Wiltshire-based Electrical Power Engineering company, Fundamentals, has been appointed the exclusive authorised UK representative for Canadian-based independent company, Morgan Schaffer.   Fundamentals designs and manufactures systems for automatic voltage control (AVC) and boasts a wide portfolio of services to improve the health and performance of the electrical power grid. The company is the only authorised representative for Morgan Schaffer (MS) products in the UK. The Morgan Schaffer products, which deliver solutions that simplify the condition assessment of large high-voltage transformers using dissolved gas analysis (DGA), will allow Fundamentals to further enhance its offering in the inspection, maintenance and testing of high-voltage equipment in substations. “We choose to work with Morgan Schaffer because of the reliability and accuracy of their products,” said Geoff Hodge, Senior Engineer at Fundamentals. “In my experience, and I have worked in this field for 22 years, their products are superior to any other in our industry. MS is now the monitor of choice for E.ON, RWE and UK Power Networks.” “Colin and I have fitted over 160 Morgan Schaffer products in the UK over the past 15 years, most of which are still running,” said Hodge. May Scally, chief operating officer of Morgan Schaffer, added: “Morgan Schaffer is very pleased to have Fundamentals join its worldwide network of authorised representatives. Nearly two decades of collaboration have provided the Fundamentals team with in-depth knowledge of Morgan Schaffer’s asset management solutions. The team’s proactive, thorough and professional approach enables it to identify and implement the solutions that best meet each customer’s needs. We look forward to many years of continued partnership.” Source link

Of all the environmental challenges that are prevalent in 2017, the demands created by a growing and increasingly centralised population are perhaps the most impactful. Not only is the global population continuing to grow at a disproportionate rate to the world’s natural resources, for example, but it is estimated that a staggering 70% of citizens will live and work in cities by the year 2050. This trend is already prominent, of course, which is why nations such as the UK are struggling to build the requisite number of houses and facilities to meet the existing demand. In environmental terms, however, the rising demand for centrally-located housing is placing a huge strain on the world around us. Residential and commercial buildings already consume 40% of all global energy, for example, which is why sustainability is such a crucial element of the construction sector and its long-term future. From the use of automation and smart technology to control domestic energy usage to the application of green materials, sustainable buildings offer a viable solution to a growing, global crisis. Beyond Energy Savings and Efficiency: How Green Builds Can Improve Business Performance According to numerous data sets, residential home-owners are increasingly open to the long-term cost and energy savings generated by green builds. Increases in the number of motor and manufactured homes for sale underline the growing credibility of sustainable structures, but there remain concerns that the environmental benefits of these buildings have a limited appeal among business-owner and are not enough (by themselves) to convince traditionalists to invest in such structures. This may change with a recent, landmark study commissioned by Harvard University, which found that cognitive function test scores doubled for people who worked and operated in an enhance, green building setting. These findings have huge implications in the green building sector, as they diversify the appeal of sustainable structures and make a compelling, cost-effective argument for business-owners in particular to make a transition. In simple, numerical terms, employees in high-performance, green-certified structures record cognitive function scores that were an impressive 26% higher than those who worked in traditional buildings. If we break this statistic down further, we see that of the 109 respondents who were tested, there was a 73% improvement in terms of crisis response, a 31% increase in strategic thinking and a 38% rise in focused activity levels. Interestingly, respondents in a green setting also showcased a 44% increase in applied activity levels, hinting at a more productive workforce that could drive higher efficiency and accuracy levels. The same principle can also be applied to individuals that live in a green-certified building, whether they work from home or simply wish to create household tasks more efficiently. The Bottom Line: A Turning Point for Green Builds Make no mistake; these findings are most impactful for businesses and the construction sector has a whole, which has deployed increasingly sustainable materials and waste management practices over the course of the last decade. One of the best example of this is the rise of precious metal incinerators, with ERG technology how used to burn waste materials while minimising fuel consumption and driving greater efficiency. This has also reduced costs for business-owners, creating a growing demand for sustainable processes and materials. Translating this into the popularisation of green-certified builds has proved problematic, however, particularly as some of the initial construction costs are relatively high. This is why the recent research represents something of a turning point within the green building niche, as these costs can now be measured against an actionable return that measurable increase in profitability (both in terms of human and fiscal capital). While we will need to watch this space in the months and years to come, the proven impact of green builds on performance and profitability is sure to see an exponential rise in the number of sustainable projects during both the short and the long-term future.  

