Building a better future together: how our Engineering team is helping clients meet their decarbonisation targets

Our Engineering division is one of the top building services teams, operating in the public and private sectors in the UK. We are a forward-thinking business working hard to accelerate decarbonisation, helping support our clients achieve their decarbonisation strategies and goals across their estates, either doing so directly or via Frameworks such as Pagabo M&E and Procure Partnerships Decarbonisation.

The UK is committed to reaching Net Zero Carbon (NZC) by 2050 and the construction industry has an obligation to address its carbon footprint and be at the forefront of innovation to reduce carbon impact.

We understand our role in reducing emissions throughout the whole life of buildings, including operation, maintenance, and end of life. Our integrated mechanical, electrical and plumbing (MEP) business means that we consider MEP options alongside fabric options, enabling us to identify the best value whole life carbon reductions for each customer pound spent.

We can offer advice and help understand and maximise current assets, generate carbon reduction plans, develop scopes, designs, costs and programme the delivery of the work to accelerate the journey to NZC.

Carbon neutral certified

We are now a carbon neutral organisation, as our recent accreditation means we have met the requirements of the net carbon zero certification, having measured our greenhouse gas emissions in accordance with ISO 14064 Part 1 2018. It also certifies that we’re committed to managing and reducing our emissions, as well as investing in appropriate verified carbon credits to offset the small amount of remaining unavoidable emissions in our operational activities.

Offering solutions

We understand the issues faced around balancing the drive towards ‘net zero’, maintaining current assets and investment returns. We develop relationships with organisations, adding value and providing affordable and workable solutions to meet everyday problems.

Our six-step process from the first review to the planning, design, and justification through to delivery and measurements ensures a collaborative strategy.

We can implement and improve energy usage by benchmarking, energy reports, energy audits. For example, we recently reduced an NHS Trust’s energy bills by circa £600K per annum and for the Bank of England, we made £150,000 annual savings, a 48% reduction in energy cooling and an 8% reduction in CO2 emissions with 717t overall reduction.

Real life examples

We are working on the Catterick Integrated Care Campus which is a unique integrated facility, bringing a range of health and social care services together under one roof in a purpose-built facility. A joint collaboration, first of its kind, between the National Health Service (NHS) and Ministry of Defence (MOD).

The new facility has been designed to meet NZC standards and achieve a DREAM Excellent rating.

Featuring green technologies including:

• NZC ready to achieve BREEAM Excellent
• Fabric led approach for maximum utilisation of passive design solutions
• No fossil fuels to be used (other than standby generator)
• 143kW of power from the photovoltaic (PV) arrays yielding up to 114,313 kwh/pa
• Designed around courtyards to maximise the use of natural daylight and the provision of automatic lighting controls
• Technologies being employed: air source heat pump (ASHP) & PVs

We are currently working on new plans for Shotley Bridge Hospital, a new purpose-built community hospital to replace the existing facility as part of the New Hospital Programme Cohort two. Green technologies include:

• Compliance to NHP Cohort 2 NZC Criteria
• NZC ready to achieve BREEAM Excellent
• Fabric led approach for maximum utilisation of passive design solutions
• No fossil fuels to be used (other than standby generator)
• Hydrogen ready fuel pipe to be installed for future connection to a grid mains
• 358kW of power from the PV arrays yielding up to 308,820 kwh/pa
• Designed around courtyards to maximise the use of natural daylighting and the provision of automatic lighting controls
• Technologies being employed: ASHP & PVs

We delivered the CIS Tower plant replacement. The building, which is a grade 2 multi-storey office building completed in 1962, comprised originally of 28 floors of office accommodation, three basement levels, as well as numerous M&E plant areas. We were able to achieve a 40% reduction in heating energy and replaced the BMS system, which included more than 28 storeys, 41 outstations and 2254 separate points.

The Department for Education’s (DfE) St Mary’s Catholic Voluntary Academy in Derby has been designed and built by us to be the UK’s most environmentally friendly school. As a DfE pilot for the country’s first purpose-built biophilic primary school, the five-building design focuses on a strong connection of the internal environment with nature, promoting physical and mental health, as well as increasing biodiversity through plants and wildlife. St Mary’s meets the requirements of S21 whilst delivering NZC in operation. Green technologies including:

• Fabric led approach for maximum utilisation of passive design solutions
• No fossil fuels
• Air source heat pumps serve radiators, underfloor heating, fan convectors and domestic hot water
• Energy efficient design achieving a predicted energy in use figure of 49 kWh/m2/yr compared with the DfE target of 52 kWh/m2/yr
• 180 kWp solar panel array on roof tops generating sufficient electricity to meet school demand over the course of the year – achieving net zero operational carbon emissions
• Designed around true natural ventilation utilising fully automated window actuators
• Also designed around courtyards to maximise the use of natural daylighting and the provision of automatic lighting controls

Tilbury Douglas has places on many national MEP frameworks including Pagabo and the Procure Partnership Decarbonisation Framework. These enable efficient delivery of customer decarbonisation requirements through prequalified and sustainable contracting mechanisms.

We are also working with our supply chain to lower carbon emissions through the development of low carbon construction products, modern methods of construction and digital technology, as well as implementing Environmental Product Declarations, for whole life carbon in the products we use, including materials travel miles.

For further information, please visit our Engineering page or our decarbonisation page.

Photo: St Mary’s, taken by Blue Fox Construction