World’s largest surviving Victorian glasshouse moves off gas
The Temperate House at Kew Gardens is now kept warm with an air and water source heat pump system that received funding through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme
Kew Gardens is a world-famous botanic garden located in south west London in the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames, managed by the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (RBG Kew).
The world UNESCO World Heritage site is set on 320 acres and has a variety of highlights from iconic Victorian glasshouses to smaller hidden gems including the newly planted Carbon Garden and Winter Garden.
As a part of its sustainability strategy RBG Kew is working towards a target to go further than net zero and reach climate positivity by 2030.
To be climate positive, an organisation must go beyond carbon neutrality/net zero emissions. Climate positive organisations support a net reduction in carbon dioxide or other greenhouse bases and have a tangible positive impact on the environment.
To do this, it’s been working on a pipeline of projects to reduce carbon emissions and upgrade its unique facilities.
Our Salix team has supported RBG Kew with various projects, funded through the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme, that have enabled RBG Kew to progress towards its ambitious targets.
We wouldn’t have made a fraction of the progress towards being climate positive without the support of Salix.
Recently, we were amongst stakeholders invited to attend an inaugural event and ceremonial opening of the decarbonised energy centre at what was previously known as ‘stable yard boiler house 15’.
Now a brand-new, decarbonised energy centre with an air and water source heat pump system, the centre provides clean heat to the nearby Temperate House.
The Temperate House is a Grade 1 listed Victorian glasshouse and is the largest surviving Victorian glasshouse in the world.
It’s home to 1,200 species from across the world that, as tender plants, prefer to be kept to a minimum temperature of 10 degrees – even during cold UK winters.
Hear more about the project and RBG Kew’s sustainability ambitions from head of sustainability at RBG Kew, Rachel Purdon, via our short video below.
Our client relationship adviser Owain Davies has been supporting RBG Kew with its projects, including the most recent for the energy centre heating the Temperate House. He said: “The team at RBG Kew are exceptionally passionate about their work and the role of their projects have in tackling both the climate and biodiversity crisis.
“It’s incredibly rewarding to see the project at the transformed energy centre come to a conclusion and to have achieved such a notable milestone.”
It’s incredibly rewarding to see the project at the transformed energy centre come to a conclusion and to have achieved such a notable milestone.
Now complete, the team at RBG Kew is looking ahead to next works to keep it them on track to reach their 2030 target.
Stay tuned for a case study to be published soon where we’ll delve further into the detail of project delivery including:
- how the team navigated completing upgrades at an open site during high footfall periods such as ‘Christmas at Kew’
- the complexities in drilling an 800m tunnel from the energy centre to the Temperate House
- added value with ecological considerations including a bird box, bat box and hedgehog highway
