The metal and glasswork company, Essential Projects has benefited from an increase to the number of projects that they have been working on. This means that the company has been hiring more staff in order to make sure that they are still offering the same degree of customer service to their clients while also dealing with the larger amount of work. Essential Projects has carried out work for big brand names such as Next, Oakfurinitureland and Waitrose. Essential projects are wanting to expand and offer their bespoke architectural solutions made from steel, carbon fibre, granite, glass, timber and ceramics. These tailored projects are all carried out within budget with efficiency and accuracy. One of the new staff that is now working at Essential Projects is Kieran Hickman. The role Kieran will be carrying out for Essential Projects design engineer. Because of the new jobs that have been won by Essential Projects, Kieran will be a valuable new member of staff. By increasing the number of staff working for Essential, the company hopes that there will even more growth for the business. Kieran’s job specification for Essential will be to complete technical drawings as part of the quotation process. The design impressions created by Kieran must be technical enough to cover the process involved in completing the design. CAD images created by Kieran and the technical nature of the designs will be needed in order to order and procure the correct parts to complete the project. The designs that have been drawn up by Kieran will also help the business collect the correct components as fast as possible. Before he was employed by Essential Projects, Kieran worked for Metreel. In his role as a mechanical design engineer, and began looking for other job prospects after his previous role started to get monotonous. He began his career as an apprentice for an engineering consultancy company, and at his new job, Kieran will be able to use all of the skills he has learnt over the years.

Tim Marks in representation of the AEMT and a member of the BSI, IEC and IEDEx committees has been looking in to the issues that could face the Hazardous Area industry when Britain and the UK Parliament have agreed to leave the European Union. Standards, directives and compliance are all uncertain topics for government during these early stages of Brexit. However, those in the industry are wondering what Brexit will mean for the Hazardous Area industries. And whether there will be an impact on companies that are carrying out work in the UK. Tim Marks made sure that to begin with he had made distinct definitions between standards and directives. It is thought that Technical standards within the Hazardous Area industries cover the best practice, but not mandatory plans put forwards by experts in the industry. Directive however originate in the European Parliament and is then integrated in to the law of the European members. Directives intend on delivering a level playing field for the Union’s members. The directives within the Hazardous Area industry can block trade with Europe, so the UK will still have to conform with them post Brexit. After Brexit then, in order to make trade access to the EU easier the UK would still have to make sure that their products or services abide by the EU directives and have the correct certification. In terms of the users within the Hazardous Area industries, it will also prove unhelpful is the UK stop complying to EU directives, and it would be easier to maintain the status quo. However, the UK could alter the DSEAR which is the regulations for dangerous substances and explosive atmospheres, and would therefore not comply with the European directives. However, the European directives are highly regarded worldwide. The DSEAR prevents an influx of non-directive compliant equipment, and is beneficial to the UK. Tim concludes that the regulations in place to make sure that compliance doesn’t get any more complex and it seems that doing business with the EU should be unaffected by Brexit in this industry.

