buzz issue 4

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buzz THE MAGAZINE FOR MITIE PEOPLE ISSUE 4

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THE MAGAZINE FOR MITIE PEOPLE ISSUE 4

Editor Neil smith

buzz is back I’ve just returned home from a meeting in Portsmouth with some MITIE colleagues to discuss the implementation of Salesforce.com, MITIE’s new Customer Relationship Management system. On the train home I was contemplating how the Christmas post would affect the delivery of this issue of buzz magazine (issue four), especially with the not so distant memory of the postal strikes that have gripped the nation in the last few months. And importantly, how could we bring you all of the news on what we’re doing to grow our responsible, sustainable business, and where we are working with some great clients to make sure our combined operations are future proof?

Chief executive Ruby mcgregor-smith

What delivery methods could we use?

Courier, carrier pigeon, horse and cart?

Or even the whole team at buzz borrowing some MITIE vans and heading on a road trip to deliver the magazine straight to your door step. Sure it would be fun, we’d get out of the London smoke and away from the rush hour tube, but our carbon footprint would go through the roof, something we’re helping our clients prevent. As I stepped into the flat I saw a pile of post on the floor and decided we’d take a punt on Royal Mail.

Let’s face it, if gas bills are getting through, you’ll need this issue to cheer you up on the chilly nights ahead.

Contents Features

It’s certainly been a busy 12 months. And there’s nothing that underlines that more than our impressive track record. 21 years of growth. A FTSE 250 business, with revenues now in excess of £1.7bn. We’re a cash generative group with a strong financial covenant. It’s an enviable story. Particularly given the current climate. We still delivered another year of strong earnings growth… against a backdrop of unprecedented market conditions. And it’s not just the bottom line that’s grown.

With MITIE, growth means people as well as profits and earnings per share. I’m proud to say that we now have 54,000 people and wish a warm welcome to those who have

Corporate News

02 / Technical Facilities Management / A MITIE acquisition 04 / May the force be with you / Salesforce.com 06 / Sector focus – central and local government

14 / MITIE’s Got Talent 15 / A MITIE Star / MITIE Stars award 16 / Little guide to being MITIE 18 / Knowing me, knowing you / Martin Holt

08 / Responsible reporting / Corporate responsibility 10 / Building a sustainable future / Building schools for the future

12 / Interview / Client focus – Herbert Smith

04/05

08/09

06/07

10/11

12/13

joined from Dalkia and Environmental Property Services. It’s easy for me to say that people are our greatest asset. But they really, truly are. Because we are only as good as the people that create our client strategies, manage projects and facilities and deliver our services. This issue of buzz showcases how we’re improving our clients’ lives, and how we continue to build our sustainable, ethical, and responsible business.

I’m incredibly excited and confident about the future for MITIE. And for you. It is an immense pleasure to work with such dedicated people and I feel privileged to be leading the business at this exciting time in its development.

Facilities Management

Property Management

30 / Contract awards 32 / Premiership painting / Blackburn Rovers 34 / Fitting the bill / Spencer Stuart

36 / Contract awards 38 / High fashion, low carbon / MITIE and Primark set the trend 40 / The future of waste / Waste-to-energy

24/25

30/31

36/37

24 / Contract awards 26 / To the city’s defence / Thames barrier 28 / Phoenix from the flames / Santander

Asset Management

20 / Race for Opportunity Awards 22 / Tenant Liaison Officer of the year / Kelly Onley

14/15

02/03

foreword

16/17

20/21

26/27

32/33

38/39

18/19

22/23

28/29

34/35

40/41 buzz 1

Feature Chapter Title a mitie acquisition

Introducing MITIE Technical Facilities Management

We guarantee to reduce your emissions and your costs.

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Some of us use them to buy a new car or redecorate the bathroom. Others utilise them to fund a much needed break in the sun. But on 12 August 2009, MITIE used part of its banking facilities to acquire the entire issued share capital of Dalkia Energy and Technical Services Limited and Parkersell Limited which together made up Dalkia Technical Facilities Management (DTFM).

Merged with MITIE’s existing engineering maintenance business to form MITIE Technical Facilities Management, the operation comprises the UK Commercial and Retail & Specialist divisions of Dalkia plc (excluding Northern Ireland).

Our largest acquisition to date means that, now more than ever, our extensive service portfolio positions us as the strategic partner of choice for clients seeking integrated facilities management. It has also added a further 2,800 passionate people to MITIE and reinforces us as one of the UK’s largest employers.

Headed up by Martin Holt who has come over from Dalkia, the new business fits within our established Asset Management division and significantly adds to our ability to implement carbon reduction, sustainability and environmental programmes to support the growing demands of our clients in a low carbon economy.

Speaking about the acquisition, Ruby McGregor-Smith commented, “We are delighted to have concluded this strategically important transaction which enhances our leading position in the integrated facilities management market in the UK. There will be significant opportunities for MITIE and Dalkia plc to work together in future partnerships.

We welcome all the Dalkia FM people to MITIE and are looking forward to an exciting future for the enlarged group.”

Integrating our world-class businesses The integration process is going well as our teams combine their experience and knowledge. And our IT and operations specialists are already working behind the scenes on integrating technology platforms so that we can work more efficiently and collaboratively.

One important area we’ve been keen to address from the outset is our clients’ reaction and understanding of the new business structure. While it is very much business as usual, the senior management teams have been busy travelling across the UK meeting senior client representatives. Our clients’ reactions have been overwhelmingly positive as they see the synergies on offer to them, including the great potential for added value services.

Moving forward The new team certainly isn’t hanging around and on 28 September we undertook our first major customer event since the acquisition. The Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) briefing saw 20 of our major customers get together to learn about the pending carbon legislation that will affect their businesses from April of next year.

Our speakers explained the intricate workings of the CRC, and then presented MITIE CarbonCare as the complete, joined-up solution, that will help client organisations mitigate the impact of CRC when it comes into force. The programme was extremely well received by the audience and follow-up discussions are now planned with virtually all who attended. The success of the event underlines the strengthened service offering we can now take to market, to help organisations realise their obligations in the future low carbon economy.

While it is still early days, it is clear to see that the business is set to grow into the leading provider of outsourced technical facilities management and energy and specialist services.

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Feature salesforce.com

The MITIE Universe Did you know that MITIE has…

1. O ver 10,000 mobile phones; 2. 680 BlackBerrys; 3. 600 PDAs; 4. Almost 6,000 PCs; and 5. T his year we’ll send over 56 million emails! systems. The software solution is wholly web based and works on a subscription basis. So, by implementing such a system we avoid the hefty development, deployment and hosting costs commonly associated with large scale IT projects. The system is also easily customisable and the SaaS model means that MITIE receives software upgrades at no extra cost. And for the techies out there it also means that MITIE has taken a step towards embracing cloud computing.

In October 2008 MITIE chose Salesforce. com as its Customer Relationship Management (CRM) system of choice. Since then we’ve embarked on a comprehensive programme of implementing the world’s leading ‘on-demand’ CRM platform across our three divisions of facilities, property and asset management.

Salesforce.com was founded in 1999 by former Oracle executive Marc Benioff as a company specialising in ‘software as a service’ (SaaS) software, 4 buzz

and in June 2004 the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange. Today, Salesforce.com has approximately 63,200 customers and over 1,500,000 subscribers over its Force.com platform which is broken down into several modules: Sales, Service & Support, Partner Relationship Management, Marketing, Content, Ideas and Analytics.

The selection of Salesforce.com sees a break from tradition in MITIE’s application of information technology

Cloud City Cloud computing has been around for some time now but in the last few years we’ve seen an explosion of large corporations embracing it to handle their IT systems. But what is cloud computing? Well, the term ‘cloud’ is used as a metaphor for the Internet, and is based on how the Internet is depicted in computer network diagrams. The cloud is an abstraction for the complex infrastructure it conceals. With the cloud, users do not need to have extensive knowledge of, or expertise in, the technology infrastructure that supports them. Cloud computing services often provide common business applications online that are accessed from a web browser, while the software and data are stored on servers outside of the end users’ network.

User engagement The development of MITIE’s Salesforce. com platform supports our Customer Relationship Management strategy moving forward, and since the beginning of the project the team have engaged users during the configuration, testing and development stages before going live with each division.

Additionally they have established a quarterly CRM User forum which is open to all users where the team demonstrates new functionality, shares the project roadmap, and has a twoway discussion on the best ways to optimise the user experience. To support the project there is also a dedicated page on our intranet which acts as a MITIE CRM knowledge bank.

The initial rollout of Salesforce.com is scheduled to be completed in Q2 2010 and is now live in both facilities and property management with around 150 everyday users. As we go to print the team are now working on integrating our colleagues from MITIE’s recent acquisition of Dalkia.

The project is another example of our commitment to investing in new technological solutions to support and grow our business. To find out more email mitieforce@mitie.co.uk

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Sector Feature Central and local government

Defections, gaffes, and Jeremy Paxman vs. Boris Johnson aside, the main message coming out of this season’s party political conferences is that the UK is staring down the barrel of severe public spending cuts.

MITIE provides excellent value for money and makes sure that cutting costs doesn’t mean a drop in quality.

T N E M N R E V O G L A C O L D N A L A R T CEN MITIE MANIFESTO Communities and Local Government (CLG) Since our facilities management contract began in 2004, MITE has been successful in delivering savings of over £500,000 to CLG. The savings have been achieved as a result of a continuous drive for improvements, supporting our client in rationalising the efficiency of their estate, while adding considerable value across the contract.

