One Angel Square opened its doors at the beginning of the year to become the new headquarters for the Co-operative Group.

Designed by 3D Reid, the building comprises the first BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ regional office building in the UK, offering a total of 327,643 sq ft over 17 floors.

The design incorporates a recycling system for used water as well as a rainwater harvesting system to decrease water consumption by the building. It is also designed to consume 50% less energy compared to the previous Manchester headquarters of the Co-operative Group, as well as a reduction of 80% in carbon emissions. This will lead to an overall reduction of 30% in operating costs.

The building will get it’s power from rape seeds from the Co-operative farms, acting as fuel for the building’s CHP (Combined heat and power) plant, with the remaining husks of the crop recycled into animal feed.

It has…