Tag: sustainability

Directors speak to GCU and university students

Written by Robert Ainslie on February 15, 2024. Posted in news.

Thomas Brady and Michael Gribben speak to Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) as former students about lessons learned and their recent success

Alumnus of Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) Thomas Brady and Michael Gribben spoke to the university and its students about xburo and their early careers.

The pair shared some insights into what it meant to study at GCU and what has driven them to succeed in their sector.

Recently named Best Small Consultancy of the Year at the Consultancy and Engineering Award 2023, the directors spoke to GCU about xburo’s offering as expert mechanical, electrical and sustainability experts with offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London and a reach across Scotland and the UK. The company also has an international connection with an Australian-arm based in Brisbane and Cairns.

Q&A – With Thomas Brady & Michael Gribben

How did your career start?

“My career started as a 16-year old, as an apprentice and I graduated from Glasgow Caledonian University in 1998. When I started off we were told it’s an industry where if you put the drive and commitment into it, you will succeed. It’s like everything else in life. The more you put in, the more you get out.

“And did I see myself being director of an engineering company, doing what I do now? Probably not. But at the end of the day, its like everything else. If you have the commitment and you put the focus into what you’re doing, then the world is your oyster. And it can be a fantastically rewarding career.” – Thomas Brady

Why did you choose to study at GCU?

“GCU has a really good reputation for the built environment long before I thought about going there. I always wanted to build something and contribute something to the built environment through creating something. I probably didn’t appreciate how important it was when I chose to go to GCU and I certainly couldn’t be where I am today without it, and having that strong knowledge of both mechanical and electrical systems.” – Michael Gribben

Any advice for GCU engineering graduates?

“Within industry, there is always numerous challenges and one of my main takeaways from being at university was how you approach a challenge. Every engineer will make mistakes. No one is immune to making mistakes. But the measure of a good engineer is how you respond to the mistake and how you come up with a solution because people will always remember how you did that.” – Thomas Brady.

“It’s important to recognise that there is a series of milestones and building blocks that you have got to achieve. What you have achieved at GCU is this wonderful foundation. What you’ve actually come away with is an understanding of how this works, how to write reports, how to communicate, and its all very important skills. But just enjoy what you do, be a sponge, soak it all up and learn all the time and you will move very quickly.” – Michael Gribben.

Designs progress near Edinburgh’s A-listed historic Gogar Castle

Written by Robert Ainslie on February 1, 2024. Posted in news.

Contemporary home near Gogar Castle moves to next stage

In The News: Architects, Block Nine Architects, are to progress its technical designs for a new high-end contemporary two-storey dwelling near Edinburgh’s A-listed historic Gogar Castle.

xburo provided its expert services:

🟢 Energy and sustainability services to set the low energy, low carbon solution for the project that will feature ground source heat pumps, PV and integrated battery and thermal storage to deliver a low energy dwelling fit for the future and the move to Net Zero.

🟢 As part of the definition of the strategy the team carried our detailed dynamic simulation modelling to design out overheating risk while working within a highly performing thermal envelope.

The MEP team will also deliver the detailed design input as we move into the construction stage of the project.

The project is currently at technical design stages, with an anticipated start on site in the spring of 2024. The consultancy team includes architects from Block Nine Architects, structural engineering Calum Benett Engineering Ltd., planning consultant JLL and xburo.

We will keep you posted on progress.

If you want to commission our services in Mechanical, Electrical and Public Health (MEPH) and Energy and Sustainability, please contact one of the team or email admin@xburo.co.uk

Scottish Building Standards to come into force

Written by Robert Ainslie on February 1, 2024. Posted in news.

Proposed changes to Building Standards: xburo briefing available

The Scottish Government has published proposed changes to the Scottish Building Standards that will come into force on the 1st of April 2024.

With heating and powering buildings currently accounting for 40% of the UK’s total energy usage – a figure that must be significantly reduced to achieve the goal of net zero emissions by 2045 – our Director Sarah Peterson – has prepared a full briefing document for clients and stakeholders to help explain the regulations, actions that need to be taken and exclusions to the new laws coming into force.