We’re focused on delivering innovation and expertise to improve service delivery to CLG. This has included the centralisation of the on-site mailrooms providing considerable financial and space saving benefits, and providing environmental management expertise to support CLG achieve targets to reduce CO2 emissions by 20% by 2012.

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Our environmental experts have introduced a range of initiatives to reduce waste and energy usage, and support the achievement of sustainability targets – ranging from the installation of a PIR motion-sensitive light system, to the introduction of a food composting programme that supports the increase in recycling across their building portfolio. With our help, CLG have seen a dramatic increase in recycling over the last two years.

Driving Standards Agency (DSA) MITIE’s specialists have carried out landscape maintenance and gritting for the DSA since 1998. We deliver our world-class services to over 130 sites from local Driving Test Centres to large Multi Purpose Test Centres (MPTC) using our

mobile teams throughout the UK. To support the DSA’s long-term new build programme our team have set up a framework agreement to enable the DSA to avoid retendering each time they built a new site. Now, when a new site is up and running, they can just call off our services for a pre-agreed price.

We recently carried out a large project for the DSA, relining every MPTC nationally within a week. This had to be done to avoid minimal disruption so that tests could still take place and to exacting standards. Our specialist support team are always on call to make sure our relationship is kept right on track.

Scottish Government MITIE’s Technical Facilities Management team delivers mechanical and electrical services, project works, and specialist sub-contractor management, across a diverse and widely distributed portfolio for the Scottish Government.

As a first generation outsourcing contract many of the systems, processes and procedures needed to be established from scratch. So, to provide an automated, process driven approach to delivering the core activities, our team implemented a computer aided facilities management (CAFM) software solution to monitor, drive and measure the planned and reactive maintenance. The result? A consistent 98% successful completion rate of PPM calls, and 95% for reactive calls.

What’s more, our Projects team has delivered some £6 million of projects work during the last 12 months. Working with the client, we’re also helping drive major initiatives on health and safety and sustainability.

Her Majesty’s Courts Service We provide security front of house, access control, jury supervision and car park management services as well as engineering maintenance at 425 crown, county, magistrates and tribunal courts across England and Wales. We are the only manned guarding provider across all of Her Majesty’s Courts Service sites and we’ve been working with them for over 15 years.

The court environment is a very demanding one and we’re proud to say we have one of the lowest turnover rates of security officers across any industry.

That’s because we provide extensive training, make sure the right people are in the right roles, and always recognise a job well done.

With the high security requirements of government buildings it was essential to keep scaffolding to a minimum. A permanent guard rail system was designed to attach onto the existing perimeter steelwork to protect our operatives and the client’s people during the works, and future maintenance. The first phase works are due to be completed in April 2010.

Metropolitan Housing Trust Partnering with the Metropolitan Housing Trust London we’ve improved the lives of over 180 people in London by turning over 60 Victorian properties into welcoming and energy efficient affordable homes.

The improvement works included ‘whole house’ refurbishment so our teams assisted in the relocation of tenants into temporary accommodation for 14 weeks. We also worked with Metropolitan to produce ‘welcome home’ packs for residents, which included energy saving tips and aftercare information for their newly installed facilities.

To meet the tough environmental targets we fitted double glazed windows, 300mm loft insulation, 100mm floor insulations, sound insulation between flats, low flush toilets, at least three low energy light fittings per property, rotary driers in rear gardens, new ‘A’ rated condensing combi-boilers, and individually controllable radiators (TRV’s) and room thermostats.

Subsequently residents were able to halve their fuel costs and their new homes are typically achieving more than a 45% reduction on CO2 emissions.

As a result of our hard work we were nominated for the Sustainable Housing Refurbishment project of the year at the Sustainable Housing Awards 2009.

North Somerset Schools MITIE’s Technical Facilities Management specialists, in partnership with EDF Energy, have helped North Somerset Secondary Schools with an innovative energy services and maintenance contract focused on controlling energy costs and delivering best value maintenance operations.

Our “Performance Partnership” contract combines utility supply via EDF Energy and energy reduction services through a planned and reactive maintenance programme. This joinedup approach to energy management not only required the schools to adopt a more strategic long-term approach to their energy requirements, but also delivered effective risk management by fixing energy costs in a rising energy market.

This is just the beginning of a much wider-ranging programme of our supported capital investment in new plant and energy-saving initiatives, which is designed to bring even greater returns for the secondary schools in the authority. Future initiatives will include replacement of obsolete control systems, upgraded lighting and improvements to environmental equipment to ensure long-term carbon reductions and financial savings.

Welsh Assembly Government Working together with our new colleagues from Dalkia, MITIE’s roofing business is solving the Welsh Assembly Government’s roof leaks at their office in Cathay’s Park in Cardiff. Our roofing specialists partnered with high performance roofing manufacturer, Marley Waterproofing, to provide the building with a 20-year guarantee against water ingress. We carried out core samples of the existing roof build-up at numerous locations to identify the condition of the existing roof insulation, which was found to be saturated.

As a result, a specification was developed to fully strip the entire roof build-up, and replace the roof with a newly designed tapered insulation scheme to bring the building in line with current insulation regulations. buzz 7

Feature Corporate responsibility

Responsible reporting In May 2009 we published our fourth standalone Corporate Responsibility (CR) report. The sustainability focused document is MITIE’s way of showing our people, suppliers, clients, investors, shareholders and society that we’re a responsible business and proud of it. But what is really expected when it comes to CR reporting? We invited Anita Pathak from Business in the Community, Stine Jensen a CR consultant from Radley Yeldar, and our Group CR Manager Stephen Barthorpe to a quiet spot in St. James’s Park to get to the bottom of it all.

Why does MITIE report its corporate responsibility performance?

SB: Firstly I would say that we have too much to share to simply integrate it into the Annual Report and Accounts, which is where we’d historically reported CR. SJ: Before you started producing a CR report did you feel that people were asking questions that you had trouble actually answering, or did you feel that you needed to produce one because there were questions the businesses were being asked that you really wanted to answer?

SB: One of the main audiences is potential clients, and the report helps support our people answer their prequalification and tender questions.

Things have certainly changed over the last five years where there’d be a question like “Do you have a CR report?

Do you have a CR policy?” and I got the impression (rightly or wrongly) that the answer “yes, or no” didn’t make that much difference. But now a huge amount detail is required and available.

SJ: What have you learnt from producing your CR reports? For example, do you think it has helped make MITIE better at understanding the diversity of your workforce or the impact of your supply chain?

SB: We’ve learnt a lot. The report discipline acts very much as a management information tool that helps us better understand our business.

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Printed vs. online?

AP: With some companies the trend is now moving CR reports online, or integrated into their annual report and accounts. Do you have any thoughts on whether MITIE will be going this way?

SB: We did consider this very carefully… for about two seconds. For us producing a hard copy report performs a tremendous service for our clients and potential employees. I like to think that if our CR report is in our reception areas, potential clients, employees, shareholders or suppliers might pick it up and think that this is a responsible organisation and one which they want to be involved with.

SJ: I think the important thing is to identify very clearly in terms of the printed document: what it should do, who the audience is, and what they care about. Then perhaps there may be things that would be better served by having an online element where you can have more detail and statistics.

SB: Yes I agree and that’s an area where we have room for development although we do have an online presence but it needs developing further.

AP: This is also where you can do more analysis of who’s reading it, and gather feedback.

SB: The last two years we’ve asked for feedback in a fairly ad-hoc manner. It is certainly time we did something much more formal.

Do we go far enough in our reporting?

SJ: I think an important area for MITIE’s CR reporting development is disclosure. At the moment you are very good in outlining your end key performance indicators, for example what is our management retention.

But what you also need to disclose are the things in-between. So how satisfied are our people? What are the issues our people are raising when we ask them for feedback? And then actually listing those issues in the report.

SB: In the CR09 report we introduced a stakeholder engagement section where we identified who our stakeholders are, how we engaged and responded to them but you are absolutely right we didn’t state what they were asking. For the next report we will certainly be adding this to give the overall picture.

AP: Yes, and I think with the whole kind of ‘warts and all’ corporate responsibility reporting, talking about some of the challenges you are facing as well as some of the highlights, that’s where the wider community stops and thinks an organisation is genuinely listening to its people, and they are genuinely trying to improve and move things forward.

Where do you think MITIE can improve on its CR reporting, and what are we doing well?

AP: One of the things you can look at publishing is your longer term targets. In your report you show how you’ve performed against last year’s targets and share your targets for the coming year. What I think would be beneficial is showing what your aspirations are in five or ten years.

SJ: And also how your corporate responsibility targets are linked to your overall strategy in a bit more detail.

I think it is also important to reflect the issues you face in terms of whether you are affected by, say, any equality and diversity issues and how you address them.

SB: Good example, and one that has been on our radar for the last three years or so. In the past 18 months we’ve seen a significant increase in our understanding of, and investment of time and resources into, equality and diversity related issues.

AP: And with Ruby McGregor-Smith’s leadership on Race for Opportunity and Suzanne Baxter’s on Opportunity Now it shows that right at the top of your organisation you have belief and vision. I think that you are ahead of the companies in your sector in that particular area.

Corporate culture and influencing the wider community SJ: As a huge employer you are in a real position to influence decision makers, government and other interest organisations on a number of issues.

