Demand-side response (DSR) firm Upside Energy has secured £545,000 of seed funding from investors to expand its management team and run a pilot project with National Grid. The company is aiming to sell balancing services to grid operators by aggregating DSR from households and small businesses. The
Birmingham City University’s new £31 million education building has officially opened today (Wednesday 10 January), offering additional teaching and learning space for 3,000 students and staff within more than 650 rooms. Facing Gopsal Street, the new building – Curzon B – comprises 100,000 square feet of additional state-of-the-art and experimental
2017 saw another record number of applicants promoted to Professional Member status. The Institute awarded the prestigious chartered status to 43 applicants this year. Natural Resource Wales (NRW) demonstrated an exceptional professional standard this year as six members’ of their team have been awarded charter status, with four outstanding applicants who
Robertson Group continues its focus on securing the best people to continue to drive the business forward across the U.K. Dirk Pittaway has joined Robertson to take up the role of Managing Director for the regional construction business of Robertson North West. Dirk joins the Group with over 20 years
BSP Consulting, the civil and structural engineering firm, has promoted three of its members to new positions. Those are the chartered civil engineer Carol Ell and the chartered structural engineer Monika Anszperger who have become associates, and Tim Wilson who has stepped up to become the new associate director. Carol
The East Yorkshire-based organisation, Williamsfield Developments, is selling fast its new-build homes in Hutton Cranswick. The reason behind it is that every aspect of the scheme hit the highest quality mark. Every home that is part of the development benefits from solar roof panels fitted in by James Foley Electrical
Grafter, a new and free digital solution for business and flexible workers, has just been launched. Tom Cape came up with this concept in 2016 and he co-founded it with Richard Knight in June 2017. Prior to its official release it attracted over 7,000 registered users and achieved 156% overfunding
Demand-side response (DSR) firm Upside Energy has secured £545,000 of seed funding from investors to expand its management team and run a pilot project with National Grid. The company is aiming to sell balancing services to grid operators by aggregating DSR from households and small businesses. The UK based start-up originated in the Nesta Dynamic Demand Challenge, a so-called ‘hackathon’ to stimulate the creation of new DSR products, technologies and services. Its service will make use of energy stored by devices its customers already own such as electric vehicles, batteries attached to solar panels, domestic heating systems and back-up power supplies for IT equipment. Upside Energy has already received grants totalling £810,000 from the Department of Energy and Climate Change and Innovate UK, among others. The company has been testing its technology for several months and started a real-world trial four weeks ago, using Innovate UK’s funding, which will last for another six to eight weeks. It is hoping to begin the National Grid pilot later this quarter, getting 1MW of DSR signed up by the end of 2016. It then plans to start commercial operations at the beginning of 2017, and is aiming to reach 27MW of capacity in the first 12 months. In February Danish firm Dong Energy launched a DSR service for its business customers. Source link
Birmingham City University’s new £31 million education building has officially opened today (Wednesday 10 January), offering additional teaching and learning space for 3,000 students and staff within more than 650 rooms. Facing Gopsal Street, the new building – Curzon B – comprises 100,000 square feet of additional state-of-the-art and experimental facilities for the institution’s existing City Centre Campus courses. Designed by Birmingham-based Associated Architects and constructed by Willmott Dixon, the building will assist in catering for the needs of the institution’s growing student numbers. The canalside development encompasses two sections of six and storeys respectively, with elevated external amenity space. The structure extends the University’s award-winning £63 million Curzon building, which has been housed on Cardigan Street in Birmingham’s Eastside since 2015 and continues the University’s transformation of this part of the city. Students and staff gathered earlier today to witness a ribbon-cutting ceremony led by Birmingham City University’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Philip Plowden, followed by tours of the new building led by members of the institution’s Estates and Facilities team. Professor Philip Plowden, Vice-Chancellor, Birmingham City University, said: “From individual study pods to meeting rooms, we hope that students will really benefit from these facilities that will help them achieve success in their studies. We are committed to providing the best possible learning experience for all our students and this extension will play a key part for that aim. “With work now commencing on HS2, we are delighted to be further contributing to the renaissance of Birmingham’s Eastside area with the latest expansion of our City Centre Campus – already a major landmark for hundreds of thousands of people arriving at Birmingham New Street by train every day.” As well as a new dedicated IT suite for students – with nearly 100 laptops available for loan – Curzon B boasts an innovative lecture theatre called The Hive that features raked, group activity seating, integrated technology and excellent sight lines. The new space is also now home to the University’s Centre of Academic Success, the New Technology Institute (NTI) and its Students’ Union. As part of the project, 3,000 students from the University’s Faculty of Computing, Engineering and the Built Environment gained real-life experience of working across the construction industry by putting the theory learned in the classroom into practice. Furthermore, the developers offered 10 paid placements throughout the build, while three graduates are now employed full