Issue 1 - November 2021
ENERGISED NEWS AND VIEWS FROM AROUND OUR WORLD
25TH BIRTHDAY EURO FEVER REBRAND/WEBSITE AWARDS SEASON WORK-LIFE BALANCE CHARTER NET ZERO CARBON PODCAST UNLOCKING THE UK
WELCOME FROM TONY Although the past 12 months have been a challenging time for us all, it has also been a very productive period for our business in lots of ways. As we head into autumn, it is my pleasure to introduce you to our very first external
newsletter ‘Energised’, which will be published twice a year. I hope that you can spare the time to have a read, see what we’ve been up to recently, and also find ways in which you can engage with our amazing team at Davies Partnership.
A NOTE FROM THE EDITOR Hello and welcome to the very first issue of ‘Energised’, our new biannual newsletter that I hope will keep you informed and ‘Energised’ on the latest happenings at Davies Partnership.
As this is the first issue, any feedback is welcomed so feel free to get in touch after you’ve had a read. Other than that, Enjoy!
Waiting for the kettle to boil or microwave to ping? I’ve got you covered with some light reading.
Senior Executive
CONTENTS... 02 Welcome from Tony 02 A note from the Editor 03 25th Birthday 03 Another Milestone! 04 Unlocking the UK through safe ventilation 04 Net Zero Carbon Podcast
Ryan Jones
05 Rebrand & New Website
Marketing & Commercial
06 LCR Culture & Creativity Awards 07 Home Street Home Charter 07 Professional Liverpool
Certainly not a slow start to the year, this issue features some really interesting topics such as our 25th Birthday, the longawaited launch of our Rebrand and New Website, the Liverpool City Region Culture & Creativity Awards, our very own Richard Lewis starring in a Podcast, and much more.
08 Awards Season 09 Leeds to Liverpool Charity Bike Ride 10 World Environment Day & COP26 11
Five minutes with: Alan Williams
12 Framework Success 12 Upcoming Events 13 Claire House Golf Day 13 EURO Fever 14 Work-Life Balance Charter 15
02
People News / Careers
A lot has happened in the 25 years since Phil established the company in a single room of a barn conversion in Farndon. From establishing Davies FM and opening further offices in Conwy and Liverpool to support continued growth, the business has a rich history and culture that the entire team are extremely proud of. Exciting times lie ahead for our business, so here’s to another 25 years of Energising Environments.
Disclaimer: Celebrations will be continuing into next year to make up for lost time.
25 YEARS As some of you will already know, this year marks our 25th year as a business.
As this year has continued to throw us curved balls, we are still not able to celebrate as we would have hoped to. In an ideal world we would have already popped the corks on the champagne and be looking forward to a number of special events that we had planned for throughout this, our 25th year. Nevertheless, we have still been thinking of ways that we will be able to celebrate, and hope to be in a position to share details of some upcoming events very soon.
In the meantime, a huge congratulations to our Chairman Phil for an amazing achievement in getting us to our 25th year. Also a massive well done to the whole team, especially those who have been with the business since the early days and for making it possible. 25 years is a special milestone for any business to reach. For the company to have had the fortune of operating successfully for such a long period of time is testament not only to the team, but our fantastic clients and supply chain for supporting us along the way, so a big thank you to all involved for being part of the journey.
03
ANOTHER MILESTONE! The company turning 25 is not the only special birthday that we have been celebrating lately, our Chairman Phil turned 70 in May. The heart and soul of Davies Partnership and a true gentleman of the industry, he is much admired by clients and colleagues alike. Phil provides valuable leadership and support to the team and is a big part of why the company is where it finds itself today. Unfortunately, we have not been able to celebrate quite as we would have hoped to but will certainly celebrate this special milestone with Phil and his family in style when the time is right.
UNLOCKING THE UK THROUGH SAFE VENTILATION Over the last year, we have been busy helping to unlock the UK thanks to work our Technical and Quality Director Richard has done in developing our bespoke Covid-19 ventilation risk assessment tool.
From office to classroom, Richard assesses how the UK can return to such environments in the safest way possible and explains the key steps that businesses and education environments should
be considering to ensure ventilation systems are operating effectively. Sharing his research, he explains the risk of far-field airborne aerosol transmission and how this can be reduced.
Initially developed to assist with our own return to work plan and following a successful roll out it has now been instrumental in helping numerous clients being able to safely return to their places of work and study too. Richard has also written a thought-provoking piece on this topic that has been published in both Place North West and Construction News that you may want to check out too.
You can read Richards piece in Construction News by clicking HERE.
NET ZERO CARBON PODCAST In April, our Podcast discussed the Net Zero Carbon hot topic and was published in Place North West. The podcast delves into what exactly NZC means, the difference between embedded carbon and operational carbon, and the key challenges looking ahead.
Our Technical and Quality Director Richard Lewis was joined by Victoria Alderton, Director at Paddock Johnson Architects and Paul Gerrard, Director at ForViva Housing, in what is a really interesting and informative discussion. You can listen back to it by clicking HERE.