SB: That’s right and we are involved with lobbying organisations, one of which is on the subject of VAT on some of the community investment expenditure that we make that we are hoping to take directly to Gordon Brown.

AP: I was with a client the other day and they said corporate responsibility shows the world your company’s personality and I thought that was an interesting way of looking at it. And reporting it is actually exposing your business and your corporate culture to you clients, people and suppliers.

SB: I’m probably the millionth person to say this and it’s a bit of a cliché but corporate responsibility is part of our DNA at MITIE. I think it really is and it is something that we don’t bolt-on, it is built in.

So, dare we say it… how do we compare to our competitors?

AP: Support Services is one of the fastest growing areas of companies participating in the BITC Index. On the climate change and environmental side MITIE is much more forward looking and innovative because you are seeing what your clients’ targets will be in a low carbon economy, and developing products and services to help them deliver on them. We very much saw that at the May Day Summit where MITIE brought some of its specialists to talk about the new innovations in environmental technology.

SJ: In terms of the research Radley Yeldar has done in the Support Services sector within CR reporting and producing standalone reports it is just extremely varied. It is actually one of the sectors that was hardest to review comparably because of the type of companies in there but MITIE fare quite well.

Well it looks like we’re headed in the right direction and just to cover all bases we’ll be publishing the full discussion online in December.

Everyone at buzz would like to thank Anita, Stine and Stephen for taking part in the discussion. Thanks also to Gemma Shaw at Roche Communications and all the friendly staff at Inn the park. buzz 9

Feature Building Schools For the future

Building Schools for the Future (BSF) is an immensely ambitious programme designed to rebuild or refurbish all secondary schools in England over the next 15 years at a cost of £45 billion. The project has been designed to transform the educational experiences of pupils, through improvements to the fabric of school buildings and providing investment in ICT. Since the scheme was launched in 2004 there have been considerable developments in its aims and scope; most notably there has been a huge focus on embedding sustainability within the schools to meet the government’s carbon reduction targets.

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UK’s largest BSF programmes and will ultimately see the delivery of 46 schools across the central English county. But with the first phase including three schools in the 25 year deal, the consortium had to come up with innovative ways to cut the emissions to meet the targets.

Early designs looked at various sustainable solutions. Mark Reed, BSF Director for MITIE was well aware of the challenge being faced, and how it should be tackled. “We knew finding a solution would not be straightforward.

It is extremely difficult to meet the 60% target even using the most sustainable building materials and design, so we needed to look at alternative ideas.

We decided to look at renewable energy solutions as a way of reducing the amount of energy emissions the schools produce.”

In order to get the funding to build the schools, the team had to prove that the design can reduce carbon emissions by 60%. However once the school is built it is the responsibility of the consortium to make sure that the energy consumption is below the government’s targets, so it is essential to make sure that a robust solution is in place that will help reduce emissions along with an energy management plan to educate the users of the school on the efficient use of energy.

Schools in the UK contribute approximately 2% of the nation’s carbon emissions and almost 15% of UK public sector carbon emissions. In order to meet its targets on carbon reduction, the government has addressed the issue by setting several energy targets that BSF schools have to comply with. The first is for a school’s design to demonstrate that it can reduce emissions by at least 60% compared with the 2002 Building Regulations figure. The second target is for the carbon consumption of the school to be below 27kg CO2/m2/ year (roughly half of the output of most existing PFI schools). With these targets built into the BSF contracts and financial penalties for the schemes that don’t make them, consortia have to look at innovative ways to meet these high demands.

In July 2009, the Equitix consortium, which included MITIE as the FM provider, reached financial close on the first phase of Derbyshire County Council’s £750 million BSF programme.

The Derbyshire scheme is one of the

Earth, wind and fire Initially ground source heat pumps were seen as a viable option; however as the ground conditions were deemed unsuitable and extensive pipe work would have been required to provide enough heat, it made the technology ineffective and uneconomical.

Biomass boilers were also assessed, but due to the rural locations of the schools the transportation of fuel was impractical. Furthermore they can also take up significant space within the school grounds.

Wind generation was another alternative energy solution; however this also posed a number of issues.

For turbines to be built, planning permission is needed from the local authorities. While the schools are within rural areas, they are located within small built up communities. As a result, planning restrictions meant the wind generators could not be constructed at the school sites. A new viable solution was needed, which could resolve the energy issues and be implemented at all three schools.

The answer came in the form of building off-site wind farms, built by MITIE’s energy specialists, who specialise in the consultancy and installation of renewable forms of energy.

“The wind farms idea was to construct four 15KW wind generators on an unused part of farmland approximately 50m by 10m in size.

One of the generators will be provided to the landowner in recompense for the land, who may then sell the energy generated or use the energy themselves. The three remaining 15KW generators are then dedicated to one of the schools, with one wind farm being built for each school.”

The wind farms need to be constructed in a location that meets the required wind speeds and where planning permission can be obtained easily. By building them in rural areas that still have connections to the power grid, the team are making sure that the turbines have minimum impact and maximum efficiency.

The idea is to offset the energy produced by the turbines against the energy output of the schools, essentially using the National Grid as a long cable to connect the generator to the school.

With each 15KW turbine generating enough energy to power six three-bed houses, excluding heating, each school will be producing enough energy to power 18 houses.

The wind farm idea for the Derbyshire BSF scheme is the first of its kind to be fully funded by the government and if successful will be considered as part of the energy plan for the remaining 44 schools in the county. By using this method of energy generation there are a number of significant benefits for all parties involved. It ensures that real renewable energy is used to provide electrical energy at the schools which in turn means the carbon footprint of the school is reduced. The Local Authority and the schools also benefit from the financial revenues generated from the sale of renewable energy back to the National Grid, as with government subsidies to encourage the renewable energy schemes, they can sell the energy produced by the turbines at a higher rate than it costs to buy energy from the school’s local provider.

Educating the next generation The scheme also has educational benefits for the school as each wind farm will be linked to both the building energy management system and the school’s computer network so that the pupils can see – in real time – the energy output from the school, the amount of energy generated and how actions such as turning the lights off can affect energy consumption. Webcams showing live pictures of the wind farms will also allow the pupils to see how the energy output of the turbines is affected when the wind speed drops.

The wind farms are expected to last for at least the term of the 25year deal, and in that time MITIE will maintain the turbines and deliver facilities management in the schools, implementing energy management programmes to encourage and educate on the efficient use of energy.

When the wind farms reach the end of their life they will either be dismantled and the land restored, or new wind turbines will be erected in their place.

The scheme is still in the planning stage with suitable locations and planning permission to build the wind farms being sought; however they will be operational before the first three schools open in November 2010.

It is hoped that the success of this unique scheme will be a model for future BSF programmes, and ultimately enable it to transcend from the public to private sector and help the delivery of micro generation schemes across the UK.

buzz 11

Feature Client Focus – Herbert Smith

Unique among international law firms in having top-tier dispute resolution and corporate capabilities, Herbert Smith LLP is acknowledged as one of the world’s leading legal practices. Established in London in 1882, it now has more than 1,200 lawyers across a network of offices in Asia, Europe and the Middle East. Its main clients are leading global and national businesses, many headquartered outside the UK.

Throughout the legal eagle’s prestigious history they’ve surprisingly never merged with another firm, pretty impressive considering Herbert Smith’s growing network of offices spans Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Never afraid to innovate and harness the power of an integrated supply chain, two years ago Herbert Smith decided to tender all of the facilities services across their London property portfolio, home to the firm’s global headquarters and over 1,500 people ranging from partners, associates, trainees, secretaries and support staff. Following a rigorous selection process MITIE was awarded a five-year contract to deliver mailroom, stationery, reprographics and records management services. Today our onsite team stands 50 strong.

Back in June 2009, buzz Editor Neil Smith was given the opportunity to visit Herbert Smith’s HQ in the heart of the City to meet their Global Head of Facilities, John Neville, to find out why they chose MITIE, and if we’re living up to their expectations?

What made MITIE stand out from the crowd during the tender process?

“Overall we were impressed at how MITIE approached the tender process and the openness of the management.

Ultimately we were looking for a company that could enhance service

Intervi ew John Neville Global Head of Facilities Herbert Smith 12 buzz

delivery and fit into our culture. We believed MITIE could do this and in the past year we have also welcomed MITIE’s responsiveness in the economic downturn to support Herbert Smith.”

From the outset there are a great deal of synergies between MITIE and Herbert Smith. Both companies are focused on delivering world-class services to clients.

Both are committed to working closely to improve supply chain and that of our partners. We both truly value our people too, as well and have both recently featured in The Times newspaper’s 50 top places for women to work.

Speaking with John it is clear that he really sees everyone as being ‘one team’ which comprises of several other service providers, and that communication is core to a successful team, “A key theme at Herbert Smith is that we are ‘Better Together’, so we include MITIE people in our communications and encourage them to take part in our regular facilities meetings. We have a strategy that we want MITIE to contribute to and be part of. ” How has MITIE performed since the beginning of the contract? “Outsourcing was a big step for Herbert Smith and we wanted to see the tangible benefits of doing so from early on. If you take reprographics as an example, this is a key revenue stream for us. So, I’m pleased to say that MITIE has delivered a professionally managed document management team, and transformed reprographics for Herbert Smith. The challenge now for MITIE is not to get stale and come up with new innovations to the contract.” One of the ways we are looking to do this is working with Herbert Smith on a shared passion – contributing to the national CR agenda.

