Focus on the rising price of energy and the UK’s overarching commitment to reduce the emission of carbon has led to changes in performance of building facades, use of new building services technologies and a greater assurance of building post occupancy energy performance levels.
Crown House Technologies is actively responding to these challenges by designing and delivering products and systems which are both carbon efficient in manufacture and energy/carbon efficient in use. Environmental engineering is core to our business and offers us a range of opportunities to add exceptional value. Our building services approach enables us to focus on the component building services elements which are considered the fundamental building blocks to the delivery of a carbon, energy and water efficient facility. We have a wealth of experience in the design delivery and operation of low carbon and renewable technologies. Our engineering processes combine ‘Soft Landings’ with ‘Energy Efficient Performance’ (SLEEP). These clearly map environmental delivery points throughout the project duration by all key stakeholders.
We carry out environmental audits on all our commodity products and allocate equal weighting in our selection processes with comparison of value for money and quality metrics. The assessment of embodied carbon levels of HVAC products are key.
Our key areas of environmental delivery include:-
Pre Launch Environmental Review: At the earliest conception point of a project, we undertake a series of environmental focus meetings. The attendance of all stakeholders is a critical element to their success, as they provide a detailed Environmental Impact Assessment, and are the forum for the agreement of targets, and the establishment of a level of environmental ownership across the project team. These sessions give the opportunity to set out critical key performance indicators in connection with the services installation.
Reality checking: Part of our project engagement includes a series of ‘reality checking’ workshops, to assess a building system from the perspective of its operational outcome. By carrying out a holistic review at key stages of every project, any erosion of key environmental deliverable items can be analysed and addressed. This process ensures that all targets set at the inception of the project are not valued engineered or removed.
Red Flagging: Value engineering exercises can often inadvertently eradicate highly sustainable solutions outlined at initial design stage. In order to prevent this from happening, certain environmental requirements of the building services design are prioritised and ‘red flagged’. Once an item has been red flagged, director level approval is required to make any changes to it.
Benchmarking: Each environmental key performance indicator is checked and benchmarked at regular time periods throughout projects design, installation and post occupancy periods.
Post Occupancy Energy Management
CHt’s delivery capability has now broadened to include a smart energy platform which manages building energy performance through a dedicated web-based portal. This provides instant data metrics on energy activity, analysis, and powerful diagnosis tools to prevent environmental wastage. A user friendly dashboard is easily accessible and allows the users to address energy issues quickly and efficiently.
A dedicated central environmental team supports our clients in the understanding of energy and carbon management. Collection of this data assists in our understanding of energy, carbon, and water ‘in use’ metrics for all of our delivered buildings together with providing a service to key client’s estate management.