Tenants and guests at Chesterford Research Park can tap into a brand new resource – water sourced from the ground beneath the world-leading Life Sciences location.

The Nucleus building at Chesterford has invested in a water bottling system to capture the home grown h20.

In the process it is reducing its carbon footprint by eliminating the need to buy in bottled mineral water with associated production, packaging and transportation costs.  

The venue is now able to dispense unlimited volumes of purified, chilled, still and sparkling water into branded, re-usable glass bottles. These are now used exclusively for all meetings, events and the daily restaurant service at The Nucleus.

This new system is being fed by a supply of naturally pure water that Chesterford Research Park now extracts as a mains supply. Extracted via two bore holes from an aquifer beneath the park, the water is then made fit for consumption via a treatment centre also within the grounds – and monitored by the Environment Agency.
 
Water boreholes are a modern equivalent to the centuries old water well providing pure, natural underground water and are the environmentally friendly alternative to mains water supply.

Significant environmental benefits have been achieved through the extraction, purification and dispensing of water on site. Substantially less energy is required to extract water from the boreholes than it takes to carry out the extensive processes for normal mains supply.

• Genomics powerhouse Illumina, which is growing its Cambridge facility at Chesterford Research Park, has increased revenues 45 per cent to $261.3m (£162.5m) in the fourth quarter and by 35 per cent to $902.7 million (£561.65m) for the full year.