In fact, both MITIE and Herbert Smith are members of the Prince’s May Day Network 2009 and committed to measuring and managing our carbon footprints, taking steps towards reducing our emissions. In addition to this, Herbert Smith has implemented a number of targeted initiatives which include the introduction of an on-site water filtration system, to reduce the environmental

impact from the transportation of mineral water to their buildings in London.

Do you see opportunities to share best practice on environmental impact management issues? “At Herbert Smith we take our environmental impact very seriously. We are members of various networks including the City Environmental Forum and the Legal Sector Alliance. We measure our carbon footprint annually and have worked hard to reduce energy consumption over the last few years, working with our landlord and our own staff. We also have a target to recycle 60% of waste across the whole London estate by 2010.” Listening to the improvements and plans Herbert Smith’s facilities team are implementing under John’s leadership across their portfolio it is clear that we can learn from one another.

Being responsible for a large international property portfolio John spends a lot of time travelling. So when we caught up with him in October to get an update on the eve of the contract’s second anniversary he had just returned from overseeing the opening of a new office in Madrid.

Since we first met John, have there been any developments in MITIE and Herbert Smith working together on sustainability issues? “Interestingly enough I have just been to speaking to Tim France (MITIE Account Director) about how MITIE can work with Herbert Smith in terms of sustainable procurement and we are looking to take this further”. Finally, as we approach the two-year mark, how do you feel about MITIE’s service delivery to date? “All I can say is that outsourcing was definitely the right strategic decision for the firm and that we are very happy we chose MITIE.” Long may the relationship continue!

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Corporate news MITIE’s Got Talent

MITIE’s Got Talent 2009

Corporate news MITIE Stars Award

From over 1,200 nominations, the overall winner of the MITIE Stars Award 2009 was recently announced. Congratulations to Derek Bates of our Asset Management division!

I honestly couldn’t believe it when we won, but I was very, very happy.

Kerry Dennehy, MITIE’s Got Talent 2009 winner.

MITIE Stars Dancing Queen Kerry Dennehy and partner Ben Jones rumba’d off with the 1st prize in the MITIE’s Got Talent Final 2009 at The Grove Hotel in Hertfordshire.

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The ballroom beauty has been dancing for 14 years and was extremely excited about the opportunity to perform in front of her colleagues. “Dancing isn’t just a hobby to me, it’s my world so MITIE’s Got Talent was just the chance I have been waiting for to show MITIE what I can do. It was such a great evening, but very scary!”

Kerry and Ben are ranked ninth in the UK national chart after only 7 months dancing together! “I honestly couldn’t believe it when we won, but I was very, very happy.”

Kerry’s chosen prize was some extra dance classes with her professional coach ahead of competing in the National Championships later this year.

In addition to this we’ll also be buying

Kerry some devilishly diva-some new dancing shoes because let’s face it, can a girl have enough pairs? To enter next year’s competition all you need to do is text or call us on 07979 702207.

Huge congratulations go to the rest of the talented finalists who really gave it their all on the night: Andrew Mills and his band, NOT George, Joseph Durrant, Angeline Flanagan and Marc Watkins.

Derek’s positive attitude to work, kindness and client care over his seven years with MITIE, and the selfless dedication he shows on a daily basis to our clients secured the overall award. Derek also acts as a mentor to apprentices in his region and is keen to impart his considerable knowledge and skills to young aspiring engineers.

“It’s such a fantastic achievement for me. I never once believed I’d win after seeing what all the other finalists had accomplished.”

Derek’s prize is a vintage VW camper van for him and his family.

Congratulations to all of our other MITIE Stars too!

Remember, nominating someone for a MITIE Stare couldn’t be easier.

Ruby McGregor-Smith with the finalists, Gaby Soor, Derek Bates, Abdoulie Fye (behind), Alan Clark, Livio Chipan, Carl Cleaver (behind), Adama Seck, Ebrima Manneh.

You can nominate an individual or a team of MITIE people for anything that makes a real difference to a colleague or a customer. It could be for showing lots of initiative and fresh thinking, bags of passion and commitment, or for demonstrating a willingness to always go the extra mile in their daily job. So if you know someone at MITIE that’s made a real difference to you, to a customer or who has gone the extra mile for a colleague call us on 0845 408 4065 or email nominate@mitiestars.co.uk

It’s such a fantastic achievement for me. I never once believed I’d win after seeing what all the other finalists had accomplished.

Derek Bates, MITIE Stars Award winner 2009.

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Corporate News Little GUIDE TO being MITIE

The little guide to being MITIE

BITC Corporate Responsibility Index 2009

We achieved two BITC (Business in the Community) Big Tick Re-accreditation Awards 2009

150 low CO2 emission, fuel efficient vehicles purchased in 2008/09

Listed in the FTSE4Good Index 2009

Over the last 21 years the world has changed quite a bit. The shifting sands of global politics has seen the fall of the Soviet Union and rise of China as an economic superpower. We’ve experienced a technological revolution. And mankind’s impact on the environment is finally being realised as a major threat to our way of life. There have certainly been good times and bad times, but throughout this time one thing has been constant... MITIE’s been growing year-on-year!

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It’s fair to say that MITIE has come a long way from its humble beginnings in a stable block in Wrington. Now we’re one of the UK’s largest employers, a FTSE 250 company with over 54,000 people, and revenues in excess of £1.8bn. Not to mention a reputation for delivering world-class facilities, property and technical asset management.

As a company, we’ve grown so quickly that it can be quite hard sometimes to know exactly what we do, across all our businesses, across the country. But there’s a lot more to MITIE than you might think. So, to help our people have a greater understanding of our unrivalled range of services, the sectors we work in, our vision, mission, and values, and how our strategy underpins our success, we’ve distilled it all down into the little guide to being MITIE. The guide is a great resource to have and features some really interesting case studies identifying the clients we work with, the improvements we’ve made for them and how truly innovative we can be in the delivery of our worldclass services. There’s also a section on corporate responsibility, a subject close to our hearts and built in to our business.

Not only because it’s the right thing to do morally and ethically, but because it is also the right thing to do commercially.

It’s really important that every single MITIE person knows what we can offer to our clients and knows where to direct their enquiries to – that’s why we’re the best of the best. In the little guide you’ll also find some key contact details to help you find out even more about our mighty company.

If you’ve not received a copy of the little guide and would like one, just email the Corporate Affairs team on buzz@mitie.co.uk

458 days spent volunteering for local charities and initiatives

343 apprentices employed across our three divisions

Financial Times Top 100 Companies that count – Silver category

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Corporate News Knowing me, knowing you

Knowing me, Knowing you Martin Holt

It’s going well. There is obviously a lot to do but the mood is positive and people are excited about being part of MITIE.

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Unsurprisingly just a couple of weeks after MITIE’s largest acquisition we’re having trouble getting hold of Martin Holt, the Managing Director of MITIE’s Technical Facilities Management business, the combination of our engineering maintenance and Dalkia businesses. After several rounds of telephone tag and an email chain to make even the most hardened scammer proud, the team at buzz started to consider calling the A-Team to bring him to our office.

Now do not get us wrong, this isn’t because Martin is spurning our advances.

On the contrary he is looking forward to taking part in the latest issue of the magazine for MITIE people. He is just understandably a very busy man. buzz finally caught up with Martin just before the team building session at MITIE’s 2009 Senior Management Conference. Cool, calm and collected Martin doesn’t even bat an eyelid when we ask if he would mind changing into a business suit for the photo shoot that accompanies the interview.

Ten minutes and a sharp suit later we get down to business. So, Martin, how is the integration going? “It’s going well.

There is obviously a lot to do but the mood is positive and people are excited about being part of MITIE. I think the way everything has been communicated in a structured and open way has helped, and the commitment of the senior management team especially Roger Goodman and Pete Mosley from day one has made all of the people from what was Dalkia feel part of the process.” As the integration is still in its early days is it difficult to change from thinking ‘I work for Dalkia’ and start thinking ‘I’m part of MITIE?’ “Funnily enough it was almost instantaneous for me. As soon as the deal was done I made the switch in my mind. In fact, the final sale was agreed in the middle of the night as these things often are, and the next morning when I visited one of the offices I signed in as Martin Holt, MITIE.”

A trained accountant, something he wanted to be since age 13, Martin joined Dalkia from Trend Controls Systems in 2001 where he was a company Director and General Manager. Since then Martin’s held a variety of finance roles including Chief Financial Officer for Northern Europe, and a PLC Finance Director. Are you a numbers person then? “Even though I come from a finance background I’ve always worked in industry and been involved in operations. This goes back to my time at Trend where I was also lucky enough to do my MBA and then be given the opportunity to run the business; Dalkia were actually one of my customers.”

As the head of MITIE’s Technical Facilities Management business, what challenges do you think are ahead?

“Well first and foremost it is important that we continue the successful integration of the teams across the UK and embed the ‘one team’ approach. We now have a unique offering for our markets and the growth of our business has to add value to shareholders.” Too true.

Martin lives in Horsham with his family and outside of work he plays a lot of sport to help him relax. Next year he’ll be running the Paris and London Marathons (the latter with his daughters) before heading across the pond in November to run the ING New York Marathon which draws more than 100,000 applicants every year. What are you working on at the moment alongside the integration?

