ENVIRONMENTAL education charity the Earthworks Trust is carrying out a £1.25million eco-refurbishment of a wing of a derelict building to provide extra residential accommodation for visitors to The Sustainability Centre near East Meon.

Work on the South Downs Eco Lodge project began in March, the day before the Covid-19 lockdown came into effect – and was then postponed until the end of April when government guidance on working safely on building sites was issued.

The Sustainability Centre describes itself as a learning centre and a “beacon for sustainability” in the South Downs National Park.

It shares practical solutions for changing the way people live and work and enabling them to protect the planet, offering “an immersive, practical and creative approach to education” which aims to “make it possible for everyone to be part of eco evolution in action”.

The centre was established in 1995 when the Royal Navy Signal School – HMS Mercury – vacated its three buildings set in 55 acres of woodland and natural chalk downland.

Each year it attracts more than 3,000 student day visitors, hosts more than 7,800 visitors who attend its courses, stay in its accommodation or go to its events, and welcomes more than 20,000 other visitors from the UK and abroad.

Chief executive Christine Seaward said: “Having spent a year on the design and planning of the refurbishment, it was frustrating but understandable that work needed to cease before it even got started.

“We were forced at the same time to take the decision to close the centre to the public and have lost all our income from bookings for our programme of courses, accommodation and our annual South Downs Green Fair which attracted more than 3,000 last year.”

In the wake of the lockdown, numerous charities took a severe hit to their viability.

Ms Seaward added: “Having furloughed most of our staff, we were faced with a tough decision of whether to put the refurbishment on hold or resume work in the face of an uncertain economic landscape but when less disruption to visitors would be caused.

“The trustees decided to press on as they felt we had the opportunity to lead by example in post-crisis climate action.”

In early July the government began responding to calls from environmental charities, activists and the public – many of whom said there had been an improvement in air quality during lockdown – for investment to help the UK ‘Build Back Better’ and create thousands of ‘green collar’ jobs.

Jeff Lane, who chairs the centre’s board of trustees, said: “Environmental protection is at the very heart of all the fantastic activities we provide at The Sustainability Centre.

“We felt continuing with the refurbishment work was essential to help demonstrate there is a better way for the UK economy to emerge from the economic downturn it now inevitably faces.”

The charity was adamant it wanted to refurbish the 1960s MoD accommodation at the former HMS Mercury site rather than demolish it and put up new buildings.

Architect Tony Cohen said: “The creation of 11 new high-quality bedrooms with en-suite facilities is essential to meet the growing demand for eco-tourism and residential courses in support of the charity’s programme of education for schools and enterprise for self-reliance.

“The refurbished wing will also provide temporary office accommodation while the charity raises funds to transform the main building on site into an amazing new learning centre retrofitted to stringent PassiveHaus standards.

“There is so much locked-in carbon dioxide emissions in the original structure that refurbishment was evidently the right approach.”

Millions of energy-inefficient buildings in the UK will require retrofitting if the government is to achieve its ambition of achieving net zero emissions by 2050.

Mr Cohen said: “The centre has made a bold and green statement by placing itself on the trajectory to net zero, something quite remarkable given their limited

resources.”

Project manager Paul Ciniglio said: “The building will be heated by a ground source heat pump with a borehole array totalling over a kilometre in length.

“One hundred square metres of solar photovoltaic cells on the south, east and west slopes of the new pitched roof will generate clean electricity for use on the site.”

These are part of a package of renewable energy and energy-efficiency measures incorporated in the retrofit that extends to ventilation with heat recovery, triple glazing and 200mm thick natural wood-fibre external wall insulation behind locally-sourced cedar cladding.

Mr Ciniglio added: “All the building materials and finishes have been painstakingly selected to have as low an environmental impact as possible throughout their life.”

The work is being done by Ascia Construction, whose managing director Neil Cole said: “We were delighted the charity was able to continue with the work at a time the wider construction sector faces a challenging immediate future.

“We anticipate working on many more ambitious eco-refurbishment projects like this leading example in the future.”

The government has recently announced £3billion of grants to improve the energy efficiency of existing homes and public

buildings.

Mr Ciniglio said: “While this is welcome, a more positive step would have been for the chancellor to reduce the rate of VAT applied to energy-efficient retrofit to zero. The current system means retrofitting attracts VAT, while new housing is exempt from VAT. This actively encourages a ‘knock it down and start again’ approach.

“The environmental aspirations for the future of this existing dilapidated building are more ambitious than the majority of the new homes currently being built that benefit from zero VAT.”

Ms Seaward believes the centre will emerge from lockdown with the chance to inspire change.

She said: “As we reflect on the economic devastation caused by Covid, businesses and charities of all shapes and sizes have a unique opportunity to seize the initiative and innovate in the face of the climate challenges we face.

“Perhaps there will never be such a good opportunity to integrate change. Many of us are emerging from the lockdown with challenges, but there opportunities too.

“Like many local enterprises, our charity is affected by the loss of income that comes from being closed down for the past few months.

“Many of our schools will not be back until next year, and our campsite, lodge and café have been unable to welcome people to stay or to even have a cup of coffee, let alone come to one of our events or courses.

“I am an optimist – I am always looking for the silver lining in the cloud. The Sustainability Centre and what we are involved with here is mostly just on pause for a bit.

“It will be much needed when this is over to rebuild healthier connections and inspire a different way of living. We have all had a chance to re-calibrate our priorities and see what we really value and need.

“I hope that many more people will find out about us, get involved and become inspired to do something different and better benefiting themselves, our community and the Earth too – making positive change possible.”