Alasdair Donn

Head of Building Performance, Group Sustainability

From Passivhaus designs and renewable technologies to reducing costs through Energy Synergy™, head of building performance Alasdair Donn is at the forefront of sustainability within our housing and commercial sectors. Alasdair is instrumental to the delivery of our trailblazing ‘Now or Never’ sustainability strategy, committing us to be net zero carbon in use by 2030 amongst other industry leading targets.

Alasdair is at the heart some of our most ambitious sustainable building innovations, and is currently leading the delivery of ground source heat pump technology at our 133 dwelling development at Ashton Rise in Bristol, leveraging the benefits of low-carbon, fossil fuel-free energy sources. Alasdair is a champion of Passivhaus methodology, delivering two cutting edge schools in 2019; firstly creating the UK’s largest Passivhaus secondary school at Harris Academy Sutton, followed by the net carbon positive Hackbridge Primary School – the first to achieve the stringent Passivhaus ‘plus’ certification, which uses only 75% of the 100% renewable energy that it generates.

Critically, Alasdair has led a cross business team to create our Energy SynergyTM process, a comprehensive in use energy monitoring programme to bridge the performance gap and drive down energy costs. The approach has already helped our customers make energy/operating cost-savings of 5-15% and improve occupier comfort. After handing over the Warwick Sports and Wellness Hub for the University of Warwick in March 2019, Alasdair’s Energy SynergyTM Process has identified savings £40,236 and a carbon saving of 98,520 kgCO2e within the first year of operation, performing 27.5% better than CIBSE’s Energy Benchmark.