Lambeth Palace, London, UK
Achieving net zero on the ancient home of the Archbishop of Canterbury
Lambeth Palace is a flagship project for the Church of England’s drive to achieve net zero by 2030. Our project at the palace, working with Wright & Wright, has included weaving a suite of state-of-the-art retrofit solutions into its multilayered historic fabric.
Our overarching strategy for decarbonising the site involved re-servicing the buildings to make substantial improvements in energy performance. New equipment included air-source heat pumps housed in a purpose-built Energy Centre, carefully located to minimise its impact on the historic buildings and archaeology.
Solar panels were added to generate renewable power, and gas usage was phased out by upgrading kitchen equipment. A new lighting scheme improves the appearance and flexibility of key hospitality areas and the Archbishop’s apartment. Roofs and drainage systems were modified allow rainwater harvesting and make them more resilient to climate change scenarios.
During the early phases of design, Arup held a sustainability workshop with the client to establish key goals for the project. These included “a fairer, more sustainable, more equitable world”: a vision entirely in line with the mission of the Church of England, and with Arup’s own ambitions.
