Resource Efficiency Centre News and Events
New Sustainable Energy Grant for Lancashire Businesses
Holiday Inn Preston, 9th September 10.30am.On 9th September, the REC project will host a lunchtime workshop for Lancashire based SMEs wishing to know more about sustainable energy sources, energy efficiency and waste minimisation.
One of the highlights of the event will be a presentation by Andrew Swarbrick of Lancashire County Developments Limited, who will be announcing details of the forthcoming Lancashire Small Scale Renewables (LSSR) Scheme. This will be a simple, accessible capital grant for companies wishing to install sustainable energy systems such as solar water heating, biomass burners, ground source heat pumps, wind turbines and similar technologies.
The event, which features a buffet lunch, will be held at the Holiday Inn Preston between 10.30 am and 1.00pm and it is free of charge to attend. The speakers will include:
- Andrew Swarbrick, Lancashire County Council: the new LSSR grant scheme
- Mike Ingoldby, Bowland Bioenergy: the financial and environmental benefits of wood fuel
- David Stowe, TEG Environmental: the company's new food waste collection and recycling service
- Phil Leedal, Lee Engineering: saving money with energy efficient lighting systems
- Jon Price, LA Serve: the new REC Directory - an online listing of environmental technology suppliers in Lancashire.
Places at the event are limited so anyone wishing to attend should book their place by contacting Dawn Chadwick on 01925 273270 or by emailing her at: dawn@nimtech.org.uk.
Directions to the Holiday Inn Preston can be found here.
Green Light for the SPACE Centre
A new, highly advanced lighting system is helping a Preston based charity to enhance the facilities available within its multi-sensory activity area whilst also making substantial cost savings through greatly improved energy efficiency.
Run by the registered charity, the Friends of the Willows, the SPACE Centre* on Pedders Lane in Preston is one of the largest multi-sensory rooms in the country. A soft padded play area with sophisticated lighting and audio-visual facilities, it provides many forms of sensory stimulation and is ideal for helping those with learning and / or emotional difficulties to develop skills and to enjoy experiences usually unavailable to them.
The centre’s extensive use of lighting systems had previously resulted in a high demand for energy – a total power draw of around 20kW for the lights alone – most of which was subsequently lost in the form of waste heat. Moreover, the combination of warm lamps and the padding within the rooms often produced very high room temperatures, which had to be offset by running the air conditioning system near to full capacity.
The centre’s managers decided that a new solution was required that would provide more control and interactivity while also being far more environmentally sustainable. They began by contacting the Lancaster based audio-visual specialist, Lee Engineering, a company with a well established track record in the design of low energy lighting systems and projects for people with special needs.
Following a series of visits to the centre, designer Ian Nelson produced a detailed specification for a bespoke AV package that combined high performance LED lighting, video and sound equipment with a user-friendly computer based interface. The system also included voice activated controls and special features such as a set of musical steps, which play different notes as the user moves over them.
“It’s a very versatile but easy to use system,” says Ian. “At the touch of a button, the soft play area can be transformed from the bottom of a Caribbean coral reef to the far reaches of outer space. We’ve got sound effects when people use the slide, firework effects on the walls, and microphones that allow visitors to change the music and lighting just by using their voice.”
The system was completed in February 2008 and in the first quarter since its installation it has enabled the owners to slash their utility bills. The new set-up has many more lights and lighting effects than before but the total power draw is now only 5kW – a 75% energy saving. Not only has the cost of running the lighting fallen very dramatically, but waste heat has also been minimised so the air conditioning system does not have to be kept running in order to deal with it. As a result, the centre’s operating costs and environmental footprint have both been reduced by a significant margin.
In addition to being able to conserve valuable funds, centre manager Alison Shorrock has seen a marked improvement in the quality of the centre’s facilities. She said: “The colours are far more vibrant than before and the new system is easy to control by means of a touch-screen panel. That gives us scope to do much more. We can blend music, video and sound, and we can set different colour schemes for the various zones to suit different therapeutic purposes. It gives us the ability to set the scene, just as you would in a theatre, creating atmospheres that are wild and lively or calm and relaxing – whatever is most appropriate for the particular sessions and objectives.”
