First NABERS five star

In 2025, the office development of 11 & 12 Wellington Place in Leeds by TP Bennett became the first new UK Building to achieve the coveted NABERS Five Star rating. What makes this standard so challenging and how did the team do it?

11 & 12 Wellington Place, designed by TP Bennett for MEPC (part of Federated Hermes), is a pair of flexible, interlinked office buildings in Leeds that completed in 2023. Together, they set a new standard for sustainable workplace design as the first new buildings in the UK to secure a certified NABERS UK Five Star energy rating. Having completed the rigorous Design for Performance process, the project was then able to demonstrate its energy efficiency in use, helping to position Leeds at the forefront of design-led innovation in the commercial market.

This accreditation is particularly significant, because it recognises not only the intent of the design, but what happens when that intent meets reality, in the form of actual operational performance measurements. NABERS is a rigorous standard for demonstrating energy efficiency in practice; the performance rating benchmarks a building’s energy use against real data from offices across the country. The system began in Australia in 1999 and has evolved to become an international standard. Today, NABERS UK provides a framework for assessing the energy performance of office buildings across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland and is administered by CIBSE, the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. In a market of metrics and abbreviations, the system is increasingly recognised as a clear, useful benchmark for operational efficiency.

How did this project stand out from its peers? First, the scheme has no on-site fossil fuels. Instead, it utilises renewables and a renewable energy tariff, saving a forecasted 407 tonnes of CO₂ annually. The buildings generate the equivalent annual electricity demand of more than 42 homes from approximately 7,500 sqft of roof-mounted solar panels. “Our approach combined energy efficiency, smart technologies and wellbeing-focused design,” Andrew Leaver, Director at TP Bennett explained. “[The] five-star energy rating demonstrates that sustainable workplaces can perform exceptionally.” 

To address operational demand, the offices incorporate the latest smart building technologies to reduce energy consumption, but are also designed to help tenants make low-carbon choices. The location is close to public transport and the city’s park and ride service, the building incorporates electric vehicle charging points, extensive cycling facilities and is within easy reach of the Cycle Super Highway. Seeing wellbeing and sustainability in the healthy workplace as interlinked, the buildings also feature on-site vegetable patches, planted terraces and beehives.

Several buildings have achieved target ratings under NABERS UK, but 11 & 12 Wellington Place are the first to demonstrate that these goals are being met in practice. Initially, Wellington Place set a precedent as the first offices outside London to secure a Design Reviewed Target Rating of ‘five stars’ prior to construction. Following a full year of occupancy, that rating was fully validated through operational data. This conversion from target to actual was made possible by both buildings being successfully let, as it enabled a timely and comprehensive assessment of their operational performance. Since completion, the two buildings have attracted major corporations, including Lloyds Banking Group, Arup, EY, GHD and Hill Dickinson. Evidence, perhaps, of a wider market shift in demand to high-performing, sustainable workplaces that meet operational needs, but also align with organisational and corporate responsibility values.