The Dakenham Project  Muck Lane, Rackheath Low Carbon Offices Building Partnerships commitment to the environment is illustrated by a pathfinding commercial project located on the north-east of Norwich. The scheme involves demolishing asbestos farm buildings to construct “green” office buildings that set new levels in lowering carbon footprints for the commercial sector. Current office buildings are covered by a standard known as BREEAM where “excellent” is the highest accreditation. The objective is to design and construct new buildings that achieve a carbon footprint approximately 80-85% lower than existing standards. This will generate an annual saving on the scheme of around 160 tonnes of carbon. It is to be achieved at no greater cost than on standard designs and meeting occupier and funder requirements. Building Partnerships has appointed architects, services engineers, quantity and structural surveyors to collaborate on the scheme. Design work is ongoing that involves innovative use of materials in construction, heat pumps and passive ventilation for controlling the internal environment of the buildings and wind turbines to generate electricity for the scheme. Two buildings are being designed. A single storey office of 6,000 sq ft (557 sq m) with passive ventilation and a two storey building of 13,000 sq ft (1,200 sq m) that incorporates mechanical ventilation. From an early stage the occupiers will engage with the project. Each company taking offices will participate in carbon footprinting to benchmark occupier’s carbon use and exchange best practice. Annual targets will be set for each occupier and for the scheme as a whole. These targets will be subject to continuous performance monitoring that will be linked to financial incentives. A planning application was submitted in March 2008.