The versatility of the new technology means that the SPACE centre can be adapted to suit the needs of people with many different special needs, from those with cerebral palsy to adults with challenging behaviours.
The centre's new facilities have gone down very well with visitors and Alison reports that SPACE is in such demand that there are plans to raise new funds that would allow the team to move to larger premises with several multi sensory rooms. It will take time to raise the necessary finances, but Alison and her colleagues will certainly be taking the new lighting system with them when they move.
Lee Engineering is a partner on the Resource Efficiency Centre.
ENDS
Notes:
* SPACE is an acronym for “Soft Play Area with Controllable Environment”.Items of equipment used in the installation project included:
- Lumidrive and Thomas LED lighting
- Sanyo Video projection
- BiAmp Systems Nexia DSP
- DF Solutions Idylserver multimedia server
- Cue IPCue Delta system controller
- Cue TouchCue LV touchscreen
- Kramer VP727 scaler / matrix video switcher
- Ecler amplification
- Bose speakers
- Pharos LPC lighting controller and SoundBeam
Environmental Experts Indicate Savings Potential
On Tuesday 22nd January 2008, representatives of some of the region’s leading environmental organisations came to the Solaris Centre on the South Shore Promenade in Blackpool to address an audience of local hoteliers.
Amongst the speakers were Shirley Newman of UCLan's Centre for Waste Management and Cllr Granville Heap, deputy portfolio holder for Tourism and Regeneration. Cllr Heap presented several businesses with framed certificates to acknowledge their participation in a research project carried out by the North West Centre for Waste Management and EMPRISE Blackpool.
The project examined the feasibility of collecting and recycling food trade waste. Some of the most promising options now under consideration include recycling it into compost or feeding it into anaerobic digesters which produce methane that can be burned as a source of renewable energy.
Avril Banks of the National Industrial Symbiosis Programme (NISP) then spoke about her organisation’s role in finding uses for waste materials. She said that the issue of waste was of growing importance and that businesses should do more to think about the many forms of waste they produce. In addition to energy and waste materials, many companies also incur unnecessary expenditure on transport costs, water, packaging and food, and they could be reducing their waste collection bills by looking at alternatives to the disposal of larger items such as furniture and carpets.
The final session explained the free support that is available to hoteliers and guest house owners from the Resource Efficiency Centre. This featured a case study presentation by Claire Smith of the Number One Hotel, who said that the REC project’s assistance had been invaluable in identifying effective ways of minimising waste and improving energy efficiency. Introducing new technologies like solar water heaters, new condensing boilers, low energy lighting and reflective double glazing had, she said, been “absolutely worthwhile”.
Claire explained that these and other measures had improved energy efficiency at the hotel by an average of 37% and that this had produced immediate and significant savings. “It’s wonderful,” she said. “You can see the money going back into the bank account.”
Nimtech’s sustainability consultant, Ian Buckle concluded the event with a presentation about the financial and environmental benefits of energy efficiency and waste minimisation. He said that through a recent benchmarking exercise, he had found an immense difference in the energy costs incurred by apparently similar tourism businesses. He calculated that some local hotels were paying up to eight times as much to heat their rooms as other, more energy efficient establishments – a difference that amounted to thousands of pounds every year. He said that such high costs were entirely avoidable and could easily be reduced through energy awareness and by implementing controls that often cost nothing at all to introduce.
Advisors Commend Blackpool Hilton
Environmental advisers working on Blackpool Council’s Resource Efficiency Centre (REC) project have commended the Blackpool Hilton for the example it is setting in improving the sustainability of its operations.
In recognition of the impressive range of measures that the hotel has put in place to improve efficiency and minimise waste, REC project adviser David Bowker and Steven Hayes of the EU funded EMPRISE Blackpool project presented Chief Engineer Brian Jones with a commemorative certificate.
“Brian has been a long standing supporter of the various environmental programmes that we have managed in Blackpool over the last few years,” said David Bowker, MD of project partners NIMTECH. “He worked alongside us on the Green Tourism Awards to promote environmental best practice to the local tourism industry and he has put in place an extraordinary range of energy saving measures here at the Hilton hotel. He’s an excellent advocate for environmental responsibility and his work illustrates very clearly how keen awareness, attention to detail and simple, inexpensive actions can produce tremendous cost savings and improvements in performance.”
