Energia-UK Ltd

A company providing energy-saving solutions for domestic properties is going from strength to strength.

Energia-UK Ltd, based at Market Street in Huddersfield town centre, was formed in September, 2012, by co-directors Scott Fleetwood and Nicholas Sykes to work with the government’s Green Deal and Energy Company Obligation (ECO) installation scheme.

Scott is a heating engineer with more than 20 years experience of domestic property requirements, having worked as a time-served apprentice at Kirklees Building Services.

Nicholas has 25 years experience in the domestic property market in estate agency, management and investment.

The company assesses properties’ energy ratings, working out any potential energy savings and implementing measures such as installing insulation, fitting A-rated condensing boilers and renewables to greatly improve energy efficiency, reduce carbon emissions and lower household energy bills.

Energia-UK Ltd has been working with Green Deal provider Infinity Energy Organisation and two of the big six energy companies, EDF and SSE to carry out free installations under the ECO scheme, which is designed to help the UK’s most vulnerable households reduce the cost of heating their energy-inefficient homes.

Energia-UK uses Huddersfield-based tradespeople, including gas engineers and installers of double glazing and solar panels, on a sub-contract basis to help keep income in the local economy.

Scott began planning the business in early 2012 before the business was registered in September last year and opened its premises in Huddersfield in January this year.

He said: “We have grown steadily over the last 12 months and established ourselves very well with a number of Green Deal organisations, working long hours and putting in 100% commitment.

“In August, 2013, we were allocated over £1m of funds via a bilateral agreement through Infinity Energy Organisation to work alongside SSE to complete works under ECO in various stages up to January, 2015 – with the availability of draw-down funds to carry out extra installation work over the next two years.”

Said Scott: “The Green Deal market is still in its infancy, yet at Energia-UK we managed to gain customer confidence and presently have approached 100 Green Deal assessments ready to carry out and implement. Our aim is to complete plans on about 100 to 200 properties by the end of 2014.”

ACC Flooring Ltd

A flooring company has built firm foundations for future success.

ACC Flooring Ltd, based at Brighouse, was formed in 1986 and works UK-wide installing resin floors.

Sales director Nick Megson said: “As a business, we are a relatively small team, but that doesn’t prevent us from creating huge waves!

“In 2005, we were the first resin flooring company to be awarded highly commended by FeRFA, our governing body.

“During our work, we remove the old floor and install new resin flooring solutions. We were sending around 60 to 80 tonnes of waste to landfill on an annual basis. We took the decision to sign up to the ‘Halving Waste to Landfill’ commitment. However, we quickly realised that with a little bit more work, we could actually make this commitment only 2% to landfill.”

The company worked with staff, suppliers and waste handlers to make its commitment a reality – hitting its target in month one and now reaches a figure of 100% each month.

The firm was named Contractor of the Year by its governing body and became the first recipient of a new award, Environmental Initiative 2012-13, for its commitment to recycling and sustainability.

As further testament to its efforts, ACC Flooring received a bronze award in the category for sustainability in the building and construction at the Corporate Social Responsibility Awards.

Said Scott: “We pride ourselves on ensuring our customers receive value-for-money with systems that are fit for purpose. We remove old floors for recycling, whether it’s timber, vinyl, carpet, concrete or resin and replace it with sustainable options with a lifespan of up to 20 years.

“We operate on a national basis in all industries – including food, pharmaceutical, automotive, aerospace, chemicals and printing to name a few. We recently installed all the new resin floors at the Bank of England’s main cash vaults and achieved a recycling figure of 100%.”

Scott said the company planned to grow further and continue its search for “greener” flooring solutions for its customers.“We also plan to make ourselves known and tell the world of our success. This way, we feel other resin flooring companies will follow in our footsteps.”

Young Engineers Academy

A social enterprise helping young people secure jobs in manufacturing is also making a positive impact on the environment.

The Young Engineers Academy was set up in October last year as a not-for-profit business to support local long-term unemployed, disadvantaged and disabled people get the skills needed to get jobs in engineering and manufacturing.

The academy collects post-consumer uPVC windows and doors from across the region, dismantles and cuts them into lengths, manually cleans them and granulates them into 6mm beads. The end-product is them sold back to window manufacturers or plastic injection moulding firms.

The academy, based at St Andrew’s Road, Turnbridge, receives no government funding – relying solely on commercial income.

So far this year, it has supported more than 125 local people by providing them with a minimum four weeks work experience – many of whom return to volunteer for up to two days a week.

Work experience typically includes either administration or product dismantling duties, coaching and career development, training, psychometric profiling, counselling from the academy’s residential professional as well as assessment feedback and a guaranteed career interview.

During the past 12 months, the academy has recycled more than 100 tonnes of uPVC by diverting it from landfill and has provided support for 125 people – as well as helping two people into self-employment.

Chief executive Ahmed Khan said plans for the next 12 months included doubling monthly production of granulated uPVC to 80 tonnes, continuing to recruit local people into permanent jobs and providing more work experience candidates for local industry sector jobs.

The academy also plans to offer manufacturers a wood collection service, shredding waste wood and selling it as biomass. An agreement is already in place with E.ON to provide the material for the new biomass power station in Sheffield.

The academy is also encouraging local companies to sacrifice any residual income from their waste streams to pay for academy-managed or payrolled apprentices to be based on their sites to sort and co-ordinate waste disposal for reuse – helping to increase the number of apprenticeships offered in the area.