CHALLENGE
The Cambridge Science Park has a significant carbon footprint of approximately 30,000 tonnes CO2e per year, requiring radical changes to meet the decarbonisation targets set by Trinity College Cambridge. The Park comprises a diverse mix of laboratory and office spaces with varying ages, designs, ownership, and leasing structures, making it challenging to develop a coordinated and effective decarbonisation strategy.
SOLUTION
Trinity College, Cambridge engaged Savills Earth to develop a decarbonisation pathway for Cambridge Science Park. To address the complexity and scale of the site, we adopted a streamlined, typology-based approach, grouping all buildings into seven categories based on shared characteristics. A representative building from each typology underwent detailed analysis, including review of energy consumption data, a comprehensive energy audit and modelling using the Passive House Planning Package (PHPP) to assess the impact of potential interventions. Findings from these representative studies were then extrapolated across the entire Park, enabling us to model both current and projected energy and carbon performance at scale.
RESULTS
We provided Trinity College with a comprehensive decarbonisation pathway for Cambridge Science Park, supported by a Whole Life Carbon assessment and a tailored cost plan for all proposed building upgrades. The pathway was structured around three scenarios that reflect varying degrees of influence Trinity could exert over the site. In addition to the technical roadmap, the project delivered a tenant engagement strategy to encourage collaboration and behavioural change, a reporting framework to monitor progress, and an implementation tracker to support phased delivery.