Mainer Associates were pleased to support Bowmer & Kirkland in delivering a Whole Life Carbon Assessment (WLCA) for Nottingham Trent University’s new Art & Design Building - a landmark 9-storey development at the heart of the university’s city campus.

The 5,300m² building is designed to enhance the university’s creative offering, providing cutting-edge resources, technologies, and collaborative spaces for both undergraduate and postgraduate students. Key features include:

• Exhibition and social learning spaces fostering collaboration between the university, industry, and the local community

• Dedicated studios for visual communication and digital screen disciplines

• A café, Digital Innovation Lab, and Black Box Studio

Designed by Hawkins\Brown, the building targets BREEAM ‘Excellent’ and DEC ‘A’ ratings, and was developed with a strong commitment to whole-life net zero carbon performance.

Mainer Associates carried out a Stage 6 Whole Life Carbon Assessment, using final as-built data from the project’s supply chain to evaluate and report carbon emissions across the building's lifecycle, including:

• Upfront embodied carbon - materials and construction processes up to practical completion

• In-use embodied carbon - emissions from maintenance, repair, and replacement

• End-of-life carbon - emissions from deconstruction, disposal, and material recovery

Our work supported the university’s sustainability goals by providing robust carbon performance data, helping inform future net zero strategies across NTU’s estate.