TODAY summer 2010
Preserving the history of Manchester’s markets Over the past ten years, Muse has been working to turn a ‘no go’ area of central Manchester into a place where people want to live, work and spend their leisure time. The Smithfield area in Manchester’s Northern Quarter, formerly the site of the city’s most important fish and produce market, had become badly neglected. Through its subsidiary company, Ician Developments, Muse has helped deliver a pioneering and award-winning mixeduse development that has preserved architectural heritage and restored local pride. The project illustrates how the People and Profit elements of sustainability need to be considered alongside Planet in order for urban regeneration to be successful. A central aspect of the project was the need to retain the character and heritage of Smithfield and its listed market buildings. Scattered between are new buildings, including affordable homes,
shops and cafes to the benefit of the whole community. As well as transforming the physical environment, the regeneration of Smithfield has had wider social impacts. It has also helped provide a home for an increasing number of small, independent businesses, offering shoppers a different experience from other shopping areas of central Manchester. Ician also helped establish the Manchester Farmers’ Market, the first city centre Farmers’ Market in the North West, which helps promote healthy eating, local employment and reduce food miles. The project is intended to be financially sustainable in the long term. A partnership approach was used for funding, which is designed to minimise financial risk to Manchester City Council. Smithfield, as a flagship scheme, has been recognised as an important project for reinventing and regenerating the Northern Quarter as a whole.
DELIVERING TODAY FOR TOMORROW Mike Payton, a director of Ician, said: “Smithfield has been transformed beyond all recognition. What was once referred to as an uninviting area is now a place where people want to live, work and invest... The development of the site has been a huge success story and is one that will continue to reap benefits for the local area.” Back in 1999, an inner city mixeduse development was seen as a bit of a radical departure. The many new businesses, residents and visitors that have been attracted to the area in the subsequent years have helped ensure that the Northern Quarter is once again making a major contribution to the Manchester city centre experience. To find out more about how Muse are delivering today for tomorrow by regenerating the Smithfield area of Manchester, visit www.morgansindall-today.com
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Building schools for Hull’s Construction has started on two schools in Hull, marking the start of a 25-year involvement between Morgan Sindall Investments Ltd (MSIL) and the city council. MSIL is part of the consortium that has been awarded a Building Schools for the Future (BSF) contract that will deliver new schools and community facilities, transforming education in the city.
What is Building Schools for the Future? Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is a long-term programme of investment and change that aims to rebuild or update all 3,500 secondary schools in England. It is intended to be more than just a building programme; creating learning environments that inspire all young people and provide opportunities for all members of the local community. The BSF programme is also committed to reducing carbon emissions from schools, by making the most of sustainable features that help protect the environment and reduce running costs.
“ The opportunity to be part of such a pivotal programme for the city is fantastic. A chance to make a difference in your home town is something really special and I am committed to seeing this through – long term.” Paul Brooke, Esteem Project Director
A partnership approach
Social and economic regeneration
MSIL is one of three equal partners in Esteem (along with Robertson Capital Projects and Sewell Group), the newlyformed consortium which will create a Local Education Partnership (LEP) with Hull City Council for the long-term development of education in the city. Not only will Esteem design and build the schools, but the consortium partners will subsequently manage the school buildings, supply chains and provision of information and computer technology (ICT). It is the first time that a new consortium has been awarded a Building Schools for the Future project.
Sustainability is central to the project, and demonstrating how delivering sustainable schools can be used as a springboard for wider social and economic regeneration was a crucial aspect of the proposal. Esteem’s bid was recognised for its iconic school designs, but at its core was a deeper commitment to the longer-term regeneration of the city and the desire to create a lasting legacy. The delivery of social and economic benefits alongside physical regeneration will be achieved through various initiatives.
Morgan Sindall’s construction business has been named by Esteem as a key delivery partner on the project. Together with Sewell Construction and local construction partners, Hobson & Porter and Houlton, they will lead the build programme that will deliver seven new build schemes and 10 remodelled or refurbished schools.
