YY Sustainability

Quadrant acted as development manager for the transformation of 30 South Colonnade — one of Canary Wharf’s original 1991 office buildings — into YY London, a 415,000 sq ft all-electric workplace targeting net zero carbon in operation.

The project is the clearest expression of how we approach sustainability: retain what performs, replace what doesn’t, and hold the design team to measurable outcomes rather than aspirations.

Retrofit first

The single largest carbon decision on any commercial project is whether to demolish. At YY London we retained the steel frame, the floor slabs, the basements and elements of the façade — avoiding 10,260 tonnes of CO₂ and cutting 48% from the carbon that a new-build equivalent would have emitted before a single tenant moved in.

To put that figure in context, it is equivalent to around 7,600 flights to Sydney, or the 51,300 trees it would take to offset it.

Crucially, retention did not mean compromise. The refurbished building delivers more lettable space than the building it replaced, while consuming materially less energy per square metre. Doing more with less is the test we apply to every asset we take on.

All-electric, and futureproofed

YY London is all-electric in operation. Removing gas from the building removes any direct reliance on fossil fuels, and means the asset’s carbon performance improves automatically as the national grid decarbonises — a saving that accrues to occupiers over the whole life of their lease rather than sitting in a one-off design report.

The energy strategy is built on:

• Air source heat pumps with waste heat recovery, and central heat pumps for efficient heat recovery on colder days
• Dock water abstraction, using Canary Wharf’s water bodies for cooling
• A rooftop photovoltaic array
• Demand-controlled ventilation and high-efficiency pumps and fans
• Passive cooling, including night-time and free cooling
• Low-energy lighting with daylight sensors and responsive dimming
• Smart energy metering, an integrated BMS and cloud-based analytics for continuous operational energy monitoring

A façade that earns its keep

The original granite cladding was replaced with a high-performance glazed façade incorporating solar control coatings, improved U-values and significantly better air-tightness. High thermal performance glazing lets daylight into the floorplates without the heat gain, reducing the cooling load.

The result is a building whose thermal performance is in line with Part L 2020 while exceeding the Part L 2013 CO₂ emissions targets by 38% — and a useful life extended by at least another 50 years.

Water, materials and biodiversity

• Sustainable drainage systems harvest rainwater on site
• Low-flow water devices with PIR sensor control reduce consumption across the building
• New steel and concrete carry 25% recycled content, with materials selected on whole-life carbon grounds and for recyclability at end of life
• Biodiversity enhancement is delivered through planting integrated into the terraces and façade

Wellbeing as part of the same agenda

We do not treat environmental performance and occupier wellbeing as separate workstreams. Extensive outdoor terraces, biophilic planting, enhanced natural light and smart workplace technology were specified alongside the energy strategy, not after it — because the same measures that reduce consumption also make the building a better place to spend the working day.

Verified performance

YY London holds one of the strongest accreditation sets of any building in Canary Wharf:

• BREEAM Outstanding
• WELL Platinum
• SmartScore Platinum
• EPC A
• NABERS UK 5 Star Design for Performance
• Targeting net zero carbon in operation

Third-party certification matters to us because it converts intent into something an institutional investor, a lender and an occupier can all rely on. NABERS Design for Performance in particular commits the asset to demonstrating measured in-use performance, not modelled performance.

What this means for how we work

YY London shows that the retrofit of an existing asset can substantially cut embodied carbon, sharply improve operational efficiency and deliver market-leading ESG credentials — without the environmental cost of a full redevelopment.

That principle now shapes how Quadrant approaches every instruction: we look first at what the existing structure can be made to do, we set performance targets that are independently verifiable, and we design for the way the building will actually be run once the contractor has left site.