New office and lab

[Cassiepod]

I'm hoping to pick the collective 'ish' brain

The company I work for is doing well and plans to build a new laboratory/office building. I've just had a meeting with one set of designers about office space and I mentioned 'green' options which they seemed quite positive about.
Basic stuff is now almost obligatory by the new buildings regs but other stuff (solar water heating, rainwater harvesting, ground source heat pumps, mirco generation) they seemed to have experience of as well and said they'd put quotes in for these.

Now I know that management aren't going to be too keen on stuff that apparently costs more money although they weren't as initially negative as I expected

Now the crux:
-does anyone know of good internet resources for finding out costs associated with such systems so that I can compare with the quote and make sure we're not being ripped off and also
- does anyone know of any resources for estimating improvements in costs/efficiency and any goverment incentives to include such things to make them more palatable to our management.

I will also research on the net but if anyon'es been there before then I'll e happy not to reinvent the wheel!

Thanks for your help

[mybarnconversion]

For rainwater harvesting take a look at :

http://www.rainharvesting.co.uk/pages/s ... rcial.html

...they provide a quotation service that will give you some indicative prices, not tried the commercial quotation option, but the domestic one was very informative.

[Thurston Garden]

Cassiepod - I think the best way to convince a commercial outfit this is to show a cost saving in the long run. Although I have run dozens of service charge budgets for buildings, none have ever included solar/rainwater harvesting etc. I once did discuss with my utilities consultant about procuring green leccy for my buildings but he said there was not the capacity at the time (probably 4 years ago now) and I would never be able to justify the cost if he could find a provider with enough capacity.

I assume if your employer is committing to building (rather than having a landlords build and then rent back?) they will be looking at remaining in the building for the long term, in which case it should be possible to show some savings which should get them on board.

There is of course the positive publicity that can be created by your employer from being an environmentally responsible outfit - I did start working with the Carbon Trust on a business centre redevelopment in Dundee, but I burned my suit just as we began..... I think they might b a good place to start and depending on the size of the development (or, if I remember rightly, the cost of your utilities) their service is free.

I would be interested to hear how things progress - it's not something I have convinced a builder/owner to embark on (yet) but companies attitudes are certainly changing.