We’re doing some interesting work on our strategic positioning at the moment, combining the excellent work going on at MITIE around environmental impact management, and developing the Carbon Care offering. It’s an exciting time and I’m looking forward to the opportunities ahead.”

With such a busy schedule after the interview we feel even better about getting some time with Martin, and we think you’ll agree it was time well spent.

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Corporate News Race for opportunity awards

“ The time has come to reaffirm our enduring spirit; to choose our better history; to carry forward that precious gift, that noble idea, passed on from generation to generation… that all are equal, all are free, and all deserve a chance to pursue their full measure of happiness.”

Race for Opportunity Awards When Barack Obama addressed the American people in his inaugural speech millions of people around the world stopped to celebrate what had once been thought impossible. The world’s largest superpower, whose extraordinary economic growth had once been fuelled by the fires of slavery, had elected its first black President.

The historical significance could not be overlooked, times were changing, and this day was proof that the traditional barriers faced by minority groups were being broken down.

MITIE understands the importance of having a diverse workforce that reflects the communities we serve and we continually strive to break down the barriers to employment and help our people succeed. In issue 3 of buzz 20 buzz

we explored how we are working to promote women in the workplace, and we’ve since been the proud recipients of two accolades that show we are making progress and heading in the right direction.

In August we came second in the Observer’s gender survey – an independent survey researched by Co-operative Asset Management into how women were represented in FTSE 350 businesses. Two months later on 7 October 2009, MITIE was placed in The Times newspaper’s ‘Top 50 places where women want to work’, sharing a rostrum with some pretty big hitters in the corporate world like Microsoft, Tesco, Deloitte and Aviva – to name a few.

But gender equality is just one piece of a complex jigsaw puzzle. And how are we as a business addressing the needs of, and breaking down the barriers to employment for our friends, families and future colleagues from other minority groups? Well, for a start we’ve developed our award winning Real Apprentice Scheme to help overcome barriers for people with disabilities. By opening the programme up to people with disabilities and mental health illnesses we’re now helping to combat the problems faced by the 1.3 million disabled people in the UK who are available for work, want to work, but only half of those of working age are actually in work.

A real contender Our ‘Raising the Game on Disability’ pilot programme saw 16 people between the ages of 19 and 57 all with a disability commence on-site placements from 1 September to 30 October. A resounding success, we now aim to launch a programme in Birmingham in March 2010 and run a London based pilot programme in partnership with Working for Wellness, aimed at participants with mild to moderate mental health issues.

This fresh and innovative thinking has since earned us recognition in the prestigious Race for Opportunity (RfO) Awards which took place on Wednesday 21 October at Lancaster

House in London. A Business in the Community campaign, RfO is a network of over 160 private and public sector organisations committed to improving employment opportunities for ethnic minorities across the UK. MITIE’s Chief Executive, Ruby McGregor-Smith, who chairs RfO was present at the reception and helped to kick off the ceremony by discussing the importance of recognising the breadth of the talent we have across the UK. The RfO Awards are all about identifying the organisations that are committed to the inclusion of race equality in the workplace, and are a valuable way of identifying those who continually show good business practices to help drive diversity and equality forward.

MITIE was recognised with the ‘Widening the Talent Pool – Recruitment’ award for the Real Apprentice scheme’s effectiveness in casting the recruitment net across our diverse communities.

“The award is of significant importance to MITIE because it reinforces the fact that MITIE is a true ‘people’ business and one that embraces and nurtures diversity not only to our clients, but to our competitors, employees and the communities that we work in.” said Jane James, Employment Regeneration Manager. Karen Govier, Equality and Diversity Manager also added: “This is the first time that we have gone in for the award so even to be shortlisted was an achievement in itself. To win it is just phenomenal and is something that goes a long way in raising MITIE’s profile in our communities.”

Similar to our Times placing and the Observer survey performance, recognition from the RfO also assists us in our aspiration to become an employer of choice, and shows that although breaking down the barriers for minority groups is a difficult process, we’ve gone from taking a small step, to a giant leap in getting it right.

Five famous people who have broken through the barriers of disability: 1. Stephen Hawking

Hawking is one of the greatest astronomical physicists of modern times, having developed several theories about the nature and origins of our universe. His body may be paralysed but his beautiful mind knows no boundaries.

2. Dame Tanni Grey – Thompson

With an epic six London Marathon titles, 16 Paralympic medals including 11 golds, and over 30 world records held over her career, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson is one of Britain’s most successful sportswomen.

3. Albert Einstein

Possibly the great scientist of the twentieth century, Einstein suffered from a learning disability in his childhood. Einstein could not talk until he was three and could not read until he was eight.

4. Stevie Wonder

The blind American singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and record producer has recorded more than thirty US top ten hits and won 22 Grammy Awards – the most ever won by a male solo artist.

5. Ellie Simmonds

Paralympian champion swimmer Eleanor Simmonds MBE has achondroplasia - the most common forms of short limb dwarfism.

Simmonds competed at the 2008 Summer Paralympics in Beijing, and won gold medals in the 100m and 400m freestyle events. The 2008 BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year, Simmonds was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2009 – the youngest person to have ever received this honour.

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Up close and personal Kelly onley

Anyone who has ever met Kelly Onley can instantly recognise that she is the embodiment of MITIE’s values. So it was great to see that in August all of her hard work was recognised when she won the Contractors Tenant Liaison Officer of the Year award at the TPAS Connecting People Awards final. The awards ceremony, attended by over 700 guests, was organised by Northern, Midlands and Southern Housing magazines in conjunction with Tenant Participation Advisory Service (TPAS) to reward tenants and people who work in communities across England.

Kelly works on our responsive repairs and voids contract with Milton Keynes Council looking after 12,500 homes with a wide variety of tenants of which around 23% are elderly, with a high ratio of people with physical and mental disabilities.

With such an eclectic mix of people Kelly often has to deal with difficult situations and sometimes works closely with Social Services to resolve issues.

Following the award presentation Councillor Chris Williams, Cabinet member for Milton Keynes Council, said: “Improving the experience of our customers is the most important thing that we and MITIE can do to enhance the Housing Service. Kelly makes an enormous contribution to this and our thanks go out to her. I am delighted that her dedication and hard work has been recognised by this prestigious award.”

People A true ‘people person’ Kelly plays a key role in the lives of many tenants as well as providing a listening ear if there is anything that they are unsure about.

On her award, Lynda Bull, Director of Community Wellbeing for Milton Keynes Council, commented: “Kelly’s commitment to tenant liaison has helped us achieve our objectives and keep customer satisfaction at an all-time high level. It’s fantastic to see Kelly recognised publicly for all her efforts.”

Passion Born and bred in the Milton Keynes area, Kelly has been with MITIE for over three and a half years after joining from a local construction firm. “As soon as I saw the job advert I knew it was the role for me and I haven’t been proved wrong; I absolutely love it.” Kelly’s passion for her job and making a difference in the community in which she lives and works is evident and led line manager Phil Tovey put her name forward for the prestigious award.

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Fresh thinking Day-to-day Kelly’s role includes everything from organising events and spreading the word about the latest developments, to ironing out problems and being a good listener, advisor and all-round friendly face. Always looking for new ways to improve services to tenants Kelly has instigated weekly surgeries for tenants to come along and voice their issues. In addition, Kelly also carries a series of one-to-one sessions with tenants in the community.

Exciting futures Winning the award has brought Kelly a lot of attention and while she’s really happy for being recognised for a job well done, Kelly is always looking for new challenges. So, never one to rest on her laurels, over the past six months Kelly has developed an in-house diversity course focussed on the Social Housing market with Phil Tovey.

The course has been rolled out in Milton Keynes and Kelly is now working with MITIE’s Equality and Diversity Manager Karen Govier on a framework to roll the course out nationally.

Dedicated and focused to delivering a world-class service, Kelly is keen to pass her knowledge on to as many people as possible and is keen to carry out more training to people working in the same arena. Away from work Kelly enjoys spending time with her family and two dogs, one of which was rescued from am abusive owner.

It would seem that Kelly just can’t stop caring for her community, a true credit to MITIE.

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facilities management

contract awards MITIE’s client services specialists have won an exciting new five-year contract with Barclays, delivering front-of-house services to their headquarters and UK regional corporate offices. The new win is an extension of MITIE’s existing contract providing cleaning, manned guarding, pest control and waste management services. In addition, our client services team will be working alongside our security specialists at Citigroup’s UK headquarters. In the three-year deal we will manage the team of over 100 and help to bring core expertise in both security and front-of-house to the contract, along with innovative customer service training, which will enhance the customer experience.

Our facilities management team has secured two very exciting contracts to provide an integrated facilities management solution. Under our new five year contract with the National Audit Office (NAO) in London, we will be responsible for providing a full range of facilities management services including hospitality, catering, cleaning, grounds maintenance, M&E maintenance, waste management and business support services to the newly refurbished, 21,150m2 former Imperial Airways. And our three year contract with Santander will see us providing a range of hard and soft FM services including cleaning, landscaping, M&E maintenance, pest control, security; and waste management across all of their UK head office buildings in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Once the mobilisation process has been completed successfully, MITIE will be introducing its programme of continuous improvement, introducing some of MITIE’s latest technology and implementing innovative process enhancements and energy savings across the contract.

