Pharola DS scheme wins prestigious Green Apple Award
December 2019, by Gemma Snelling, Marketing Manager
A bespoke lighting solution that used our Pharola DS illuminated bollard won a prestigious Green Apple Award at the House of Commons last month.
The Pharola DS (dark-sky) illuminated bollard was used by the team at Skanska, working on behalf of its client Peterborough City Council, to design a bat sensitive street lighting scheme for a redevelopment project in the city centre. The design was commended by the awards judges for not only fulfilling the project’s development needs – which include a new access road and disabled car park lighting - but also for mitigating light exposure risks to the local bat population.
Skanska’s lighting design team worked closely with its environment colleagues and DW Windsor to come up with an innovative approach to a highly challenging brief. Using its sector expertise and in-depth knowledge of the city, they assessed bat roosting locations and night-time feeding flying routes before designing a bespoke solution to ensure that the lighting required as part of the scheme did not disturb the natural habitat of one of the UK’s protected bat species, the Soprano Pipistrelle.
Working with Peterborough City Council and ecologists, Skanska selected Pharola DS specifically for its dark-sky credentials and 0% upward light output ratio. Pharola DS provided a suitable light level for safe use, while satisfying both the City Council’s desire for lighting, without any adverse effects on the bats.
Skanska’s Sustainability Manager Ed Godsiffe commented:
It’s fantastic to see how our innovative approach is enabling us to work with our supply chain to deliver more effective, safer and sustainable projects, which not only deliver better value for our customers but also promote local biodiversity.
The team will now be using their experience and learning gained from this scheme to influence future street lighting designs in the city.
About the Green Apple Awards
The Green Apple Environment Awards are an annual, international campaign, to recognise, reward and promote environmental best practice around the world. The Green Apple Environment Awards were launched in 1994 by The Green Organisation and have become well established as one of the most popular environmental campaigns in the world.
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