The paper includes Key Points:

🟢 No Gas heating systems permissible in all new buildings from 1st April 2024
🟢 Heat Pumps likely to be main solution with direct electric unlikely to pass the required energy reduction metrics
🟢 Energy becomes the key metric of pass rather than carbon
🟢 Carbon metric will still be used for EPCs (currently under consultation)
🟢 New requirements for Conversions will likely require upgrade and replacement of heating systems.

You can get a full detailed copy of our briefing and expert advice by contacting:

Sarah Peterson directly on sarahpeterson@xburo.co.uk

Scottish Building Standards to come into force

We are the Best Small UK Consultancy

Written by Robert Ainslie on January 25, 2024. Posted in news.

Xburo is named Best Small UK Consultancy at the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE)

xburo has won the Best Small UK Consultancy at the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE).

Winner of the Best UK Consultancy, xburo received the coveted accolade at an award ceremony held at the Leonardo Royal London Tower Bridge Hotel which was attended by hundreds of guests from the world of engineering and the built environment.

The ACE Awards celebrates the outstanding achievements within the industry, championing the best in the business, projects that excel and recognises companies from the world of engineering consultancy and the built environment.

xburo was shortlisted within the Best UK Consultancy (small) alongside nominees including: Aegaea Limited; M-EC Development Technical Consultants; and Rybka.

xburo’s Director Sarah Peterson, said: “To win the Best Small UK Consultancy at The Association of Consultancy and Engineering Awards (ACE) is a phenomenal achievement for xburo and the team. It is an honour to be recognised alongside our peers, by ACE, a leading industry body, and among leading companies. This award recognises the achievements of teams of engineers and energy experts as we continue to scale in growth and our in expert delivery as we help clients to achieve their ambitions, particularly as they navigate the route to net zero.”

Xburo Director, Thomas Brady, added: “Winner of the Best UK Consultancy is an outstanding accolade to be given by an industry body that recognises best practice. To be named amongst leading companies, our peers and innovators driving engineering and sustainability is testimony to the work that xburo delivers for its clients by our teams of experts. Congratulations to the team as we continue to do what we do best; bringing expertise, excellence and experience to those we work for and with.”

xburo, led by Michael A Gribben and Thomas Brady, grew the business in 2023 to deliver £500+million in transactional and construction value – scaling up with offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London. A number of strategic appointments including the addition of Director Sarah Peterson, who heads up the sustainability-arm to drive energy and sustainability, has been a key addition to help clients on the journey to net zero as well as a number of other recruits to bolster operations.

xburo has also been nominated for the Best UK Consultancy of the year at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards next month.

Ocean Terminal regeneration

Written by Robert Ainslie on January 11, 2024. Posted in news. No Comments on Ocean Terminal regeneration

Approval for Ocean Terminal regeneration project unanimous

2024 is off to a flying start with the approval of the regeneration of Ocean Terminal.

This week, Edinburgh City Council gave unanimous approval of this major redevelopment of Ocean Terminal at Leith Waterfront.

Plans are to develop a sustainable new neighbourhood on Leith’s waterfront with the provision of 530 new homes as well as community amenities including health and leisure facilities.

This £250million investment in Leith’s waterfront is expected to retain and create 600 local jobs as well as the potential for more through this sizeable investment.

xburo undertook detailed energy and thermal modelling of the centre and proposed new high-rise buildings to determine the energy requirements and set a pathway to achieve a low carbon solution, with a dedicated team of our mechanical, electrical and sustainability engineers allocated to deliver this sizeable project.

Technical challenges include the removal of a sizeable portion of the existing centre and the impact this had upon services and infrastructure. For the residential tower blocks, we assisted in the internal space planning to maximise the efficiency number of units and developed a robust energy strategy to futureproof the development in the move to Net Zero.