time by Willmott Dixon in the Birmingham region. The building forms part of the University’s £260 million investment into new and advanced facilities which was also strengthened with the opening of the new £57 million Royal Birmingham Conservatoire in September last year. Later this year, Birmingham City University will open its new £41 million Health Sciences and Education building on its City South Campus on Westbourne Road in Edgbaston. This building will help reinforce Birmingham City University’s status as the region’s largest provider of qualified health and social care professionals to the NHS and producer of more teachers than any other institution in the West Midlands. The space will offer teacher training and specialist facilities for health sciences including provision for research, a new lecture theatre, a multi-purpose hall, speech therapy, physiotherapy and ultrasound suites, art and technology classrooms and IT hubs. The new building will also enable the relocation of the University’s School of Education, consolidating the Faculty of Health, Education and Life Sciences on to one site. The School of Education is currently the last of the University’s seminaries situated on its City North Campus in Perry Barr. However, the University has already sold part of the site to the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) to help meet the city’s growing housing demands and discussions are underway to transform another part of the City North Campus into an athletes’ village for the 2020 Commonwealth Games. Both will leave a powerful legacy for the Perry Barr community as the University migrates towards its City South and City Centre campuses.
2017 saw another record number of applicants promoted to Professional Member status. The Institute awarded the prestigious chartered status to 43 applicants this year. Natural Resource Wales (NRW) demonstrated an exceptional professional standard this year as six members’ of their team have been awarded charter status, with four outstanding applicants who were awarded Awards for Excellence. Neil Stoddart MICFor, Operational Resource Manager for NRW, said: “We really value and respect the professionalism of our staff and this achievement is recognition of their hard work and willingness to improve. “Last year we had a record number of entries for professional membership and were the fourth largest contributor to professional membership with the ICF in the UK. “We encourage this kind of professional improvement so this is a great result for the organisation but also for professional forestry as a whole in Wales.” Steve McCartney FICFor, Chair of ICF’s Examinations Board, states: “On behalf of the Examinations Board and the Assessors, I’m delighted to congratulate the 43 newly-chartered members on their success. It was especially pleasing to see a record number receiving the ‘Award for Excellence’, reflecting both the high standard of the applicants and the work put in by the Institute in what was a record-breaking year for applications. There has never been four Awards of Excellence in one year in the Institute’s ninety years’ history and from the same organisation.” Michael Cresswell MICFor, Paul Dann MICFor, Owen Hoddy MICFor and Caroline Riches MICFor showcased an exceptional wealth of knowledge going above and beyond the standard required. These members will be invited to an award ceremony at the Institute’s forthcoming flagship National Conference dinner, which will take place on 2 May, in Edinburgh. Tom Jenkins FICFor, Moderator of ICF’s Examinations Board, congrats the successful applicants on their success: “This was a record year across the board for ICF membership applications. The quality of the work produced by PME candidates was exceptional, particularly from those who had seemingly prepared well in advance of submission and who had shared their work for feedback from friends and colleagues. “As someone who lives and works in Wales, I was particularly impressed this year by both the numbers and the high quality of the candidates presenting from Natural Resources Wales. The record number of Awards of Excellence, independently and objectively awarded by the Assessors, was extremely gratifying to see. “I very much hope that records will again be broken during next year’s assessment process, and that I will have the privilege to witness stellar performances by candidates from all parts of the UK!” All new Professional Members of the Institute will now be permitted to use the title Chartered Forester or Chartered Arboriculturist, and the letters MICFor after their names.
Robertson Group continues its focus on securing the best people to continue to drive the business forward across the U.K. Dirk Pittaway has joined Robertson to take up the role of Managing Director for the regional construction business of Robertson North West. Dirk joins the Group with over 20 years of construction experience in the North West. Robertson North West, which recently relocated to new offices in Haydock, is part of one of the largest independently owned construction, infrastructure and support services companies in the U.K. The Group, which celebrated its 50th year of trading in 2016, consists of 21 companies, employing over 2,300 staff and has a turnover in excess of £600m. Speaking about the objectives for the business, Dirk said “Robertson Group has shown impressive growth in the last ten years, despite the challenging market conditions in recent years, and my focus will be to continue delivering the Robertson model for business across the North West. “Robertson, as a family business, has always maintained that their staff are at the forefront of everything, providing opportunity for career development and creating environments in which staff can flourish. “This approach is how we are developing our staff within the North West and we will continue to search for the best people who can add value to the business whilst developing their own careers.” Derek Shewan, CEO of Robertson, said “We are delighted to have secured Dirk to join our business. He brings a wealth of construction experience with a drive and passion in forming close working partnerships with clients and providing focused solutions to challenges that clients may face”.