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In London, we have impressively been awarded a five year multi-service support contract with the University of Arts based on previous high levels of performance. The contract, covering the University of London’s 27 facilities throughout London, is for cleaning, building repair and maintenance, facility support, car parking, pest control, wall and window cleaning and security.

Following competitive tender MITIE has been awarded contracts to provide cleaning, catering, security and maintenance services for Global Radio, the largest commercial radio station in the UK. We will reduce costs for Global Radio by focusing on providing critical engineering support, consistent standards, measurement of service levels and improved management reporting. The combined contracts are worth £800,000 a year and the contracts, which are due to start in January, are for three years.

MITIE’s security business has continued to do well securing contracts with Cable & Wireless and Thames Barrier. The Cable & Wireless contract will see the total remit of security services being supplied including fire and security systems installation and maintenance, mobile patrols and alarm response. Meanwhile the Thames Barrier sees us providing the manned guarding services over the next two years.

Our cleaning business goes from strength to strength securing a three year contract with Tesco which will see us providing cleaning services to approximately 316 of its retail outlets across the Midlands, North East Anglia, Central London and the North East.

In addition, through our existing relationship with the client we have also successfully secured two contracts at EDF to provide specialist cleaning.

In addition we have won contracts

to provide consumables, daily office cleaning, periodicals and feminine hygiene at Friends Provident and both Office Angels and Oxford & Cherwell Valley College where we also provide window cleaning.

Our teams will be providing a range of cleaning services to all Co-operative food stores across the United Kingdom.

The three-year contract will see us clean over 2,500 stores and this includes the 600 Somerfield stores that we already look after. The Somerfield stores are currently in the process of changing over to the Co-operative brand. Our specialists are also going to be cleaning the retailer’s major head offices across the country. In total over 3,000 people are transferring over to MITIE’s business in the mobilisation process.

We have also won office cleaning contracts Procter & Gamble, Rolls-Royce Cars, Scot Mid Co-op Society Ltd, Scottish Water and Welsh Assembly.

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facilities management Thames Barrier

To the city’s

The Thames Barrier is a modern day marvel and one of the largest movable flood barriers in the world. It is without doubt one of the most striking of London’s landmarks with its distinctive stainless steel piers it spans 520 metres across the Thames near Woolwich, protecting 125 square kilometres of central London from tidal surges; that’s 1.25 million people, historic buildings, offices, power supplies, tube lines, hospitals and more. The Environment Agency runs and maintains the Thames Barrier as well as the capital’s other flood defences, such as the Barking Barrier and King George V Docks.

Deeply ingrained in the UK’s popular culture, we’ve seen Jeremy Clarkson race through it, Torchwood build a base under it, and the barrier takes a leading role in The Clash’s London Calling music video.

The barrier, which became operational in 1982, has 10 steel gates that can be raised into position across the River Thames if a tidal surge is predicted. When raised, the main gates stand as high as a five-storey building and as wide as the opening of Tower Bridge, and each main gate weighs 3,300 tonnes.

Keeping the barrier safe and secure is absolutely critical. That’s why in June 2009, MITIE successfully retained this prestigious contract to protect one of London’s most iconic landmarks. The contract includes manned guarding, site patrols, access control and CCTV monitoring 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Do not pass go…

On site we have four teams on hand day and night. Every team member is highly trained to understand the unique challenges and critical nature of the site’s safety and their role in protecting it.

With such a high terrorist risk target there are clearly defined protocols to keep to for access control, and no access to the site is given without prior arrangement.

Our highly trained officers run a strict pass system and, within their teams, each works to ensure that the correct levels of manning are achieved at all times, at all stations.

Part of their responsibilities is to patrol the large site which includes the car parks, woodland, and public viewing areas. The public viewing area is one of utmost importance as, at times of high tide, it can be submerged in water.

MITIE’s officers are also responsible for preventing the public from accessing these areas during these times.

MITIE’s officers also patrol the tunnel under the Thames as part of a maintenance regime, looking for any hazards or health and safety issues.

The supervisors from each team, who monitor the numerous on-site cameras, are fully trained in alarm response procedures and protocols.

As you’d imagine, every officer on the Environment Agency contract has undergone Counter Terrorist Check (CTC) clearance and we also have bank relief officers to cover absence.

What’s great about the teams is that there is a real sense of camaraderie and they always pull together to selfcover any leave, giving the client peace of mind and consistency.

Our teams also work closely with the Police and security services.

A partner you can trust The Environment Agency knows that the security of their key flood defences is in safe hands; no one gains access to site unauthorised, and they have a team they can count on 7 days a week, 365 days a year.

“The Thames Barrier is an extremely positive place to work and we have very high employee retention within the security team. We’ve created a motivated and competitive culture amongst the four teams which drives them to consistently exceed expectations. And when it comes to the crunch, they all pull together as one big, happy team.” Phil Coombs, Joint Head of Operations (London).

All of this means our client can concentrate on what they do best – protecting our capital from tidal surges.

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Facilities management santander

Cast your mind back to last September.

The credit crunch had led to dramatic, unprecedented events in the City, on Wall Street and around the globe. Toxic loans, sub-prime mortgages and out of control consumer debt threatened to bring the global banking system down like a house of cards. Harold Wilson had once said “A week is a long time in politics”; well for any broker, buyer, builder or barman the 22nd to 28th of September was a really long time in banking.

The Sunday and Monday of that week were certainly not happy days as PwC battled to sell Lehman Brothers’ UK operations and Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs were forced to give up their status as investment banks.

Tuesday and Wednesday followed with new figures showing that UK mortgage approvals had hit a record low in August, and the FBI began investigating Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. Thursday to Friday, panic set in with Ireland becoming the first state in the euro zone to fall into recession and HSBC axed 500 investment banking jobs, leaving the city silenced. The weekend came and out of nowhere shone a ray of Spanish sunshine to brighten up the day…

On Sunday 28 September Santander rescued Bradford & Bingley’s 200 branches and £22bn savings book to add to the acquisition earlier in the year of Alliance & Leicester, and the 2004 takeover of Abbey. The deal offered new hope to a country in crisis.

The global banking giant that prides itself on having a prudent and common sense approach to banking, a sensible lending policy, and a low risk profile has over 90 million customers in over 40 countries, not to mention 170,000 employees worldwide. They are also proud sponsors of the McLaren Formula 1 team and Lewis Hamilton who, incidentally, won the F1 world championship that year!

In the UK, Santander has now become the third largest bank in terms of deposits, with a market share of 10%, 1,303 branches, and 2.5 million customers.

They also employ over 20,000 people.

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Just under a year later, on 1 August 2009, MITIE began the early operational stage of our integrated facilities management contract with Santander. This major new contract for MITIE sees us deliver a wide range of services including: cleaning, manned guarding, landscaping, pest control, waste management, mechanical and electrical services and front-of-house. Over the course of the contract we will also be delivering a number of high value projects.

Santander’s property portfolio is as large as it is diverse. In addition to the 30 Head Office buildings across the UK we’re also responsible for maintaining three major data centres all with their own mission critical systems. Since mobilisation we have been involved in a number of projects including repositioning Santander’s helpdesk.

But why did Santander chose MITIE? “Santander was very prescriptive in their procurement process and had a clear mindset of what they wanted to achieve. They were impressed by our ‘One MITIE’ approach and recognised our ability to deliver a seamless service across their sites,” Martin Lewis, MITIE Account Director.

Before MITIE was awarded this prestigious contract, our teams had been delivering world-class services to Alliance & Leicester for the last ten years. And as if by coincidence, magic or destiny, Keith Phillips, the mastermind behind winning that original contract also led the winning bid team this time around. “The Santander win was a great team effort with support from all parts of MITIE. The contract is especially pleasing

for me as me and my team won the Alliance & Leicester contract in 2000 which we’ve retained over the years.

The original contract has been massively enlarged following their acquisition by the Santander Group.”

Another one of our passionate people who has been instrumental in developing our relationship with the client is Paul Buonanno. Paul worked on the Alliance & Leicester contract for nine years and has now been promoted to the Southern Operations Manager for the Santander portfolio. Paul looks after Santander’s 17 premises, and the three data centres – the key hub for Santander’s business in the UK. Paul helps to ensure we deliver the level of service expected by our client, “Santander is a great client to work with. We communicate well and have the same values and focus on supporting our people. Also with my background with Alliance & Leicester and the strengths of the entire team we have a very solid foundation to build on for the future.”

Fast forward a year and we see some semblance of stability in the global economy. Our relationship with Santander, born during the flames of adversity, grows from strength to strength – and long may it continue to sore through the sky above.

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property management

contract awards Another successful six months for our property management specialists despite tough market conditions and the economic downturn.

We’ve seen some really exciting social housing contract wins including refurbishment work with Redbridge, Citywest and Stevenage Homes as part of the Decent Homes initiative.

We’ve also secured the Decent Homes upgrade of a large communal residence for James Butcher Housing Association.

In addition, we have won internal refurbishment at University of Surrey, Gibraltar Barracks, The City of Edinburgh Council, and Port of Leith Housing Association. Other refurbishment includes our contract win with Edinburgh University where we have painted and decorated the accommodation and academic areas and with Cable & Wireless where we have refurbished all of their offices and installed a cool coffee area.

Our painting team have been busy winning redecorating projects across England and Scotland. In Scotland we’ve secured a four-year redecoration project at The City of Edinburgh Council.

