and responsible forest management. Our PEFC certified products meet the UK government’s procurement policy, specified by the CPET (Central Point of Expertise). They also lead to credit awards in BREEAM (Building Research Establishment Environmental Assessment Method), a leading design and assessment method for sustainable buildings.
Lighting – Where we can, we use energy-efficient fluorescent downlights in our Modular Classrooms. With these types of lights, your school experiences the best of both worlds, keeping running costs and electricity usage down, whilst having ample light to learn in! For a softer luminosity, low voltage lighting is available, which boasts energy-saving properties.
Acoustics – The Gyptone Quattro sound-absorbing ceiling board doesn’t just maintain superior acoustic properties for your school’s Modular Classroom, but ensures optimum heating and cooling insulating properties too, whilst allowing the important circulation of air around the room. These insulating properties again mean that energy wastage is kept to a minimum.
Sourcing – our ethos of sourcing materials responsibly extends to using Premium Western Red Cedar timber to clad and protect the Modular Classroom’s exterior. What’s so eco-friendly about Premium Western Red Cedar? Being an entirely natural product, the wood often doesn’t require chemical preservatives as it is already naturally resistant to moisture and decay. It’s also very durable, less susceptible to swelling and warpage and visually appealing, blending with any environment into which it is placed to boot! Less maintenance means the environmental impact of repairing a Modular Classroom isn’t a worry.
Solar Panels – Can be fitted to the roof and can generate energy from the sun to produce some energy to power the heating systems. The resulting low energy bills are a bonus for any budget watching school!
Rainwater Harvesting Systems – These innovative systems gather natural rainwater in specialised water tanks. The water collected can be used for activities such as watering plants, which is great to get young children involved in.
Outdoor Light – The need for electricity to generate light in our Modular Classrooms is further reduced by the incorporation of large windows and door frames which are designed to maximise the amount of healthy natural light, full of vitamin D, that filters into the structure. State-of-the-art roof and ceiling light reflecting tubes further enhances the natural light source throughout the Modular Classroom.
Options – As our Modular Classrooms are bespoke, if your school has a unique idea on how to be eco-friendly within your new Modular Classroom, we will do our best to combine our building expertise with your creative ideas to incorporate further environmentally-friendly measures into the building.
Maximise Space – Reduce the impact that constructing another Modular Eco Classroom would create by investing in our Two-Story Eco Classroom for your school, meaning you make the most of the space at your school’s disposal, building upwards rather than on a separate plot of land, whilst getting all the building work done in one go!
Schools play a huge role in the future generations’ lives and as such should set a glowing example of how to be a friend to the environment. That starts in the very buildings children learn in. If eco-friendly activities are taught and incorporated into their everyday lives from day one, children are more likely to be advocates of sustainability in adulthood!
Contact Bridge Timber about an Eco Modular Classroom for your school today.