One example is the Hull Learning Institute, a virtual learning centre at the forefront of innovation and ICT that will support teachers in raising pupils’ education attainment levels. This innovative venture will allow new ways of working and technological advances in ICT to be explored before they are rolled out into a new school. The Institute will also support adult education and help improve adult literacy and numeracy in the Hull area.
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DELIVERING TODAY FOR TOMORROW Welcome to the summer 2010 edition of TODAY, Morgan Sindall Group plc’s newsletter that’s dedicated to bringing you the latest news on sustainability. Delivering Today for Tomorrow sums up in four words the Group’s commitment to a more sustainable future. Several examples of this commitment can be found within these pages, highlighting projects from all the divisions. This issue focuses particularly on the People aspects of sustainability.
future
Esteem has pledged to support local businesses and link education with the workplace by mentoring and encouraging young enterprise in the city. The Esteem Foundation will be formed to provide local children with more opportunities to see what employment and education options are available to them. The Foundation is based on commitments of time and resources from the Esteem consortium partners, as well as the wider supply chain, and will provide learner days for both staff and pupils to illustrate different routes into employment or further education. Esteem is also keen to ensure that the project makes a real and long-lasting impact on Hull’s economy. This is one area in particular where the partnership approach reaps dividends, allowing the local know-how of construction firm Sewell to be exploited. Hull-based firms are being used where possible; for example horticultural students from Hull College will help with landscaping. Esteem has also pledged to create at least 100 jobs for local people, as well as organising work placements and job swaps.
Indeed, the involvement of local firms and labour has become critical to the success of the project as a whole through the inclusion of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) for the number of companies and the number of employees based in the HU postcode area.
Further regeneration Looking beyond the BSF project, if Esteem can prove it is able to deliver high quality services to Hull City Council, it will be well-placed to become involved in other regeneration projects in the city. With a further £2 billion of work planned, including housing, retail and health developments, Morgan Sindall Group, as a member of the Esteem consortium, has the potential to become central to the transformation of the city as a whole. The final word goes to MSIL Project Director and Esteem LEP Director Sam Whitaker: “Hull BSF has become much more than a bid for me. Living and working in Hull for the past year has got me hooked and, if successful, I plan to relocate to the hidden gem that is the city and the surrounding areas.” To find out more about how MSIL are delivering today for tomorrow by building schools for Hull’s future, visit www.morgansindall-today.com
For more articles, covering all three of the People, Profit and Planet elements of Morgan Sindall Group plc’s sustainable development strategy, visit our sustainability microsite: www.morgansindall-today.com where you can also view TODAY online and download the latest examples of projects – undertaken by Morgan Sindall Group plc’s divisions – highlighted in our Case Studies in Sustainability.
A NEW FORCE IN CONSTRUCTION This edition of TODAY comes at a time when the new Morgan Sindall division has become one of the largest construction and infrastructure businesses in the country. The new division, Morgan Sindall, has been created following a merger of Morgan Sindall Group plc’s construction and infrastructure divisions, which operated under the Morgan Ashurst, Morgan Est, and Morgan Professional Services brand names. Morgan Sindall Professional Services will trade as a separate company and will continue to work with internal and external customers. The new division will sit alongside parent company Morgan Sindall Group plc’s three other divisions of fit out, affordable housing and urban regeneration which are supported by the Group’s specialist investment unit, Morgan Sindall Investments.
