A BUILDING block for the armed forces that leads the way on environmental issues has been formally opened at the Nesscliffe Training Camp near Oswestry.

The honours were performed by the Ministry of Defence’s (MOD) Climate Change and Sustainability Lead, Lt Gen Richard Nugee, who officially opened three new environmentally friendly buildings.

The accommodation blocks form part of a wider investment being undertaken by the Defence Infrastructure Organisation (DIO).

The programme is being part-funded using money from a £200m investment to improve Armed Forces accommodation, which was announced last summer, with £45m invested in building new carbon efficient accommodation on the Defence Training Estate in a project called the Net-Zero Carbon Accommodation Programme (NetCAP).

Brigadier Jonathan Bartholomew, DIO’s head of the Overseas and Training Region said: "I was delighted to welcome Lt Gen Nugee to Nesscliff Training Camp and show him these buildings, which are a testament to the MOD’s commitment to sustainability.

"As our Climate Change and Sustainability lead, he took a real interest in all of the steps being taken to make the blocks as efficient as possible.

“As well as being as sustainable as we can make them, these new modular built blocks are the sort of high-quality accommodation our serving personnel deserve, which helps them to give their best during a training exercise.”

Lt Gen Nugee was briefed on the programme, which will see more than 40 new carbon efficient accommodation blocks, providing more than 1,900 bed spaces, installed across the country by DIO.

The blocks are being built by modular construction specialist Reds10, through DIO’s contract with industry partner Landmarc Support Services.

The General also watched the demolition of some 1930s Nissen huts, which will be replaced with more of the NetCAP buildings in a second phase at Nesscliff later this year.

He then toured the three completed buildings with Paul Ruddick, Reds10 Chairman, and cut the ribbon to officially open the new accommodation.

The three buildings at Nesscliff have improved on the Westdown Camp proof of concept and have an Energy Performance Certificate rating of –5, thanks to solar panels on the roof, air source heat pumps and a heat recovery system in the showers and drying rooms.

This means they will be able to generate power for the site, reducing electricity costs, while the team were also able to reduce embodied carbon by 30 per cent at Nesscliff.

Smart technology in the blocks allows Landmarc to monitor energy use, how the buildings are being used and if necessary, make changes remotely to all the NetCAP buildings. This further helps to reduce energy use and running costs.

Paul Ruddick, chairman of Reds10, who worked on the project, said: "The programme is leading the way in the government’s commitment to build back better, greener and faster.

"The buildings at Nesscliff Training Area truly showcase how agile the approach to the programme has been, from the very start. It was an absolute pleasure to be able to show Lt Gen Nugee the buildings personally.”