The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy needs to “completely re-think” its strategy for the decarbonisation of heating, Policy Exchange has warned. The influential think tank said that, with a price tag of £300 billion, plans to install electric heat pumps in four out of five homes by 2050 are a “colossal waste of money”. Achieving this would cost as much as £12,000 per household. The figure takes into account the cost of upgrading the grid and building more than 100GW of new power generation to meet the extra demand for electricity, as well as more than £8,500 for the installation of each pump. Policy Exchange said in a new report Britain is “significantly off-track” to meeting the carbon budgets it is committed to, and that a lack of progress on the decarbonisation of heating could “make or break the UK’s carbon plans”. It urged the government to “put affordability at the heart of its decarbonisation strategy by shifting away from its focus on electric heat pumps to alternatives”. A new strategy based on a “more balanced set of priorities and technologies – incorporating substantial improvements in energy efficiency, more efficient gas appliances, greener forms of gas, and alternative heat technologies” could deliver an 80 per cent reduction in emissions by 2050 but at “substantially less cost to the consumer”. Demand reduction could potentially reduce overall heat demand by up to 20 per cent over the period. The report said improvements in energy efficiency should be given “early prioritisation” as they are “beneficial regardless of which heat technologies we use in the future”. There is still “significant potential” to rollout out loft and cavity wall insulation and heating controls, which are “cheap and relatively straightforward to install”. However, in order to make substantive savings, more disruptive and expensive measures such as solid wall insulation for older properties will need to be deployed. Despite the rollout of more efficient condensing gas boilers, which have been mandatory in new installations since 2005, 11 million of the less efficient non-condensing boilers remained in UK homes in 2012. The report said these ought to be upgraded as “a matter of priority”. Other technologies such as “flue gas heat recovery, gas driven heat pumps, and micro combined heat and power have the potential to substantially increase boiler efficiencies beyond the current level”. Hybrid gas-electric heat pumps, which can switch between the two sources to depending on which is cheaper, could also play a major role. Crucially, as they can switch to gas during peak hours, they would avoid the need for grid upgrades as would be needed with the mass installation of electric heat pumps. Policy Exchange said electric-only pumps could still play a role, “but not to the extent suggested in the [Department of Energy and Climate Change] heat strategy” laid out in 2012 and 2013. The think tank noted the potential to decarbonise the gas itself through the use of green gases produced from waste and organic matter. It would not require changes to gas appliances or networks and would therefore offer “a cost effective route to substantially decarbonise gas use”. However, there are “uncertainties” about the amount which can be produced. A more transformative approach would be to covert the gas grid to run on hydrogen, which the report said could achieve a 73 per cent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. However, this would be very costly: Upscaling the findings of a study looking at converting the city of Leeds to run on hydrogen, suggests doing so across the UK to all 23 million homes on the gas grid, would initially cost £180 billion and then a further £12 billion each year. Policy Exchange said more work needs to be done to assess the feasibility of this option. Source: Policy Exchange The report made a number of recommendations. It said the government needs to set out a “coherent and achievable long term vision, backed up with sustained policy intervention and considerable cross-party support” but at the same time pursue “quick wins”. It should take a more balanced approach, which minimises costs to consumers, and avoid “picking winners” and setting technology specific goals. Carbon pricing should be used to encourage lower carbon solutions and the disparity between heating and power will need to be resolved: “At present the effective carbon tax on heating fuels such as gas and heating oil is negative, whilst the levies placed on electricity bills are increasing as power is being decarbonised.” Heat, energy efficiency and fuel poverty policy should be better integrated and there should be a “national strategy with a localist approach”. Policy Exchange said the best course of action will “vary by location and over time” and so a “one size fits all” approach will not work effectively. Energy and Utilities Alliance chief executive Mike Foster said: “The vast majority of UK households are connected to the gas grid. Rather than rip out heating systems and make the grid obsolete, it makes sense to decarbonise the gas we use.” He added: “Green gas is now being recognised as the preferred solution to meet UK heat demand, which is seasonal and demands a flexible supply. Our members are poised to deliver; we now need that green light from the government for green gas. “There is no easy option for the UK, all means to decarbonise will cost consumers, but it is imperative to keep these costs to a minimum. Previous policy direction did not do this. I hope this report helps the new government set a new direction.” Earlier today the Energy and Climate Change Committee (ECCC) released a report also warning that the government is off course to meet its 2020 targets for renewable heat and transport. It said the proposed reforms to the Renewable Heat Incentive (RHI), which will see heat pumps prioritised over biomass, are not the “optimal pathway” to meeting the heating goal, and should therefore be revised. Source link

It has been announced that SoilsCon 2017 will be held on Wednesday 18th October this year. Regarded as an event that is firmly placed in the landscape industry events calendar, SoilsCon will be will be held in the same venue as last year, Phyllis Court in Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire. The location for last year’s event proved popular, leading organisers to select the same venue for the third convention. This year will be the third soils conference that has been organised by Tim O’Hare, the soil scientist and landscape consultant. The conference will hopefully offer landscape architects, contractors, garden designers, developers, topsoil manufacturers and a range of other industry professionals a day of professional development, discussion and debate. On offer at SoilsCon will be a number of different presentations form some of the country’s leading experts in their respective fields. The speakers that have been confirmed for this year’s event include organizer Tim O’Hare, Tim White the Senior Associate of Tim O’Hare Associates; TerraCottem CEO Carol Devos; Martin Gammie, the Managing Director of Consulting with Trees Limited; and Head of research and Development at PlantWorks Ltd, Dr. Louisa Robinson-Boyer. The subject of the presentations that will definitely be covered at this year’s SoilsCon will include: Soil management practices on Greenfield sites, which will refer to a North West Cambridge case study; The benefits of using new generation soil conditioning technology in order to improve soil performance; considerations to what sustainable urban tree planting looks like; and the role that mycorrhizal fungi plays in water and nutrient uptake. Also on offer at the event in Oxfordshire is a Soil Surgery, which will be held during the networking sections of the show. At this surgery, visitors will be helped by Tin O’Hare Associates team members with their specific soil issues.  More complete programme of speakers and presentations will be released a later date.