Barnsley based digital agency, HMA, has completed a management buyout by its senior management team from founders Diane and Rob Hill as part of a ‘long planned succession strategy’. The MBO has been funded by the three-strong management team Nicola Tiffany (managing director), Steve Pickup (operations director), Emma Casimir (client services sirector) and HSBC. HMA’s focus on health, science and technology projects has recently led to further client wins in the private, public and third sectors including NHS Blood and Transplant, Leeds & York NHS Partnership Foundation Trust, The Big Life Group, Community Links and JRI Orthopaedics. The agency is also moving forward with opportunities to co-create its own products and services with patients and healthcare professionals. To mark the MBO, this week the management team launched a new visual identity following a branding review initiated by Nicola Tiffany when she took the helm earlier this year. Nicola commented: “It’s an exciting time for HMA and I’m delighted that we have been able to complete the MBO at a time when digital transformation in the health, science and technology sectors is at the top of the agenda. “We’re really excited about the changes we’ve made, the challenges ahead and opportunities we can see for our clients and HMA. The rebrand feels like just the start of a new phase that Steve, Emma and I are going to ensure takes the business to the next level.” Rob Hill, former chairman and founder, commented “I have no regrets about moving on as I know the business and everyone there is in good hands. “I look forward to hearing about all the successes Nicola, Steve, Emma and the team achieve.”

Donald Trump is a builder. He builds towers. He builds hotels. He builds golf courses. He wants to build a 2,000 mile wall between the US and Mexico. So, with the nomination tantalisingly close for the Republican frontrunner ahead of the South Carolina primary, what do Trump’s towers tell us about Trump the politician? It helps to look back to his youth in an affluent development in the borough of Queens in 1950s New York. He rarely talks about his background; to do so would call into question the all-American myth of the self-made man. In fact, his fortune is based on his father’s suburban empire. Fred Trump was a developer, too, starting with modest family homes and expanding into supermarkets and large residential complexes for the working and middle classes. They are not architectural masterpieces but they addressed the nation’s postwar housing shortage and have become part of the fabric of New York. But Trump Jr’s eyes were on the big city — the Manhattan skyline across the water. More On this topic IN Opinion By 1983, and not yet 40, he had completed Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue, his best known building. The 68-storey mirror-glass edifice contains the studio where The Apprentice reality TV show is filmed and culminates in Mr Trump’s own penthouse. Adorned with gold and marble, it looks like Saddam Hussein went on a shopping spree with Liberace. At the foot of the tower is the Trump store, where fans can buy merchandise including a “Make America Great Again” baseball cap (price: $25). To make way for its construction, Mr Trump demolished the handsome Art Deco Bonwit Teller department store. He promised to donate its bas-relief carvings to the Metropolitan Museum of Art but it turned out they were too expensive to remove so they were smashed to pieces on site instead. Twenty-five years later, he had perfected the Trump formula. The 64 featureless storeys of the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas are clad in reflective glass coated in a skin of precious metal and crowned with an illuminated Trump sign. As a metaphor, could a gold-plated mirror topped with the developer’s own name work any better? Very different is the Trump Taj Mahal hotel and casino in Atlantic City, New Jersey, its onion domes and ogee arches stuck incongruously on to a modernist slab. In the old world, things shrink to a more modest scale. The Trump International Golf Links outside Aberdeen features a clumsy pavilion akin to the mating of a McMansion and a strip-mall funeral parlour. Mr Trump recently lost a long, acrimonious battle to stop a wind farm being erected near the course. The irony of the developer objecting to tall structures was presumably lost on him. His biggest building is Chicago’s 98-storey Trump Tower. Designed by the same architects as the world’s tallest tower, Dubai’s Burj Khalifa , it has a re­semblance in the sculptural massing, the setbacks and streamlined corners. It is Mr Trump’s best building but still marred by its massive sign: The Donald is always present, even when he is out. But Mr Trump’s buildings, unlike his father’s, have failed to make any architectural contribution to the cities around them or address social needs. Instead they pop up like middle fingers disdaining their surroundings. They are less architecture than marketing, with the Trump sign the most important component. Despite his appeal to legions of voters, his buildings do nothing for anyone but the super-wealthy who can afford the penthouses within. And despite his vaunted success as an entrepreneur, his businesses have been subject to a succession of high-profile failures and bankruptcies. He has proved too big to fail. He builds big but often it is other people who pay. At least he is consistent: his wall on the southern border is to be paid for by the Mexicans it is intended to keep out. The writer is the FT’s architecture critic Letter in response to this article: ‘Middle finger’ challenge is part of Trump’s campaign / From Dr Stephen E Roulac Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link