Further south we’ve secured contracts to pre-paint repairs and provide cyclical painting works to leasehold and tenanted properties for Home Group Housing Association, Havebury Housing Partnership and Vinci Haymills. We have also extended our contract with Norfolk Property Services to fit replacement

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front and rear doors and external shed doors to Mid Suffolk Council’s properties.

Our specialists successfully secured a contract with Springboard Housing Association to provide cyclical decoration and major repairs, kitchens and bathroom upgrades to St Matthews Housing stock at various locations in Suffolk and Norfolk and Essex.

Our roofing teams have won a 28-week roofing project contact with Welsh Assembly. This involves stripping and replacing the existing roof and the installation of a permanent roof guard rail system.

Robert Prettie, our plumbing business, has very been successful over recent months, winning a whole host of contracts. We are actively involved in the building of two new mental health wards at Walton Hospital, Chesterfield where we will be providing the mechanical services associated with this project (includes heating, gas works, ventilation, hot and cold pipework, radiant heating panels, plant room and sanitary ware). We’ll also be completing the gas central heating installations and the sanitary ware for Charles Church – a prestigious development of new houses in Mapperley, Nottingham. We are currently working on Phase 1 and have completed 2 properties including the show home.

In addition, the team will shortly be completing the plumbing and heating on 72 new homes for Nottingham Community Housing Association called the Westleigh Developments, which consists of houses and flats. Our work includes installing air source heat pumps (renewable energy) and also the sanitary ware within all the properties.

We’ve also started work on a decent home refurbishment programme for Frank Haslam Milan Yorkshire & East Midlands based at Shiregreen, Sheffield.

This project will see Robert Prettie replace 300 kitchen and bathrooms as well as heating replacements in a 15 month contract.

Lastly, Baggaley & Jenkins are constructing a new police station for Yorkshire Police. We started work on this project in August and are due to complete December 2009. Robert Prettie is completing the mechanical services, ventilation and air conditioning.

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Property management Blackburn Rovers

Premiership painting At the time of writing Blackburn Rovers have just thumped Peterborough United (or the mighty POSH to their fans) 5-2 in the Carling Cup. The build-up to the game was dominated by an outbreak of swine flu in the Blackburn camp, but despite this Rovers were able to get back to winning ways with a strong finish to the game.

Some might argue that the grit, determination and focus of Blackburn’s team was down to manager Sam Allardyce’s inspirational team talks, others may say they were the favourites against POSH. Here at MITIE we like to think is has something to do with the premier painting work our specialists carried out at their senior training centre using the club’s main sponsors Crown Paints vibrant range of products.

Psychology plays a major role in modern day sport and the effect of a positive mental attitude can make all the difference between winning and losing – this goes a long way to explaining the lack of a British Wimbledon champion for so long and the English football team’s poor record at penalty shoot outs.

Someone who knows the power the mind can have on performance more than most is Big Sam himself, who is well known for his meticulous planning and willingness to explore any and every modern method to improve players’ performance and give them the competitive edge – one of which 32 buzz

strategic planning and briefings take place, we opted for a deeply intense shade of blue contrasted with a bright tangerine. These are colour ‘opposites’ which the brain finds complex to process together, and this should deliver an attentive and responsive audience.

We also used these colours in the changing rooms too, to stimulate and promote a feeling of energy.

Our team also painted the corridors leading to the changing rooms which presented a challenge due to the lack of natural daylight and the fluorescent lighting. Working with Crown’s colour specialist Kathryn Lloyd who selected a turquoise blue, which is perceived as a friendly colour, we managed to eliminate any glare from the fluorescent tubes, simply making it appear more intense and giving a really bright and airy feel. Working closely with the club and Crown Paints we also added the finishing touch to the dining room and chill-out zone.

Rovers’ Stadium Safety Manager, John Newsham, is fully committed to Big Sam’s drive to use any means at his disposal to enhance Blackburn’s performance. “This training ground is used by our players every day,” he said, “and the brighter colours and fresh new feel can only add to the team’s camaraderie and spirit”.

John has nothing but praise for MITIE

who took on the project with the tightest of deadlines. “We gave them only a very short time to complete the work,” he says, “Just two and a half weeks whilst the players were on their pre-season break, but they did everything we asked and have done a great job.”

On successful completion of the project, George Watson, Operations Manager for MITIE’s Property Management said: “We had to be extremely efficient and organised – there was no leeway on the deadline as we knew the players would soon be back, raring to go after their break! The project went really well and was fun to do.”

The feedback from the club’s management team has been really positive – let’s hope that by the time you’re reading this the club are still on the up!

being the power of colour. “I’m a firm believer in the power of colour to positively influence behaviour, and to help motivate and energise my players.”

With such a high profile project Crown Paints, who are a major supplier to our team, actually recommended our painting pioneers to carry out the creative project to enhance the club’s training facility and to boost the performance of the people using it. The club wanted to reflect the corporate colours while creating a welcoming atmosphere for players as soon as they walked through the doors.

The space also needed to fulfil the expectations of successful young sportsmen, making them want to spend more time at the centre relaxing together and bonding as a team after training sessions. However, some areas really needed to make people feel focussed and alert.

We used team colours to striking effect in the entrance lobby, and there are some bold combinations elsewhere.

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In July last year they decided to rationalise their London operations which were spread between 16-17 Connaught Place on the corner of London’s historic Hyde Park. The move saw the relocation of their people from the existing space in number 17 over to number 16, effectively taking sole occupancy of the building with the exception of the lower ground floor.

Before the move could take place the new space required a full Category A and B refurbishment. While the building’s landlord Connaught Unit Trust managed the refurbishment of their new space to a Category A standard, who better to turn to than MITIE’s award winning interiors specialists to manage the Category B fit-out?

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So what is the difference between Category A and Category B? Well, Category A is primarily creating an open plan environment with the fit-out typically including suspended ceilings, raised floors and the extension of mechanical and electrical services into the office area. Whereas Category B goes far beyond Category A, to complete the fit-out to the future occupier’s specific requirements, including partitioning to cellular offices, enhanced finishes, fittings and services to specialist areas, furniture and fittings and IT installations. This fit-out can also include modifications to shelland-core, and services installations to accommodate our customer’s spaceplanning and operational requirements.

Our interiors team pride themselves in working outside the comfort zone of conventional refurbishment contractors.

Over the years we’ve demonstrated time and time again that we have the ability, capability and confidence to undertake the most challenging of projects, and we regularly work with our clients to fit-out occupied buildings, restricted access sites and business critical areas with minimum disruption.

Completed in August 2009, over the 37 week project we fitted out over 40,000 sq ft of office space to the highest standard for Spencer Stuart’s needs; including the installation of fully glazed partition fronts with solid cross walls form cellular offices with acoustically rated sliding doors and contemporary workstation systems. Additionally, each floor contains a ‘Hub’ break-out zone which we created by using full height glass screens with decorative veneered and leather wrapped panels which wrap bespoke high gloss polyester units and stone work surfaces.

For the reception area we added basalt stone flooring leading to meeting and interview rooms on the ground floor.

The bespoke reception desk is a masterpiece clad in leather, steel and marble and sits in front of a chipped face limestone feature wall. We also

fitted out nine meeting rooms comprising of double glazed acoustically rated partitions with floating veneered and high gloss polyester panels. The cross walls were clad in a fabric wrapped panel system and all have integrated AV installations.

At the rear of the building at ground floor level, our specialists installed a commercial kitchen and servery, a dedicated pantry and beverage store to serve the meeting rooms. Not to mention showers on the first floor level to cater for commuting cyclists and lunchtime joggers.

Mechanically, we installed new drainage infrastructure and new air handling unit plus dedicated extract system put in to serve the kitchen.

Modifications to the base build cooling units to the upper floors were undertaken to suit the cellular office layout.

As no job is too big for us we even handled the electrical installations which required complex co-ordination with the existing services within the ceiling and floor voids. New LV distribution to all floors was introduced to provide under floor and high level power. Finally, fire alarm and security installations were integrated with the new building systems installed by the landlord.

The project was completed in time and on budget, and best of all our client was pleased too. “The fit out required the delivery of a first class project, with understanding that this building is in continuous occupation. I was impressed

by MITIE’s portfolio of previous work, which clearly demonstrated their ability as leaders in the interior fit out field.

We are delighted with the result.” said Sue Maundebaum.

As ever, our goal is to deliver quality projects without compromise; through partnering with our clients, our people have the highest standards and make sure we fit the bill every time.

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asset management

contract awards Our Asset Management division is carrying out the installation of the full mechanical and electrical and public health services for Vinci Construction, including taking on board design responsibility for a new Arts & Media building for Middlesex University’s existing campus at Hendon.

Also in the education sector, as part of the project with Derbyshire County Council Building Schools for the Future (BSF) to provide full facilities management services to 46 schools across the county, our energy specialists will be delivering small scale wind farms to help meet the carbon targets.

In addition, our energy team have secured an energy consultancy contract with BT to carry out energy performance surveys on 97 buildings delivering AC Inspections in line with new government legislation over a three month timeframe.

We have successfully entered into partnership with The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust. Our asset management specialists will be responsible for the design, build, operation and maintenance of a cost and carbon saving energy centre for the North London acute hospital.

In the government sector, we will be providing refurbishment works for HMP Lincoln. Here we will be supplying eight temporary containerised plant rooms to run the heating and domestics supplies to the main prison wings. We will then proceed to remove the antiquated steam system and renew with new main boiler plant and primary MTHW pipe work.

