My New Office – the World’s First Sustainable Office Retrofit

I started working from the “World-first sustainable office retrofitted” headquarters in the August 2022. The building is called the Entopia Building.

The £12.8m retrofit is supported by a £6m donation from greentech leaders Envision Group and a £3m grant from the European Regional Development fund (ERDF), which is also funding the operation of the Canopy incubator. The University has invested its own funds in the project alongside an internal grant from its internal Energy & Carbon Reduction Project.

The Canopy incubator is where SMEs and entrepreneurs can join our international network of corporate, finance and sustainability leaders to share ideas and gain access to the wider University community.

The project has a challenging sustainability brief, targeting BREEAM Outstanding, WELL Gold, and Enerphit certification, all balanced with the need to retain the special character of the building.

The Entopia Building, the re-invented new headquarters for Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership will do more than just demonstrate how to cut operational and embodied carbon in the built environment. 

Central to the project’s aspirational goals is a major focus on health and wellbeing for building users, including up to 230 staff, accelerator spaces for entrepreneurs, and visitors.

Creating open plan and contemporary spaces that allow academics, fellows and businesses to socialise and spark new ideas, Entopia will physically demonstrate sustainability leadership in how to transform existing building stock sustainably and cost-effectively.  Read more…