After suffering a devastating fire in October 2020, St Mary’s Catholic Voluntary Academy in Derby, has been rebuilt into the UK’s ‘greenest’ school.

The multi-million-pound school is the country’s first biophilic school and has been purpose built as part of a pilot project for the Department for Education.

Biophilic design focuses on enhancing individuals’ connection to the natural world, to promote improved physical and mental health.

The goal for St Mary’s is to be net zero carbon in operation whereby the amount of carbon emissions added is no more than the amount taken away, making it the UK’s ‘greenest’ school.

Landscape and grounds maintenance contractors, Horizon Landscapes, were awarded the tree planting and soft landscaping contract for the pilot project.

Green-tech supplied 128 TreeParker® units, 40 tonnes of Green-tree Geosoil and 40 tonnes of Green-tree Subsoil. The TreeParker® Cell System is an underground structural soil cell system that provides an ideal environment for trees to thrive beneath the pavement in urban environments.

The system provides large columns of non-compact high-quality soil and maximises the usable space beneath the ground,providing unlimited expansion for unimpeded root growth – it is ideal for new trees in areas such as pavements, car parks, and green roofs, says Green-tech.

TreeParker® aids stormwater management within the system, dealing with rainwater runoff at source, again ideal for SuDs solution.

Green-tech also supplied 85 tree anchor systems for the installation of trees into the soft landscaping scheme.

Richard Hale, managing director of Horizon Landscapes says: “It was an honour to be involved in creating the first biophilic school and for the importance of the outside to be truly recognised as comparable with the inside of the building. The project has been a huge success and well-received. We have worked with Green-tech for many years and as ever they supplied what we needed, when we needed it. They are our go-to for all soft landscaping materials”.