COMMENTS PLEASE If you have comments on any articles in this issue of TODAY, we’d like to hear from you at today@morgansindall.com
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A smarter way to track energy use in workplaces Morgan Lovell has started offering a ‘smart metering’ system as part of its sustainable office fit-out package. The Workplace Footprint Tracker is a building management information system that uses wireless technology to collect information about energy usage in buildings, and calculates the associated cost and carbon emissions. The system, developed by Building Sustainability Ltd, helps demonstrate and report the energy efficiency of Morgan Lovell’s office designs. One of the first installations of the system was in Morgan Lovell’s own recently refurbished London headquarters. Paul Kelly, Morgan Lovell’s head of marketing explains: “We installed meters on heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems, plus heavy plant. The Footprint Tracker energy consumption chart showed a big spike between 2am and 3am
when no one was in the building. Further investigation revealed that there was a fault with the heating and cooling timer. By rectifying this, we were able to save the equivalent of around £5,000 a year.” Many experts feel that businesses that take steps now to improve energy efficiency in their offices can gain significant competitive advantage over competitors. With the introduction of the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme this year, reporting and reducing energy use and carbon emissions is no longer simply a way of saving money, but is fast becoming a regulatory requirement. This will quickly impact on the market value of poorly performing workplaces, as it becomes more and more difficult for them to comply with new energy efficiency or carbon emissions legislation. The challenge of creating energy efficient buildings is not purely technical. Occupants’ behaviour – or how a
building is used – is an important factor in determining buildings’ overall energy performance. This is area where the Workplace Footprint Tracker has an important role to play. By displaying the results on screens inside a building, it helps encourage all occupants to think about and reduce their individual energy use. Cutting energy consumption is one of the areas where you need staff most engaged, says Sophie Hutchinson, sustainability manager at Morgan Lovell: “Staff want to understand how they can be more sustainable in their own office space and that’s where the footprint tracker can help. By making energy use visible, employees can see what impact their individual actions are having on the company’s carbon footprint.” For further details of the Workplace Footprint Tracker visit www.morganlovell.com or call Morgan Lovell on 0800 028 0945.
IT’S ALL ABOUT SUSTAINABILITY 5
Health and safety training hits the road Morgan Sindall believe that innovative approaches to health and safety education play a central role in reducing accidents. At Morgan Sindall’s infrastructure business, two specially-equipped safety training vehicles have been delivering important safety messages to site workers around the country. Building on the ‘Work Safe Home Safe’ approach, Morgan Sindall has been using the vans, which are equipped with audio-visual presentation aids, to take safety training to its sites. One of the main advantages of taking health and safety onto site is that it allows for more flexible health and safety training, and for smaller groups to be accommodated. Not only will this improve the quality of health and safety briefings, but by incorporating feedback received, it should help train the trainers themselves.
The vans have been in action at Heathrow. Over 270 members of the pavement repair team were briefed in a single week over multiple shifts. The repair gangs, comprising employees and sub-contractors working on twilight and night shifts, were given coaching on safer working practices. “Taking safety on tour in this way makes it more accessible to a wide variety of people.” explained John McCarroll, senior safety advisor. “Using the facilities in the vans we are also able to provide safety briefings and training updates to four or five people at a time. We’ve had a good response so far. Not only is it less daunting for the trainer, working with small groups also provides a great opportunity for increased engagement and valuable feedback that can be incorporated into future safety talks.”
Fit out promotes equal opportunities A group of female University of Reading undergraduates visited a London construction site in March, to experience first-hand the challenges they might face working in the industry. The ‘Women in Construction’ site visit was arranged by Overbury, part of the Fit Out division, to promote closer ties with the University. Overbury is an industrial sponsor of the university’s School of Construction Management and Engineering.
The 25 students from the School experienced various aspects of site work including achieving project objectives, meeting deadlines and working with an array of organisations and professionals from the construction industry’s supply chain. The visit was also intended to highlight some of the challenges of being a young woman in the construction industry. The day included a site walk-round and presentations by various female
professionals, who were able to explain how they have dealt with the positive and negative elements of being women in a maledominated industry. Dr Tabarak Ballal, Lecturer in Building Technology at the University of Reading said: “The site visit was a fantastic opportunity to expose and inspire our female undergraduates with the excitement of working on site. Our students also had the chance to meet face-to-face with female professionals in leading construction roles including a health and safety officer, site construction manager, commercial surveyor, project manager, environmental manager and mechanical and electrical services designer.”
