Cundall is working with Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew as decarbonisation consultants to assist Kew with the restoration of Kew’s iconic Palm House, to protect and conserve this impressive Victorian glasshouse for generations to come. The restoration will introduce lower energy heating systems, supporting Kew’s Sustainability Strategy, which aims to reduce Kew’s carbon emissions and reach Climate Positive by 2030.

Richard Barley, Director of Gardens at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew says, “The Palm House is an iconic Victorian glasshouse, home to an amazing indoor rainforest, with tropical plants from some of the most threatened environments in the world. This restoration project is a unique opportunity to showcase low-carbon heating technologies in a world leading heritage context, and we are delighted to be working with Cundall on this very important project at Kew.”

Julian Sutherland, Partner at Cundall says "Cundall are very proud to be the ESD and services engineers for the net zero carbon transformation of this iconic structure. We are working closely with the client and the wider design team to reengineer and decarbonise the world-famous Palm House, Lily House and Victoria Plaza buildings.

The glasshouses have a very well documented history from their original construction through a number of refurbishments to the buildings we see today. There are no Net Zero Carbon benchmarks for a Grade 1 listed glass house in a UNESCO World Heritage site. We have therefore searched far and wide to establish best practise performance of modern glasshouses and to set challenging design targets for these buildings. The refurbishment will be respectful of the buildings' heritage but will also improve the buildings' operation, deliver improved internal conditions for the plants and upgrade the energy systems for the modern age. We are building a digital twin of the building to monitor, analyse and optimise the internal environment, operation of the systems and growth of the plants. This is a hugely challenging and very rewarding project, which Cundall are perfectly placed to deliver using our industry leading skills in analysis based design, research and net zero carbon."