Maximillion

Project: Refurbishment of an industrial unit
Our role: Energy efficiency design advice

Maximillion is the only events management company in the UK to hold a Green Tourism Business Scheme (GTBS) Gold Award. In 2008, Maximillion moved premises to Newbridge, near Edinburgh, to provide the company with easier access to the city’s airport and other transport links, as well as to house its growing team.

When chief executive, John Strachan, found the right property he knew it would need a lot of work but he recognised that it had potential: “We’re an environmentally friendly business and we had a vision of how we could turn this building into sustainable office premises.”

Design Advice
Green Energy Partners was commissioned to provide energy efficiency design advice for the refurbishment of the industrial unit. This included:

Simulation of the building to calculate energy and carbon reductions and quantify improvements to the building fabric (increasing insulation, fitting outer cladding, fitting new windows and introducing a door management system to reduce heat loss).
Detailed lighting design to determine optimum lighting efficiencies, including the incorporation of automated control schemes.
A Renewables Feasibility Study was carried out to assess the viability of installing a biomass wood pellet boiler and solar heating for the Domestic Hot Water supply.

The savings identified by Green Energy Partners amount to around 50 tonnes CO2 per annum. This is the equivalent of driving 140,000 miles (or 5 times around the globe!) in a petrol car.

Achievements
All of Green Energy Partners’ recommendations were implemented by Maximillion. Teamwork was key: “Green Energy Partners took a consultative approach, which was very welcome,” John explains: “Glyn Mountford was open to our ideas about what we wanted to achieve and he helped us meet our objectives.”

The company has already seen a return on its investment in a number of ways. While John firmly believes that sustainability is a worthwhile goal in itself, he acknowledges that it has helped his business. “The majority of businesses will always look for the short term cost benefit, when considering the prospect of becoming more environmentally friendly.” He adds: “Being recognised as a “green” business is a solid achievement in itself. It has strengthened our reputation, winning us valuable new clients and coveted awards. It has also helped us recruit new staff, attracted by our sustainability credentials. This exceeds the simple mathematical equation of short term return on investment.”