©Bloomberg A construction site in Luanda, capital of Angola An overhaul of Angola’s energy sector poses a test for Trafigura’s close-knit relationship with the west African country, as the Opec member restricts spending and forges ties with rival trading houses during the prolonged oil slump. In the past year energy bankers say Angola’s cash-strapped state oil company, Sonangol, shunned a $500m fundraising at Puma Energy, a fast-growing fuel retail and storage business it has invested in with Trafigura. More On this topic IN Commodities This comes as Trafigura and other Puma shareholders look at different options to fund the company’s expansion, bankers say, with public listing in London or elsewhere, among options being examined. Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil trader, has also broken into Trafigura’s near-monopoly over the supply of diesel, gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas into Angola, signing a deal to import refined fuels. Angola is a lucrative target for trading houses which can import lower quality fuels to African countries where standards are not as high as in Europe or North America. While sources close to Trafigura say the longstanding relationship with Sonangol remains strong and that it remains the biggest importer of refined fuel into Angola, the moves illustrate how one of the industry’s most enduring relationships is evolving as Luanda tackles the first prolonged oil price downturn of its post civil war era. Puma, which bought the UK’s struggling Milford Haven oil refinery last year and converted it to a storage terminal, approached its shareholders in late 2015 with a plan to raise $500m to fund further expansion during the downturn. While Trafigura and Puma’s other big shareholders agreed to back to deal in proportion to their stakes, Sonangol did not, leaving the company $150m shy of its target. Sources close to Trafigura say Sonangol backs Puma’s strategy and gave its blessing to the fundraising even though its stake was slightly diluted. Sonangol paid $500m to boost its holding from 20 per cent to 30 per cent in 2013, a deal that placed a $5bn valuation on Puma. Sonangol said it remained “committed” to its investment in Puma and “continues to be a major shareholder” with representatives on the board. Trafigura declined to comment. In an effort to save cash Sonangol has been cutting back elsewhere. It recently suspended work on a new oil refinery in the port of Lobito and a new fuel storage terminal it was building north of the capital Luanda. Sonangol’s decision to award Vitol a one-year deal, which started in January, to import gasoline and liquefied petroleum gas is also being scrutinised by rivals in the industry. “It’s a fundamental change,” said one oil industry executive. “The Angolan business was once the cornerstone of Trafigura.” France’s Total, one of the largest oil producers operating in Angola, has also signed an initial agreement with the government in Luanda to explore setting up a forecourt business in the country. Currently all petrol stations in the country are controlled by either by Sonangol and Puma subsidiary Pumangol. Angola, which vies with Nigeria to be Africa’s largest oil producer, lacks local refining capacity to meet its own fuel needs. The country’s fuel imports have increased fivefold in the last decade as demand increased after the end of the civil war. They reached almost 110,000 barrels a day in 2016, according to Citac, a London-based Africa energy consultancy. Sonangol said all fuel supply contracts were “awarded on a tender basis” and confirmed Vitol as one of its suppliers. Angolan president José Eduardo dos Santos appointed his daughter Isabel dos Santos as head of Sonangol in June as part of a dynastic shake up of the country’s chief revenue source. The entire board of Sonangol was fired at the same time. Manuel Vicente, who ran Sonangol between 1999 and 2012, had long been seen as the most likely successor to President dos Santos, but the elevation of his daughter has made her favourite to succeed her father, who first came to power in 1979. Named by Forbes as Africa’s richest woman, Mrs dos Santos has faced scrutiny of her wealth, which includes a 25 per cent stake in Angola’s largest mobile telecommunications company Unitel. After spending the past year working with western consultants on a plan to transform the country’s oil industry she has vowed to increase transparency and improve governance at Sonangol to boost profits. “Investment is being re-evaluated or reassigned because of more limited funds,” said Elitsa Georgieva of Citac. In Angola, Trafigura established its grip on fuel imports through DT Group, a joint venture with an investment group founded and chaired by powerful local businessman Leopoldino Fragoso do Nasciment. More commonly known as General Dino, he was once an adviser to the President and served on the winning side in the civil war, which ended in 2002. General Dino’s investment vehicle, Cochan, has also put money into Puma alongside Trafigura and Sonangol. Cochan controls 15 per cent of Puma while Sonangol has built a 30 per cent stake in the company. Trafigura owns about 49 per cent. As Trafigura’s has grown its global oil volumes to more than 4m b/d a day and its direct business with Angola has become a smaller proportion of its trading operations after it expanded in Russia, Asia and the Americas. However, it still has a strong position in the country from years of investment in infrastructure. In 2015, chief executive Jeremy Weir and the senior management group steered Trafigura to its strongest trading year on record. Profits in the first half of the 2016 financial year were boosted by the reversal of an impairment on a dormant Angolan iron ore mine following a deal with Luanda. Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2016. You may share using our article tools. Please don’t cut articles from FT.com and redistribute by email or post to the web. Source link