We have now completed to RIBA Stage 2 with the next steps for xburo to proceed to RIBA Stage 3 design along with the rest of the design team and to continue to put sustainability at the centre of our designs.

xburo Director said: “Congratulations to Ambassador Investment Management and the teams involved in bringing this substantial investment to the city and the people of Leith. We look forward to continuing to bring our sustainable engineering solutions to the next phase of Ocean Terminal’s journey as it now advances with its development that places local living, connectivity, mixed-tenure living and sustainability at the heart of Ocean Terminal.”

xburo celebrates a successful year

Written by Robert Ainslie on December 18, 2023. Posted in news. No Comments on xburo celebrates a successful year

Plans to scale up in 2024 as business strengthens

In 2023, we entered our 5th successful year, building on our company’s growth.

Our team will have a well- earned rest as the office will close from Friday 22nd to Monday 8th of January in recognition of all their outstanding work, and to say thank you we are giving them a few extra days holidays. Tom and Michael however, will still be available. As we reflect on the year past and celebrate our achievements, looking back, it wasn’t just engineering:

Here’s just some of what we got up to:

Director Sarah Peterson joined to head up our sustainability-arm and Edinburgh office and to strategically drive energy and sustainability for clients on the journey to net zero;

Scaled up as we continued to win new business and service clients with our expanding and developing team – welcoming new team members Jack, Kehinde, Maxmore, Liam, Josh and Joe – with some new recruits starting in 2024;

We grew our business to deliver £500million plus+ in transactional and construction values – scaling up our offices in Edinburgh, Glasgow and London;

Supported @Glasgow Caledonian University at the annual Celebration of The School of Computing, Engineering and Built Environment with sponsorship of the best level 3 student Craig Minto. This was xburo’s first move into university sponsorship and it was great to be a part of this as we look forward to continuing this partnership and sponsorship of our next student;

Expanded our sponsored programme by adding amateur golfer and Clydeview Academy pupil Jayla Kepler to our pool of talented sportspeople. Jayla joined Megan Docherty, who was our first sponsored golfer with a three-year deal. Megan continued to excel in America, relocating to Rollins College in Florida. We also supported community youth football.

On the home front, we witnessed Scotland retain the Calcutta Cup with a victorious win at Rugby HQ against England in the Six Nations;

Rebranded xburo with a new look and refreshed website to highlight our project work – thanks to the talents of our designers and marketeers;

Held our annual golf event – an event like no other – at Turnberry, producing a sequel blockbuster on the back of a wonderful day of golf. Making the final cut were Kenny Campbell and his socks, Mat Beckett, who played like a bandit and Chris Richardson, our first place winners. Nearest the pin and not too camera shy was Kenneth Wright, longest drive went to Kenny Campbell and unfortunately it wasn’t Stephen Rudd’s day, but there is always next year.

Antony got married and babies were made, Ian naming his son after his favourite boss – Thomas Brady;

We have some massive refurbishment projects starting in the New Year – at Coulport, we will be undertaking sustainable infrastructure and general refurbishment works as well as a massive win for NHS in the centre of Scotland.

Finally, we finished off the year with not just one but two nominations ahead of 2024.

xburo was shortlisted for best small UK Consultancy at The Association of Consultancy and Engineering Awards (ACE);

Nominated for the Best UK Consultancy of the Year at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards 2024.

Our year was so busy that our five year drinks will now be our 5 and a half year drinks in Spring. As we enter our 6th year of xburo, we look back on our achievements, our lessons learned and our ambitions.

In 2024 we will continue to scale up to deliver our expertise. Thanks to everyone who has been on the journey with us and to those who have worked with us, past and present, and to our clients who rely on our expertise to deliver their projects.

To all our clients, friends and followers, we wish you a Merry Christmas and a prosperous New Year.

NOMINATION FOR BEST UK CONSULTANCY!

Written by Robert Ainslie on November 15, 2023. Posted in news.

xburo is shortlisted for Building Performance Consultancy of the Year

Tomorrow, the xburo team head down to London to attend the CIBSE Building Performance Awards.