The Blackpool Hilton has also engaged with the EMPRISE Blackpool project, which seeks to create employment opportunities for local people through the delivery of environmentally beneficial services such as tree planting and trade waste recycling. The hotel uses its services to recycle cardboard, paper, glass, metal and other materials.
“The Blackpool Hilton adopted our services very early on,” said EMPRISE project co-ordinator Steven Hayes. “Working with such a large customer so early in our development played a really important role in helping to make the project commercially self sustaining, so David and I are very pleased to be able to present this certificate as a token of our appreciation.
“By supporting the programme, the Hilton is helping to create training and employment opportunities for local people, which is what the EMPRISE Blackpool project is all about. We’re now collecting and recycling something in the region of forty tonnes of waste every week and we’ve already helped fifty people towards employment.”
Other organisations, too, have acknowledged the time and resources that has been invested by the Blackpool Hilton to improve its efficiency and environmental responsibility. For example, the North West Strategic Health Authority (NHS North West) has chosen the hotel as the venue for its Sustainable Development Summit (Friday 14th December), and a key reason for this decision has been the Hilton’s impressive environmental performance.
Explaining its choice of venue, NHS North West lists some of the benefits of selecting the Hilton Group. Amongst others, these include:
- 100% of the electricity used in every Hilton hotel and office comes from renewable sources.
- Its commitment to incorporating environmental management into everyday business practice.
- Its commitment to measuring performance and setting improvement targets.
- Its work with employees, suppliers, contractors and partners to minimise impact on the environmental and the local community.
- Holding a Green Tourism Award for sustainability.
Some of the many individual energy and waste saving measures that Brian Jones and his team have introduced in Blackpool are listed on the Green Tourism Awards website.
New Website Offers Sustainability Advice for Hotels
Ian Buckle, a sustainability consultant working on the REC project, has launched Sustainable Hotel, a new website that provides advice and support for companies working in the hospitality industry.
In addition to an extensive list of hints and tips for improving energy efficiency, water use and waste management, the Sustainable Hotel website also provides information about free environmental reviews, developing environmental policy statements, business benchmarking and many other valuable resources.
Number One Hotel Demonstrates Sustainable Technologies
The recently opened Number One Hotel on Blackpool's South Shore features an extensive range of environmental technologies that have been installed following advice and recommendations from staff working at the Resource Efficiency Centre.
Business partners Mark Smith and Graham Oxley are no strangers to environmental support projects and have previously participated in the Blue Sky Resort Network, the Green Tourism Awards and similar schemes. So when the time came to plan their £1 million redevelopment, they approached REC project advisers to see how best to achieve a speedy return on their investment.
Listening to good advice has clearly paid off for the pair, who have created a highly impressive establishment that is surely set to become one of the town's most prestigious venues. On 14th September, just a week ahead of the hotel's official opening, REC project staff were given an exclusive tour of the premises, and witnessed for themselves just how and where the money has been spent.
Environmentally sustainable technologies have clearly featured heavily; indeed, the inventory of energy saving products employed within the Number One reads like a government check-list of recommendations for businesses looking to minimise their carbon footprint.
For heat conservation, guided by project partners Landmark Environmental, the hotel has installed mineral wool cavity wall insulation in all exterior walls, 270mm of loft insulation to current building regulations, draught-proofing and double glazing throughout, using Planitherm® energy saving glass from SGG. Down in the basement, new condensing gas boilers and a pressurised system are able to achieve up to 98% fuel efficiency, while an impressive 38% of the water heating bills can be saved by the use of eight roof-top solar water heaters that make maximum use of whatever sunlight Blackpool is fortunate enough to receive.
Inside the building, low energy lighting has been fitted throughout - a combination of conventional compact fluorescent bulbs, LEDs and low energy halogen lamps. Power consumption is further reduced by the use of passive infra-red detectors in bathrooms and WCs, which ensure that lights cannot be left on when the rooms are unoccupied.
