Cottrell and Vermeulen are designing a sample refurbishment school for the Catalyst Lend Lease consortium that formed part of a successful bid for the Birmingham Building Schools for the Future programme.Cottrell & Vermeulen have worked closely with the consortium team to produce a school that will transform education, and provide sustainable, well-designed and affordable environment. The particular challenge of Broadway School is to create a sustainable and stimulating learning environment within the context of an existing school. We feel that this challenge provides a unique opportunity to provide both continuity and transformation – a truly sustainable model. The existing buildings will be upgraded to provide modern curriculum teaching spaces in line with guidance in Building Bulletin 98 (BB98) and to meet the latest access requirements. This will more truly reflect the ethos of the school and deliver a more effective and engaging learning environment.The design for the school includes a range of energy efficiency measures and renewable energy technologies to satisfy these objectives, whilst respecting affordability constraints. Examination of the viability of various technologies has satisfied the designers and operators that the main renewable energy source will be biomass heating. Other renewable energy technologies will also be integrated into the designs but their contribution to carbon savings will be smaller