This event will bring together industry experts to celebrate the best people, projects and companies from the world of engineering and the built environment – and xburo is among the nominees.

On the back of xburo being named Best Small UK Consultancy at the Association of Consultancy and Engineering (ACE), we are back in London for another award ceremony.

This time we have been shortlisted for Building Performance Consultancy (up to 50 employees) at the CIBSE Building Performance Awards 2024.

This nomination recognises xburo’s work in energy efficiency and the operation of buildings where we have demonstrated an outstanding contribution to delivering buildings that have high levels of measured building performance and user satisfaction through its operating life.

xburo is named alongside 13 other engineering practices from throughout the UK, recognising initiatives that use energy efficient operation and design to achieve net zero targets.

Sarah Peterson, Director of xburo, said: “To be recognised in providing solutions in building performance is credit to the work of the team and the projects which we deliver. Good luck to all those nominated within Consultancy of the Year, it’s an honour to be once again recognised for our achievements as we continue to scale up and deliver for our clients.”

CIBSE is The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers – the professional body that exists to advance and promote the art, science and practice of building services engineering.

To find out more: https://www.cibse.org/what-s-on/cibse-building-performance-awards-2024

To find out more about the awards, go to https://www.cibse.org/what-s-on/cibse-building-performance-awards-2024

xburo goes behind the scenes

Written by Robert Ainslie on October 18, 2023. Posted in news. No Comments on xburo goes behind the scenes

New look unveiled by xburo and the team

Not just engineers, our experts in Mechanical, Electrical and Energy engineers rolled the camera recently to capture behind the scenes.

We will be unveiling a number of projects that we have worked on as we continue to grow in numbers, locations and in the marketplace.

Thank you to our partners who allowed us access and accommodated our requests.

We are engineers who love an excel spreadsheet, we love a challenge, and we love to problem solve.

In the first of a series of videos that showcase our work, please see our work highlighted on a number of our large projects including: Ocean Terminal, Edinburgh; Edinburgh Quay, Waverley Gate, Edinburgh, Duart House, Bellshill, Ink Building, Glasgow, Boclair Academy, Glasgow and the Golden Jubilee Conference Hotel.

The ESOS audit is designed to identify tailored and cost-effective measures to allow participating businesses to save energy and achieve carbon and cost savings. The audit costs are estimated to be significantly outweighed by the savings from implementing the recommendations.

ESOS Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme Help Available

Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)

Written by Robert Ainslie on October 13, 2023. Posted in news. No Comments on Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS)

ESOS Applications Deadline

The compliance date for Energy Savings Compliance Scheme (ESOS) Phase 3 have been extended from December 2023 to June 5, 2024.

ESOS may still present a challenge for those who have not yet started their application and now have to include further information including consideration of its net zero journey.

Director and accredited low carbon energy assessor, Sarah Peterson, is driving the route to net zero and sustainability for xburo and our clients.

Sarah, and her team, will be able to assist you if you would like more information on the requirements or to speak to one of our ESOS Assessors at xburo.

ESOS is a mandatory energy assessment scheme for organisations in the UK that meet the qualification criteria; the Environment Agency is the UK scheme administrator.

Organisations that qualify for ESOS must carry out ESOS assessments every four years where assessments are audits of the energy used by buildings, industrial processes and transport.

Sustainability and the drive to net zero are led by Director Sarah Peterson and are embedded in the approach of all our engineering experts throughout xburo as we help clients to navigate in the race to achieving net zero.

Decarbonisation scheme

Written by Robert Ainslie on October 10, 2023. Posted in news. No Comments on Decarbonisation scheme

Applications for funding open Phase 3c of public sector

Applications for funding open today under Phase 3c of the Public Sector Decarbonisation Scheme.

The scheme has £230m of grants available to fund heat decarbonisation and energy efficiency measures for public sector bodies.

The application window is open for 10 days or until sufficient applications are received.