Our technology and infrastructure team initially secured a fit-out contract with Verizon to create a 200 square meter collocation room within their existing UK 4 data centre in Feltham.

However, during the detailed design

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phase we have extended the works needed to upgrade the critical power and cooling infrastructure to support this new area.

We have taken on projects at both Coworth Park and 45 Park Lane which are both part of the Dorchester Collection. At Coworth Park we are helping to convert the stables and cottages (while retaining some of the original features and external facades) into a 35 bed hotel with conference facilities and at 45 Park Lane we are creating 50 double deluxe rooms/penthouse.

Our specialists are responsible for the full mechanical, electrical and public health CAT A fit-out of the One Grafton Street development for Hines and Mace Plus which includes six floors of office accommodation, four retail units and a three bedroom residential apartment.

We’ve contract working for BAM Construction to install a GSHP system at Cambridge Lab of Molecular Biology providing base heating and cooling loads for the building, and have also won an installation contract with Birmingham City Council. The project is a community leisure and swimming pool complex which will incorporate a diving facility, a state-of-the-art leisure pool with rides and attractions, teaching pool, large fitness suite with exercise studios, saunas and steam rooms, an eight court sports hall, a two-storey climbing wall and four five-a-side pitches. The complex, which will utilise part of the existing NIA car park in Birmingham City Centre, will also house a crèche, a soft play area, a café, community meeting rooms and a community policing room.

Following the success of DalkiaFM’s mechanical and electrical contract for RBS’s Northern Commercial Portfolio, we successfully secured a five-year mechanical and electrical contract for

their Critical Sites within the South East Region which officially commenced in October.

After a successful record of service excellence for this large FM contract with Network Rail, our specialists were very pleased to agree the addition of a variety of facilities services starting throughout 2009.

Clarks Retail stores have a long standing history with DalkiaFM, with lighting services being provided for nearly 10 years. Leveraging from this solid relationship, we were delighted to be awarded the FM contract for Clarks’ commercial Head Office and Distribution Centre for three-years.

This five-year FM contract for Friends Provident commenced in October and is the biggest ‘joined up’ success since the recent acquisition, with services being delivered by our technical facilities management team.

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Asset Management MITIE and Primark set the trend

Over the past few years, Primark has reinvigorated the world of affordable fashion, becoming a firm favourite in the UK and Ireland and now growing its European operations as well. Since 1998, MITIE has been fitting out new stores as they open across the UK. Now, our engineers are helping them to retain their competitive edge in the low-carbon economy.

High fashion, low carbon

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As a customer, you take it for granted that a modern store will be warm, airy and well lit, so you can enjoy your shopping experience. David Harper and his engineering team specialise in designing and installing services to create that perfect retail environment, ensuring that the heating, lighting, and ventilation run smoothly behind the scenes. They have been working in at least one Primark store since 1998.

In that time, the affordable clothing chain has grown to over 27,500 employees, revenues in excess of £1.9bn, and 190 stores across Europe.

Retail is a fast-paced sector, and Primark has to move faster than most, to maintain its trendsetting reputation.

Our knowledge and experience of how the company operates means that we can mobilise quickly and deliver what’s required to meet the deadlines. Typical timescales on store developments have ranged from 12 to 16 weeks for complete design and build. MITIE’s 60th fit-out for the company was at Bristol Broadmead – at just under 100,000 square feet, the second largest store in their portfolio.

The design and costing phase was completed in four weeks, allowing just 24 weeks for installation – and the workmanship was described as “first class” by the main contractor on site.

Retailing today is driven by brand, by merchandise, by price and by word of mouth – or online gossip.

It’s competitive and volatile and, in recessionary times, there’s a constant battle to keep margins up and costs down. And now UK retailers face a whole new set of challenges as

government measures to cut carbon emissions start to bite. Big retailers like Primark have to participate in the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme – and their ranking in the league table will impact on profits as well as their reputation for sustainability.

Energy management can be difficult in retail buildings. Bright lighting, for example, makes the store attractive to passing trade, so lowering the light levels can also reduce footfall, as shoppers are drawn to other, more welcoming, shop fronts. If customers are too hot or cold, or the atmosphere is stuffy, they are likely to head for somewhere more comfortable. It takes creativity to get the balance right, in order to achieve the necessary cost, energy and carbon savings, while keeping management, staff and customers happy.

It’s great to be in a long-term relationship with a client like Primark, as we can develop and collaborate on ideas over time. Five years ago, we worked with them to adopt an alternative solution for back-of-house ventilation, using waste heat recovered from the sales areas. This not only reduced energy consumption, but was also cheaper to install. Then in 2007, we proposed a number of low-carbon engineering initiatives that made some really big inroads into energy use in the Derby store. Ventilation power consumption and heating loads in the sales areas came down by 40% and 30% respectively, heating pump power consumption by 80%, and gas consumption by 10%.

With results like this, we aim to create a model that can be rolled out across the whole estate, and are working with Primark to reduce heating and cooling demands still further, with even greater energy and carbon savings.

Now we are designing renewable energy into new stores, having just installed photovoltaic solar panels at the new Cambridge Primark, providing it with its own on-site source of renewable energy.

We’ve come a long way with Primark since our first project back in 1998.

Today, we are no longer just fitting out mechanical and electrical services.

We are using our expertise in low-carbon technologies and technical asset management to improve the energy performance of all Primark stores, as they go from strength to strength in the years ahead. So affordable fashion doesn’t have to carry a high carbon price.

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shiny new energy

Asset Management Waste-to-energy

“ Most waste is combustible – which means it is a potential fuel.”

The future of waste We are living in a wasteful world – and that has to change if we are to take back control of our business budgets and our vital resources. The sheer amount of waste we now generate is frightening and, in fact, at a business level it is also one of the most expensive problems any organisation has to deal with. Our traditional method of disposal is proving detrimental too. Sending waste to landfill only accelerates global weglobal-warming love changing warming through methane release, a gas which has a potential 21 dirty waste into times greater than that of carbon dioxide. The good news isenergy that smart engineering shiny new and new technologies can turn almost every kind of waste into a valuable asset – as valuable as oil or gas when it comes to generating energy and a lot kinder to the environment on the carbon count.

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“ It will save money on oil, gas or electricity bills, and each tonne processed has less than half the global warming effect of sending the same amount to landfill.”

The UK produces some 85 million tonnes of commercial and industrial waste every year. Most of it is still sent to landfill, costing public and private sector organisations up to £100 a tonne – a figure that is expected to increase by 10-18% over the next five years. It is, literally, a huge waste of money – and for years people have assumed that there is no other option.

This all changes if you consider waste not as an isolated problem to be loaded onto lorries and carted off site, but as an integral part of the opportunity to become more efficient on site. Most waste is combustible – which means it is a potential fuel. All that’s needed is the technology to convert the heat generated into useful energy for the site – or even sell to the local community.

The old way is turned on its head, as the liability (waste) becomes an asset (energy). It will save money on oil, gas or electricity bills, and each tonne processed has less than half the global warming effect of sending the same amount to landfill.

MITIE is an expert in the application of waste-to-energy technologies – it’s increasingly a key part of providing, integrating and managing energy and other technical assets in the built environment. There are many processes available, both thermal and non-thermal, including specialist approaches to dealing with hazardous waste, which can otherwise cost a massive £250-£800 per tonne to dispose of. Our engineers have the skills and experience to design systems that will meet the specific needs of each customer – whether that is high-grade heat, power or refrigeration.

we love changing dirty waste into shiny new energy

The Crown Estate have recognised the benefits of waste-to-energy and have asked MITIE to develop this process for potential use at an aquaculture site at the base of Ben Nevis.

After the salmon is harvested from the freshwater farms and sea sites around Scotland, it is sent to Fort William for processing. The fish is gutted and the waste transported off site at a significant cost. A waste-to-energy process could instead treat this waste in an advanced thermal plant, with the heat being converted for refrigeration which would be used to create ice slurry to transport the fish and flake ice to pack it.

“The waste-to-energy process can provide The Crown Estate with a sustainable, cost effective solution to fish waste. This service can potentially benefit our tenants and reduce waste from our marine estate in an environmentally friendly method.”

Roy Evans, Head of Development and Asset Management, The Crown Estate.

If viable at this site, this process would save the cost of sending waste to landfill and enable savings on gas and electricity consumption and carbon dioxide emissions. It will also make the site more sustainable and secure. MITIE are currently in the process of assessing the feasibility of the process, to ensure the scheme not only delivers financial benefits but also provides the fishery with the flexibility and efficiency to take a more competitive product to market.

Tests are currently ongoing to assess the calorific value of the waste, which will establish the potential energy content.

The Royal Free Hampstead NHS Trust is looking into more efficient means of converting its clinical waste into energy.

MITIE are investigating a thermal process to produce heat that can be pumped back into the hospital’s network. This would reduce heating costs and avoid the expensive gate fees of conventional clinical waste disposal.

“Waste-to-energy allows us to investigate ways that reduce our carbon impact, exceed challenging government targets and assist the trust plan for the increasing cost of weto love changing dirty waste into utilities which will become the norm of shiny new energy operating in a low carbon economy.” said a spokesman for the RFH. The knowledge and technical expertise of our specialists mean that we’re always looking at new ways to help our clients, people and ultimately the planet.

“ This process allows us to provide better ways of managing waste produced indirectly from our estate.”

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