Sustainability

Scottish Water believes consideration must be given to a wide range of factors to ensure a sustainable long term solution to Edinburgh's drinking water is delivered for our customers. Below are some of the aspects of the Edinburgh Drinking Water Project we feel are especially important:

Recycling
The Scottish Government has asked all public bodies in Scotland – including local authorities – to set a minimum standard for 10% recycled content in construction projects above £1M value. The Glencorse Project will aim to exceed this target with careful consideration of material procurement and waste management. The Glencorse Project team are working with WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) to utilise their experience and management tools. For further information visit their website at: www.wrap.org.uk.

Green Roof Technology
We are planning to adopt green “living” roof technology to ensure our works is sympathetic to the local environment and the views from surrounding hills. Living roofs provide many benefits and are intrinsically of greater benefit to biodiversity than more traditional roofing methods. Green roof systems are recognised as providing greater thermal performance and roof insulation for the buildings they are laid on. Green roofs store rainwater in the plants and growing mediums and evaporate water into the atmosphere. In summer green roofs can retain 70-80% of rainfall and in winter they retain between 25-40%. Green roofs also reduce and delay run off during times of heavy and prolonged precipitation.

Community Involvement
We have established close community inclusion with local resident meetings and a community forum including the Pentland Hills Regional Park and local Community Councils. Going forward it is of paramount importance for us deliver a solution that meets the needs of the local community as well as our wider customers.

Environmental Awareness
The Glencorse site offers excellent potential for environmental enhancement. We intend to enhance the biodiversity of the area with a new wetland, carefully managing the existing tree belt and planting native species of trees and other flora.

Landscape Design
The architects vision statement spells out Scottish Water's aims for the project; ..."innovative, intelligent and low impact development". We have engaged experienced architects to use sensitive landscaping to carefully design the buildings to blend with the existing countryside.

Education
We know this can be an exciting and unique opportunity for young people to be get first hand experience of the different aspects which make up a large scale multi disciplinary construction project. We plan to develop partnerships with local schools, colleges and universities during the life cycle of the project.

Carbon Footprint
The water will flow around the works using gravity, not pumps, minimising our energy needs and CO2 emissions. We will investigate the latest construction and manufacturing techniques to minimise material transportation and energy use.  The scheme will be an exemplar project with respect to the reuse and recycling of construction materials.

Innovations
The use of "Counter Current Dissolved Air Flotation & Filtration (CoCoDAFF) as the treatment process has significantly reduced the size and impact of the treatment works. Rather than the traditional separate process units of Dissolved Air Flotation (DAF) and Rapid Gravity Filters (RGF) we chosen to combine the two into one compact process cell.

Renewable Energy
We plan to make use of the natural energy of the water passing through our pipes by introducing hydro turbines. Feasibility studies are on going to confirm how much of our electricity demand can be off set by the production of our own "green energy".