Building services best practice

Winner

Hoare Lea

Hoare Lea’s efforts over the past year impressed the judges so much that they announced it a clear winner in this award. The depth and breadth of services it offers and their involvement in the industry sees them recognised as the best of the best at this year’s awards.

The practice’s commitment and investment in training brought particular praise. Recruitment is principally at graduate level and it runs its own CIBSE and IEE accredited initial professional development programmes. The firm also sponsors undergraduate and post graduate trainees. Hoare Lea has representatives on a number of influential groups including the CIBSE Carbon Task Group, the BCO Green Issues Group and the ACE’s Sustainability Special Interest Group – Hoare Lea has been driving forward a code of conduct for engineers with respect to sustainable development.

Over 80% of the practice’s work is for repeat clients and 50% is for clients of more than 10 years standing.

Runners-up

Durham County Council

Durham County Council was singled out by the judges for its forward-thinking efforts to improve energy performance. It is the first municipality in Europe to display energy performance certificates in all its buildings and on its web site, enabling instant comparisons of efficiency. A series of energy awareness seminars were held for staff and elected members to enable them to offer simple advice to building users when visiting sites. The Council has also carried out a number of renewable energy demonstration projects.

Kier Building Services

Kier Building Services provides design, installation and maintenance services throughout Southern England, East Anglia and the Midlands. The company has pursued a policy of partnering for some years and repeat business is in excess of 85%. With a turnover of £45 million, it has 38 in-house designers offering value engineering expertise and communicating with other members of the team using Project-Net and 4-Projects. The judges were impressed by the big improvement in turnover and profits last year, while reducing the accident frequency ratio.

Maleon

Maleon has worked with McDonalds Restaurants and Environmental Biotech to tackle the problem of the build-up of fats, oils and greases in drains. Its bioremediation solution uses billions of live vegetative bacteria that feed on fats, oil and grease. These are introduced into pipework to consume deposits and convert them to CO2 and water. The trial at four McDonalds sites saved the company over £15 000 in callout costs and hugely reduced the amount of fats entering public sewers.

The judges were impressed by this environmental solution.

Buro Happold/MJN Colston – The Core at the Eden Project

This project had a real “wow” factor said the judges. The Core is based on the Ethiopian tree of knowledge, as such, the spiral timber gridshell of the roof forms the tree canopy; its copper panels shed water as leaves do; while the 350 m2 array of photovoltaics represent photosynthesis. Ground earth tubes draw outside air into lecture rooms and symbolise a tree’s roots, while providing cool air for natural ventilation. The judges commented that the building acts as a showcase for pioneering services.