Amey/Churchill Group/Clearground/Find My Cleaner/Mitie-apetito/Sodexo-Fooditude/Toshiba Carrier UK
A news round-up of stories in the FM sector
Mitie and its food partner apetito – which tailors nutritionally balanced meals in frozen cuisine to hospitals, care homes and nurseries – are innovating to cut carbon from the menu at St George’s University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in Tooting, London. Mitie has launched its first ‘low-carbon menu’ for patients at the trust, which will save up to 23 tonnes of carbon dioxide a year. The menu, created in a collaboration of the three organisations, focuses on prioritising ingredients with a lower carbon footprint, such as poultry, fish and vegan options. Designed by dietitians, the menu meets all dietary requirements – such as gluten-free, vegan and ‘easy to chew’.
Sodexo has launched Fooditude in Dublin. Last December Sodexo acquired a majority shareholding in Fooditude, a leading name among London’s ‘delivered-in’ workplace caterers, whose clients include Netflix and Pinterest. The arrival of Fooditude is a key step as Sodexo develops new digital-enabled and consumer-focused food services to support its mission to keep its clients’ employees healthy and well-fed. As the commercial world moves to hybrid working, firms are looking for flexible and cost-effective support services. Fooditude allows firms to offer food as a benefit to draw employees back to workplaces. Food is ordered via Sodexo’s Twelve Pay app. The Dublin launch is another step in the evolution of Sodexo’s Vital Spaces proposition, which brings together the company’s diverse expertise to help employers to transform their workplaces with a connected, people-centric approach.
Find My Cleaner is a new digital marketplace dedicated to all kinds of cleaning services. This electronic directory has been designed to make it easier for commercial companies to find cleaning trades more easily and to change the way cleaners are booked in the UK. It shows the availability of each service provider and avoids the hassle of Googling, asking for recommendations, and having to call for quotes and availability. Customers can find all types of services such as domestic and commercial cleaning; waste and removal; valeting, laundry, carpets and windows. This platform offers members a unique subscription service, providing them with additional leads and enquiries through digital marketing, brand awareness on social media, and website traffic from blog articles. Monthly subscriptions cost £40 Silver, £60 Gold and £120 Platinum. Each package features a selection of services to suit businesses of all sizes.
Amey Consulting has welcomed its first cohort of students to the Civil Engineer Degree Apprenticeship programme. Working in partnership with The School of Energy, Construction and Environment at Coventry University, Amey will help to bring new talent into the industry, support the skills gap, encourage diversity, and foster local skills in regional areas. The programme, delivered over five years, gives the apprentices access to the university’s laboratories to work on materials, structures, hydraulics, geotechnics, and a simulation centre (the only one of its type in the UK) where a ‘virtual’ construction site will help to prepare them for the workplace. The degree includes practical work experience, delivering engineering solutions in a team. Apprentices will put this into practice in Amey Consulting’s Highways Design business, working on engineering schemes across England, completing work-based assignments on the projects they are involved in.
Cooling and heating systems from Toshiba Carrier UK (TCUK) are being used to maintain the indoor climate at NHS Scotland’s new world-class Covid-19 testing laboratories. The company supplied Carrier air-cooled chillers and Toshiba heat recovery variable refrigerant flow (VRF) and split air conditioning systems for the new testing facilities located at Gartnavel Hospital, Glasgow, and Lauriston Place, Edinburgh. Maintaining a stable temperature in the laboratories is vital to ensure tests deliver high-quality, consistent results, as well as a comfortable work environment.
Multi-technical services provider SPIE UK has been awarded a contract to design, supply and install the main low voltage (LV) distribution for the site electrical supplies to the gas upgrading equipment and site communications for CNG Service’s biomethane-to-grid scheme at Sterling Pharma Solutions’ Cramlington site. SPIE UK will be completing the detailed electrical design for the LV distribution, procuring the LV distribution equipment, and conducting the cabling, installation and testing of the LV power system. Its team will work under tight space constraints, given the size of the site, requiring close collaboration with other contractors to ensure a commitment to safety and that the work is completed to the five-week deadline. This scheme is set for completion in October.
Facilities maintenance service company Clearground is using workforce management technology from BigChange to improve health and safety across its nationwide operation. Specialising in waste management, commercial window cleaning and drainage services, Clearground is using the cloud-based, five-in-one solution to ensure the safety of operatives with automated, dynamic risk assessments. BigChange is also helping Clearground identify potential issues at customer sites with intelligent incident analysis, comparing callout rates between similar sites and reviewing historical and current activity.
Amulet, Churchill Group’s specialist security arm, has launched a new Temp & Vacant service. The nationwide service will provide 24/7, 365 days-a-year security solutions and has been launched to support businesses that have temporary and vacant properties – a problem that has been exacerbated by the pandemic. The service will address the security challenges posed by temporarily occupied and vacant space – vandalism, burglary, and fires.
Veolia says its energy-from-waste (EfW) plants have played a vital role in handling clinical and medical wastes during the Covid-19 pandemic. During the first wave in spring 2020, orange bag waste was trialled at Veolia’s Tyseley EfW plant. It said that to dispose of more than 61,000 tonnes of ‘orange bagged’ clinical and infectious waste each year, the facilities were adapted to treat a 15 per cent increase in waste. The company operates 10 EfW plants, which generate 1.4 terawatt hours of electricity from residual waste, enough to power 430,000 homes. Veolia said this had the lowest carbon footprint among common treatment options because the plant’s energy usage is only 75kWh a tonne of waste treated while electricity generation is typically 690kWh per tonne treated.
Specialist cleaning, decontamination and waste specialist SafeGroup Services has become a member of the Chartered Institution of Waste Management. The Chartered Institution of Waste Management is the leading professional body for resource and waste professionals, representing companies across the UK and internationally. SafeGroup said the decision to join the body reflects its determination to set the highest standards for the sustainable removal and disposal of waste.