The CEO of EMCOR UK, Keith Chanter, discusses the company’s committed and successful approach to working with customers in identifying and implementing sustainable business practices, resulting in measured and quantifiable outcomes…
Sustainable business practices contribute to our customers’ success — as well as ours — and can minimise or reduce the impact of operations on the environment. ‘EMCOR EnergyWise’, a bespoke energy model, aims to significantly, and cost effectively, reduce a customer’s energy use and carbon emissions by deploying industry leading knowledge and experience. EMCOR UK ensures collaboration with relevant occupants of the buildings we service when implementing the model, and achieving buy-in from all involved also helps maintain momentum, longevity and maximum efficiencies.
The priority of energy efficiency and supporting customers’ requirements, accordingly, forms an integral part of everyone’s role within EMCOR UK, spanning wider than the company’s core energy team. For example, for one of our real estate customers, we rolled out the ‘one team approach’ and, in doing so, we identified our company’s champions on each of their sites who were responsible for capturing ideas for savings from across the client’s operations. In the first year, this resulted in 89 identified and costed energy saving initiatives all aligned with the customer’s energy reduction strategy. This resulted in potential savings of 1,359 MWh and 4,000 tonnes of CO2.
Alongside energy saving techniques, EMCOR UK is also committed to innovation; we recognise and reward employees to innovate for customers. Recently, an employee developed a retro fitted system that revolutionises mandatory weekly testing of automatic fire sprinklers, saving customers water and money. The device simulates the flow of one sprinkler head in operation, thereby only discharging 25 litres of water versus 8,000 (max.) litres without the system, resulting in an annual saving of approximately 400,000 litres of water per sprinkler valve set. We also provide ‘energy roadshows’, designed to inform and engage all building occupants, communicating our customers’ objectives in a compelling and interactive way.
In addition, our Surbiton based office has recently been awarded the Fairplace Award, an ethical workplace accreditation by the Ethical Property Foundation which covers a wide range of indicators including; sustainability, employee health, well-being, and welfare.
EMCOR UK has taken a leadership approach in the development of a multi-faceted education programme and is a founding member of the Facilities Management Sustainability School, a unique collaboration to develop sustainability competence in the supply chain. As a founding member, we’re seeking to share and advocate best practice in this arena.
The practises we implement in our day-to-day work make good commercial sense because they enhance our customers’ success whilst reducing the impact on the environment. A recent survey carried out by BIFM of facilities management professionals revealed a 20 per cent decrease among businesses in how effective they perceive their organisation to be at executing sustainability policies compared to 2014. This would indicate that there is a need to implement further energy efficiency and sustainability measures across the facilities management industry.
EMCOR UK provides facilities management and specialist support services for a diverse range of private and public sector organisations. For further information on EMCOR UK, please visit www.emcoruk.com or telephone 0845 600 2300.
