Is the Government Going Off Going Green?

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Join in with the Green Debate affecting all new build and refurbishment projects

In a surprising annoucement last week, the Department of Education made public that they are proposing to scrap the BREEAM requirements for all new build schools, from primary schools, free schools and the largest Academies for the new Priorities School Programme discussed in a previous blog.  This comes shortly after the Environment Secretary Chris Huhne’s proposed cutting of the so called Feed In Tarriffs (FITs) for solar panel pvs was ruled unlawful by the European Union. 

As outlined in our Green Zone, BREEAM has been something of a pre-requisite benchmark accepted by all stakeholders for all new build public sector developments and having spoken to many architects and specifiers, it is known to be a long-winded process, putting it mildly, with cost implications the Government is now apparently ceasing upon to justify its intentions. 

Whilst it is entirely understandable that the Government has to look at any way possible to reduce costs, the question of this blog would appear a valid one: how committed are they for making the United Kingdom a “greener” country?   Besides its wind farms (which despite being extremely expensive and cost-inaffective, Mr Huhne appears set upon building across the sea and areas of natural beauty)  there certainly seems to be a less than enthusiastic committment from them.  FITs would surely continue to encourage people to change from traditional energy to solar panel pvs and despite its faults, BREEAM at least sets a green standard all new builds have to obtain.   So, as the latest Construction News (260112) front cover pertently enquires: ” “Costs versus Carbon” discuss.”   What’s it to be then Coalition?  

We welcome any comments and will publish these here so long as they are directly relevant to this blog and topic.

Commercial Dishwashers: Market Leading Options

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We/I spent the week leading up to Christmas building our Resource Centre, which we hope will become a “one-shop” quite literal Resource Centre for all professionals working in the commercial catering equipment supply and fit out market, especially end-users.

We/I focused in particular on commercial dishwashers from three of our preferred manufacturers, Classeq, Hobart Ecomax and Meiko UK, which, along with all other manufacturers and products found in ou Resource Centre, are either the most pre-specified by trade consultants or end-users or are specified by ourselves on all of the numerous projects we get involved with.

Classeq commercial dishwashers are British designed and manufactured and it is this, as well as their overall value and quality, which is the key reason we actively support them.  We strongly believe that we all need to support British manufacturing as it will be that sector that will help drive this country’s future economic growth…hopefully.     This also helps us in our continual drive into a more economical, more environmentally friendly commercial green kitchen.

Hobart Ecomax commercial dishwashers represent a win-win situation for the end users point of view in particular as they/you can get a “proper” Hobart machine with all the renowed German build quality and reliability, without the price.   These are its principle advantages and especially when we provide “VE” (Value Engineering-don’t ask why it’s called that!) alternative specifications, it is increasingly Hobart Ecomax we look to use.

Meiko commercial dishwashers are our favoured higher-end manufacuturer as not only can we secure their products at outstanding prices we can then pass on to our clients, they continually develop their product range and have some of the most environmentally friendly and advanced warewashing machines available anywhere, none more so than the IQ we have previously written blogs about.

All in all we sincerely hope that you find the Resource Centre of use to you but please use either the comments feature on this blog or better still the feedback forms if you have any constructive criticisms or ideas to make it better still.

Until next time, thanks for reading!

Meiko M-IQ: Revolutionary Warewashing :” Perfection is not enough”

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Renowed for proactively supporting our preferred manufacturers in particular with their latest Green/Eco Friendly commercial catering equipment  we are therefore naturally pleased to bring to your attention Meiko’s revolutionary M-IQ, that dramatically cuts down on water waste and subsequently your water bills, that along with everything else these days, continues to rise.   Up to 33% savings can be made, along with crucially 30% improved performance due to innovative and unique technology, which further helps your bottom line.  

The all-important “RoI-” even more pertinent in the current market-is therefore remarkably quick, site naturally dependent.    If you do not currently have the fundings for this, please contact us for information on the various green finance deals available or visit our Green Zone’s relevant pages as well as other blogs (“Green Finance Initiative”launched October 2011)  

How?  Why not take an interactive tour on Meiko’s own website or watch this video and if you are a large commercial establishment such as sports stadia, larger schools/academies or universities, all of whom we regularly specify to, contact our marketing department and we will arrange for your local Representative of Meiko to meet you at your premises, carry out a free-of-charge, no-obligation site survey and assist you with any other queries you have such as costs.

Autumn Statement 2011: Positive or Negative?

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Yesterday the Chancellor George Osbourne delivered his annual Autumn Statement on the state of the British economy, which was pretty gloomy to the extent that anyone watching the news across the channels last night could well have begun to ask themselves “when will this get any better?” a question supported by this morning’s press

However, there might be some light at the end of the tunnel affecting the overall UK Construction Industry and therefore their various and numerous sub-contractors and supply chains.  