BSP Consulting, the civil and structural engineering firm, has promoted three of its members to new positions. Those are the chartered civil engineer Carol Ell and the chartered structural engineer Monika Anszperger who have become associates, and Tim Wilson who has stepped up to become the new associate director. Carol joined the company in July 2004 and works in BSP’s Leicester office in De Montfort Street; Monika joined in January 2014 and is based in the Derby office at Pride Park; and Tom has been with BSP since 2005 and is currently managing the civil engineering team in Leicester. “These changes reflect the much-increased responsibility levels that Tim, Carol and Monika now embrace and perform for the company. I and the BSP team congratulate them on their achievement,” said BSP Managing Director David Sumner. BSP Consulting is an award-winning civil and structural engineering firm offering services throughout the construction sector. It is based on Oxford Street, Nottingham and it provides a comprehensive range of consultancy services in civil, structural, geotechnical, transportation and environmental engineering to all sectors of the construction community, including architects, project managers, contractors, developers, and estate agents. Founded in 1999, the company has three offices across the East Midlands, in Oxford Street, Nottingham, at Pride Park, Derby, and in De Montfort Street, Leicester, and one office in South Yorkshire, on Solly Street in Sheffield. In 2009, BSP Consulting was awarded the prestigious title of Consultant of the Year at the East Midlands Property Dinner.
The East Yorkshire-based organisation, Williamsfield Developments, is selling fast its new-build homes in Hutton Cranswick. The reason behind it is that every aspect of the scheme hit the highest quality mark. Every home that is part of the development benefits from solar roof panels fitted in by James Foley Electrical Ltd, triple glazing, and noise suppression between floors. These aspects make them 60% more energy efficient than most of other new builds. “As well as taking care of all the wiring and electrics, this development has given us a fantastic opportunity to put our solar installation and testing competencies to use – every single home has in-roof mounted solar panels, and it is essential they are up to all up to standard,” commented James Foley, electrician and business owner. The ethos of Williamsfield Developments values sustainability and Paul Lisseter, the company director, believes that being given a 100% A rating for energy efficiency puts them in the top 1% in the region. It is also the only local developer to offer certified A-rated ‘affordable housing’. The company puts great price on employing local tradespeople, including James Foley Electrical Ltd: “James Foley Electrical have every competency we could need. With solar certification, not only do they need to have up to date training, they also need to ensure their test equipment is regularly assessed and checked. This is quite an onerous undertaking for any electrical contractor but it gives me an assurance that their work is always absolutely reliable,” said Paul. It took nearly 18 years for Paul and Joanne Lisseter to obtain permission to start planning the housing development in Hutton Cranswick, but it was important for them to succeed. With more and more young people leaving the area, it is essential that those who stay and those who wish to return will have a place in the community. As part of their future plans, Williamsfield Developments want to extend the housing scheme with an additional 67 properties. They hope to find more suitable sites so that they could create new homes for local people.
Grafter, a new and free digital solution for business and flexible workers, has just been launched. Tom Cape came up with this concept in 2016 and he co-founded it with Richard Knight in June 2017. Prior to its official release it attracted over 7,000 registered users and achieved 156% overfunding on crowd-funding platform, Crowdcube in Autumn 2017. Tom and Richard, the founders, share a passion for building and property development and the idea for Grafter came up when Tom couldn’t find workers or services to fulfil short term jobs on small building projects. After a thorough research, he found out that many business sectors required a faster route to find non-specialist workers and so they created Grafter. It is designed for businesses that are looking for flexible or part time local workers in the field of building and construction, farming, landscaping, delivery, warehousing, leisure, events, and factory industry, as well as self-employed workers seeking flexible work. “Grafter is the first free digital service that engages all types of flexible workers with local business in just a few steps – making the process of finding work and workers, swift, cost- effective and trustworthy too,” explained Tom. The website offers a simple sign up process and it is completely free to use by workers seeking a temporary job or project. Businesses however, can use the engine to find and engage with workers, but at the payment stage Grafter charger a usage fee of 5% plus VAT. Grafter is committed to supporting fair work and good practice, therefore all jobs posted offer at or above minimum wage. Its future plans include the addition of other services such as tax administration, accountancy support, and for charities seeking volunteer workers. It can be found at grafternow.com or by using the grafter app available on iOS and Google Play.