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School children draw attention to safety message
David named construction manager of the year A project manager from Morgan Sindall has been named Construction Manager of the Year by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB). Seen as one of the construction industry’s most celebrated awards, they are notable for recognising individual management achievement, rather than projects, processes, products or design. David Wilson, who works out of the Leeds office, beat hundreds of other hopefuls from across the UK to win the title. He was presented the award by celebrity newsreader Natasha Kaplinsky, during a ceremony in the Marriott Hotel in London late last year. David was commended for the way he managed construction of the De Grey Court building for York St John University in York, which has itself won a series of coveted awards. Judges praised him for building excellent working relationships, overcoming complex construction and logistical challenges, saving his clients money and maintaining high standards. “I am so flattered to win this award,” says David. “Since starting my career in construction 20 years ago, I have always
looked up to managers who could run large, complex construction projects. I now feel that I can apply to join the ranks of those managers.” “We are all extremely proud of David for his fantastic achievement,” says Gordon Ray, Morgan Sindall’s construction managing director in the North East. “As a company, we not only strive to build strong, lasting relationships with our clients, we also want to help members of our team to develop and become the very best at what they do. David has definitely achieved that.” The project involved the construction of a three-storey teaching block and the refurbishment of two grade II listed houses, all within 68 weeks. It was finished on time, before the start of a new academic year. David is now leading the construction of a student accommodation complex for Leeds Trinity University College. As part of the scheme, the firm will crane in ‘pre-fabricated’ bathroom modules to fast-track construction. The building will feature a ‘living’ sedum roof and brickwork façade and is due to be completed in August 2010.
More than 80 pupils at Montgomery Infant School and Nursery in Colchester have created striking posters to highlight the dangers of construction sites. Lovell, which is carrying out a £19.5 million housing regeneration scheme in Colchester, organised the poster competition as part of its ongoing campaign to raise awareness among children and young people to stay away from building sites. After watching a film featuring Lovell’s ‘hard hat’ cartoon characters Lenny and Laura, the children were challenged to design a poster to help other youngsters understand why they should never play on a construction site. “The children were delighted to participate in the poster competition,” says Montgomery Infant School and Nursery headteacher Sally Leung. “Lenny and Laura inspired them to create posters that captured the safety message.”
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Delivering sustainable research labs for GSK The recent completion of a laboratory facility in Les Ulis, France, for healthcare company GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is an excellent demonstration of how the three aspects of sustainability – People, Planet and Profit – can be successfully incorporated in a project. The building, designed by Morgan Sindall Professional Services – who also managed the construction – is sustainable in terms of the people that will use it. An innovative ‘flexi-lab’ concept means the design can be easily modified in the future, as needs change. The building is also environmentally sustainable. It was constructed using standard parts or ‘modules’ that were
assembled off-site, reducing the use of materials and waste. The design also minimised energy use through airtight construction, high levels of insulation and the specification of only the most energyefficient electrical equipment. Ultimately, this careful consideration of People and Planet makes financial sense too. The low energy consumption and ease of making future modifications mean that the lab has low life-cycle costs, which should mean increased profits for GSK. Steve Hartles, Capital Projects Director at GSK, said: “Morgan Sindall Professional Services totally understood our brief, they were in at the start of the project and used their previous engagements with R&D, bringing all of that experience to the table.”
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Other news
Fit out
‘Angels’ to the rescue at children’s charity Bug released to tackle Japanese Knotweed Building industry backs Part L proposals
Fit out
Business park opens its doors to teach local children about wildlife Construction work starts on Basildon Sporting Village Engineering bodies join forces to promote sustainable development
Fit out Fit out
Glasgow tower block scheme helps people into work Green workplaces explored in new podcast series Initiative launched to encourage quieter workplaces
Construction & infrastructure
Lovell to build Birmingham’s first affordable zero-carbon homes Morgan Sindall’s construction business helps to save 63 lives in Plymouth
Professional services
Morgan Sindall’s construction business launch induction DVD Morgan Sindall’s infrastructure business helps bright sparks Morgan Lovell become first UK company to achieve new energy efficiency standard
TODAY is published by: Affordable housing
Morgan Sindall keeps its place on responsible investment index Muse help fund scout band headquarters School on stilts raises standards in sustainable construction
n Urban regeneration
UK Government welcomes interim findings from the Low Carbon Construction Innovation and Growth Team UKGBC welcomes green planning package For these stories and more, visit the Morgan Sindall sustainability microsite www.morgansindall-today.com
Investments
Morgan Sindall Group plc Kent House 14-17 Market Place London W1W 8AJ Tel: 020 7307 9200 www.morgansindall.com email: today@morgansindall.com