 If you subscribe to Construction News, they have produced a definitive list of the top 40 Infrastructure projects to be delivered (theoretically) in the remaining three years of the fixed-term parliament.   If not, we will aim to copy this on our company’s facebook page.   

We however await specific details from the Coalition for up to 54 commercial projects ranging from Nursing Homes to Schools, community sports facilities to regeneration projects of town centres which would all unquestionably help to kick-start the economy.

Government Boost to Education? “BSF mk 2.”

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It has been widely reported in the such leading trade magazines as Construction News that the Government will be launching in the spring of next year what in effect will be Building Schools for the Future (BSF) Mark 2, after Michael Gove somewhat controversially scrapped “mark 1,” along with hundreds of schools’ and colleges’ dreams, leading to High Court appeals from various councils.

This will be officially called the Priority School Building Programme or PSBP and will be the first test of the Coalition Government’s “new” PFI (Private Finance Initiative) which they claim will be far more efficient than BSF, which was notoriously bureaucratic and inefficient.   We have completed many BSF projects and can vouch for this-”mood lighting” and “Comfort Zones” were often included, much to the chagrin of the Project QSes!

Assuming the students and staff can do without such luxuries, we sincerely hope that PSBP will be used to rebuild or refurbish the remaining schools in England, some of which are in an appalling state of disrepair.

PSBP will compliment the Coalition Government’s “Free School,” Academy and legac PCP programmes.

£500m Government fund for schools announced

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It was reported in the market-leading construction magazine Construction News (subscription required) that Michael Gove has said that there is going to be £500m of central government funds to ”high priority” LEAs to address the shortage of pupil spaces.   Some of these schools were once meant to be completely rebuilt under the previous government’s Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme, which the Coalition scrapped shortly after coming into office last year, which has led to some LEAs including our local Nottingham City legally challenging it, without success.   

This comes on the back of last December’s £800m funding for the same issue and £858m for school maintenance.    As we will all have experienced first or second hand, there are many instances of overcrowding issues nationwide that BSF would have resolved as well as many schools in varying degrees of disrepair or not being fit for purpose.     

Hopefully this funding will help address these issues and we will be keeping a close eye on this over the coming weeks and months. 

We welcome your thoughts and opinions on this.

Highly Significant Government-backed Green Deal Finance Company Launched

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It was announced this week in the Sunday Times, Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and the leading trade magazine Construction News that an industry-wide consortium including British Gas, Carillion and HSBC have formed a brand new Green Deal Finance Company (GDFC) which will also have a significant potential impact on the commercial as well as the domestic consumer markets, no doubt in part because the UK along with other leading developed nations has signed up to increasingly stringent Co2 reduction targets, the first of which is the end of this decade, which will be 34% reduction compared to 1990.     No doubt sceptism such as reported in The Guardian will remain but irrespective of these, these targets are here to stay and we will all have to respond. 

“Retrofitting” existing commercial buildings to make them more environmentally friendly and sustainable should be one such measure that the GDFC should be able to support and we will be continuing to work with the leading main contractors, architects and end-user specifiers to promote the findings of our Green Kitchen research and concept.   Interestingly we have started to receive enquires off these specifiers for this green kitchen and we are now working on a number of projects…watch this space or at least follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn!   Also contact our Marketing Department should you require any further assistance on this.

Waste 2-0 Food Waste Disposal Units

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 Click on the Title or Reply to view product image. 

As part of our ongoing research into specifying and designing a green commercial kitchen we are working closely with Mechline in looking at installing their Waste 2-0 food waste disposal unit, which converts up to 180kg of any food waste into grey water in 24 hours.  

Particularly of use if you work within the public sector, especially the NHS or in larger private sector establishments such as sports stadia, this Waste 2-0 food waste disposal unit will significantly reduce waste going to landfill with the associated landfill taxes.   Even more relevant given the current and deep cuts to everyone’s budgets, we would strongly urge anyone working within these sectors to consider purchasing these units.   Such establishments are looking at up to £8500 per year savings based on data collected at sites where the Waste 2-0 unit is already in-situ.   Based on this, your return of investment will be 15-18 months.

If you are interested, Garners Food Service Equipment’s marketing department can arrange for you to visit nationwide trial sites to see the Waste 2-0 unit in action and ask yourselves the users on how much of a saving they are already finding.   Further information can be found on our Green Zone

Also we will be able to work with Mechline in looking at potentially trialing these units on your own site subject to site surveys.   Please in the first instance contact our marketing department where we will be only too happy to assist you with any queries.    Meanwhile have a look at this video for the larger Go Bio unit by the same company, which would suit establishments such as prisons where there is a central production unit.