Best Practice – NME, IPC Media and the Blue Fin Building
The offices of NME (New Musical Express) magazine are located in the Blue Fin Building, London, a high energy performance building purpose built by IPC Media to house many of its publications. The building has a number of features to minimise energy consumption:
• localised metering and monitoring of electricity use;
• a system to automatically turn off lights when light levels rise above 450 lux;
• presence detectors and computer controlled light management;
• external lights five times more efficient than standard external lighting;
• decorative lighting restricted to special occasions so that it accounts for less than 1% of overall light capacity of the building;
• walls are all painted white to maximise natural light;
• energy management software is used to regulate and control the heating boilers, hot water and chiller pumps.
IPC Media committed to the building as its new home before its construction and therefore was able to closely observe the development from the outset. For example, the company was able to oversee the demolition process to ensure it was energy efficient, that materials did not travel long distances and that waste was certified appropriately. During the construction phase close attention was paid to the types of building materials and waste management. The design of the building includes fins to shade the building and a naturally ventilated atrium. In addition, the fit-out continued the ‘green’ theme with all consultants being obliged to use natural materials from sustainable sources, resulting in the use of a significant amount of wood from sustainable sources in the furniture/fittings but little chrome, and the walls being painted white to maximise natural light.
IPC Media is conducting assessments to ensure that the building is performing to the design standard, as well as continuing to look at ways to further improve the environmental performance of the building (pers. comm. Jenny Noon 2008).