Much the same principle is applied to the electricity supply in every guest room, which must be activated using a key card system. The power is switched on when guests use the key to enter and it is turned off again when they lock the door on their way out. Consequently, there is no chance of televisions being left on stand-by when rooms are empty; no prospect of lights or appliances being left turned on while guests are out enjoying the attractions of the town.
Water, too, is carefully controlled. All rooms have showers and these, like the taps over the basins, have special nozzles that produce a fine spray; ideal for both washing and preventing excessive flow. WCs are modern dual-flush "Daze" systems while waterless urinals have been installed in the public toilets, and the appliances used for laundry are all A-rated for energy and water use.
Wherever possible, the partners have chosen local contractors and distributors as a further attempt to minimise the carbon cost of the redevelopment.
Happily, the project appears to be a great success. Quality being favoured over quantity, 10 rooms now take the place of the original 23, and another 4 new rooms have been built on the top floor. As a result, the guest areas are now much more spacious than before and they are very well appointed with features such as flat-screen televisions, plush bathroom suites and programmable lighting controls.
As a result of this investment, the Number One Hotel is now almost certainly one of the most energy efficient hotels in the North West, if not the whole of the UK. And while it is undoubtedly true that sustainable products could only have been incorporated to such an extent because the building was being so thoroughly restructured, their use has made sound business sense: the technology is highly efficient and expected to yield a very fast and substantial payback.
It is also true that, taken as a whole, the various systems have helped to create an impression of quality and modernity. The Number One Hotel is attracting healthy levels of trade and now stands as one of the region's foremost examples of sustainability and forward-looking entrepreneurship.
Suppliers & Contractors:
- Lighting: Frank O'Mahony, Fylde Electrical Wholesale, tel. 01253-404210.
- Lighting manufacturer: GET plc.
- Cavity wall insulation: Millfold Group Limited.
- Glass supplier: Celplas PVC Limited.
- Glazing manufacturer: SGG
- Heating & solar water heating: Parker Plumbing & Heating Services & Geothermal Installations Limited.
- Heating & solar water heating systems (manufacturer): Wolf Heating UK Limited, tel. 01606 354374.
- Water fittings: Bright Water Environmental.
- WCs & sanitary ware: Eric Granger, Bathroom Style, tel. 01253 403040.
REC Project Supports NW Charities
On September 4th, Nimtech environmental consultant Ian Buckle gave a presentation about the Resource Efficiency Centre programme to representatives of Lancashire based charities and social enterprises. The energy efficiency workshop took place at the GHS Centre in Preston - itself a registered charity and popular community centre.
Ian described the many services provided through the programme and illustrated how it can help not-for-profit organisations to reduce costs and improve public awareness while simultaneously enhancing their environmental performance. Subjects covered during the event included - amongst other issues - advice about reducing energy consumption, introducing an environmental policy statement and the availability of financial assistance from public sector sources such as the Carbon Trust and the DTI Low Carbon Buildings programme.
Charities and social enterprises operating in eligible parts of the North West are invited to contact REC project staff with a view to arranging a free site visit.
Ian's PowerPoint presentation can be downloaded here. (245 KB).
Free Insulation Surveys
Project partner, Landmark Environmental, is offering eligible businesses a free survey to examine their current use and need of insulation, including cavity wall and roof insulation as well as draught-proofing measures.
Having the proper insulation in a property can markedly reduce heating bills (and air conditioning bills in the summer months) and often represents one of the most cost effective steps that a business can take to minimise costs while improving sustainability.
In some cases, government grants are also available to help offset the costs of installation. Project advisors will be able to provide more specific information.
Seeking Feedback from Business
From April 2007, the Resource Efficiency Centre project team will be visiting SME businesses in North and Western Lancashire to discuss their current situations and their requirements in terms of support, information and advice.
As part of this process, advisors will be visiting individual businesses and organising small group events and workshops. These will take place across the county in areas including Blackpool, Skelmersdale, Preston and Lancaster.
Any eligible companies wishing to take part on the project and to obtain free advice and assistance is invited to contact the project office to request a site visit.
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