Funding is first-come, first-served so applications need to be detailed and demonstrate significant improvements that can be made to building stock.

xburo can support your application with this and other low carbon funding opportunities with decarbonisation feasibility studies and design solutions including the use of digital twin modelling to test and appraise options.

The use of dynamic digital twin models allows us to make informed and accurate decisions and sets out a detailed and manageable route to Net Zero.

Get in touch with the team or follow the link below to find out more about the scheme.

https://www.salixfinance.co.uk/schemes/phase-3c-public-sector-decarbonisation-scheme

x marks the spot

Written by Robert Ainslie on October 5, 2023. Posted in news. No Comments on x marks the spot

xburo rebrands and launches a new look

Not just Engineers, we have been working behind the scenes on our new branding, positioning in the marketplace, and a new website to complete our new look.

We have rolled out the cameras to capture behind the scenes – plant rooms and boiler rooms – places that you don’t see that make the mechanics of a building work for our clients, their users and a sustainable future.

As experts in Mechanical, Electrical and Energy Engineers, our teams work to solve complex problems and are navigating the route to net zero and a sustainable future through design and a focus on testing and commissioning.

Our building blocks are Expertise, Excellence and Experience for our company and our people. You can read about our latest works in our case studies, watch videos as we go underneath the inner workings of a building as well as seeing a bird’s eye view from the rooftops.

Our teams of senior engineers deliver a bespoke service working in the spheres of healthcare, defence, commercial, residential, education, logistics and transport in partnership with multiple stakeholders from our offices in Glasgow, Edinburgh and London.

Nabers Accreditation Achieved

Written by Robert Ainslie on September 28, 2023. Posted in news. No Comments on Nabers Accreditation Achieved

Anna Brown, Nabers Accreditation

Congratulations to our Energy and Sustainability Engineer Anna Brown for successfully achieving Nabers Accreditation.

Nabers assesses the operational energy efficiency of UK offices and will play a vital role in bridging the performance gap between the design and in-use energy performance.

The ratings can be used to demonstrate whether offices are on a net zero carbon trajectory and provide investors and occupiers with the confidence that the buildings they own and occupy are aligned with their climate change ambitions.

Our team of energy and sustainability experts can assist in setting up an energy strategy for your project from the outset. We carry out full route to compliance reviews and options appraisals to assist in planning and building warrant submissions.

We include for the impact of future energy and regulations trends as well as the provision of operational energy benchmarking. With sustainability at the heart of all our designs, please get in touch if you would like to understand more about NABERS UK or your energy usage.

Pledge to Net Zero

Written by Robert Ainslie on September 28, 2023. Posted in news. No Comments on Pledge to Net Zero

xburo commit to ‘Pledge to Net Zero’

As the Scottish Government’s Climate Week gets underway and as part of our long-standing commitment to Net Zero, xburo has joined organisations from across the environmental profession in making the Pledge to Net Zero. ‘Pledge to Net Zero’ is the environmental industry’s global commitment, requiring science-based targets from its signatories to tackle greenhouse gas emissions within their organisations.

By signing up to the pledge, we are continuing to showcase our leadership in supporting the transition to a Net Zero carbon economy. The race to achieve these targets within the built environment will need to see significant changes to our new and existing building stock and how these are managed and operated. Around 40% of the UK’s total energy usage is attributed to heating and powering our buildings, forming a key part in the net zero journey.

Using dynamic simulation software, xburo can create digital twin models and calibrate with measured utility consumption data to initially understand current energy demands and to allow us to test and appraise solutions to reduce energy and set a path to net zero.

xburo can assist is setting an energy strategy for your project from the outset by carrying out full route to compliance reviews and options appraisals to assist in planning and building warrant submissions.

We include for the impact of future energy and regulations trends as well as the provision of operational energy benchmarking. Our design strategies incorporate sustainable, low energy and low carbon principles and we bring extensive experience to allow us to deliver net zero buildings and masterplans.