04
REBRAND & NEW WEBSITE
#ENERGISINGENVI It has been eight months since we launched our rebrand and new website and we hope that you are enjoying the new look and feel of Davies Partnership as much as we are.
The decision to rebrand had been in the pipeline for several years, and with our 25th birthday approaching it seemed like the perfect opportunity to refresh our visual identity.
The last year also highlighted the importance of having a strong and clear message about the purpose of our business and a strong digital online presence to portray this. The new website showcases some of our recent work and highlights the capability of our fantastic team. It was a pleasure to have worked with USP Creative on the brand identity and The Farm Factory in developing the new website, on what was a rollercoaster six months journey. If you haven’t already, take a look at www.daviespartnership.co.uk
05
“We have invested time in developing our new brand identity which also gave us the opportunity to reflect on why we do what we do and helped us define a much stronger message about our business.” Tony McDonnell Managing Director
LCR CULTURE & CREATIVITY AWARDS The 2020 edition of the Liverpool City Region Culture & Creativity Awards was hosted on the 19th February via an online live stream. Hosted by renowned actress Eithne Browne, the event was watched by 588 different households over a live feed. The average viewing time was 22 minutes and the most watching at any one time was 231.
We proudly sponsored the Impact Award for Environmental Sustainability, an award that we felt resonated well and aligns with the values of our own business for obvious reasons.
Recently Tony, Louise and Kevin met with Sonia and Pat to discuss how we can support their fantastic organisation moving forward.
On the night, Managing Director Tony McDonnell had the pre-recorded pleasure of revealing the winners of the award to be Friends of Princes Avenue, a community group based in Toxteth, Liverpool 8.
The event received extensive media coverage which included 24 pieces of coverage in press and online media, an online readership of 43.4 million, and over 263,000 coverage views. It was also picked up by ITV’s Granada Reports on Saturday 20th February in the 5:45pm news with a reach of 903,001 and worth £9492.
WATCH THE REPLAY You can watch the replay of the
Entries to the 2021 LCR Culture
event by clicking HERE.
& Creativity Awards launched on the 1st October 2021.
Tony is introduced to announce the winner of the Impact Award for Environmental Sustainability just after 33:00 minutes.
06
HOME STREET HOME CHARTER
We were delighted to have signed up to the Home Street Home Homelessness Charter earlier this year to help support the fantastic work that they have been doing to end homelessness in the Liverpool City Region. The charter was established in 2019 on the back of a conference entitled ‘Homelessness & Rough Sleeping – Who Cares?’. From the event, a group of dedicated business leaders was convened to map out a charter which could galvanise concerted action on the part of businesses large and small. Acknowledging that every individual deserves a home, the charter commits to supporting the ongoing work of public and charitable agencies in ending homelessness.
A member of our team is to be nominated as our homelessness ambassador and they will receive expert training from Crisis to share with our wider team. We have also committed to providing ongoing support through utilising our networks, providing funding and sponsorship, and volunteering to help however we can. You can sign up to the charter or find out more information on the website by clicking HERE.
In February we were thrilled to become members of Professional Liverpool and feature as the member of the month as we launched our rebrand and new website.
07
Since 2010 there has been a 165% increase in rough sleeping (Metro, 2019) and a 66% increase in all forms of homelessness in England (The MJ, 2019). Unless we work together this will continue.
Joining the PL team adds to the list of existing memberships in the region which include Liverpool Place Partnership and Downtown in Business where we are always willing to open up our network and help reciprocate opportunity for others.
AWARDS SEASON WINNER
BUSINESS OF THE YEAR 2021 We are absolutely delighted to have won the Business of the Year Award at the annual City of Liverpool Business Awards hosted by Downtown in Business. Considering the quality of candidates in the shortlist and to receive the award in our 25th year of business is extra special.
NWRCA FINALIST We are thrilled to have made the shortlist for SME of the Year at this years North West Regional Construction Awards.
North West and connects every single discipline of construction working towards a more sustainable built environment.
The awards are the most significant celebration of best practice and best value in the
Be sure to follow our social media channels to find out how we get on.
Fantastic news as our education project Ysgol Y Garnedd won the Digital Construction Award at the Constructing Excellence in Wales Awards.
This was an exemplar BIM project with our BIM Manager Matthew Reid and Principal Mechanical Engineer Dylan Morris working tirelessly in close collaboration with the rest of the design team.
08
We had a fantastic night at the Crowne Plaza followed by the Hilton afterparty, and it was great to see the business community back together having a good time.
It was a pleasure to have worked with a fantastic design team led by Read Construction and also including Ainsley Gommon Architects, SP Projects and Caulmert to deliver a truly outstanding education facility.
LEEDS TO LIVERPOOL CHARITY BIKE RIDE Two years on from our Liverpool to Chester bike ride, we are very much looking forward to cycling the Leeds to Liverpool canal in support of Claire House and The Stroke Association this autumn. We had originally organised a Dublin to Galway bike ride last summer but had to cancel it due to the coronavirus pandemic. Although we will be reorganising the trip to Ireland, we thought a more local route would be good to allow us all to get back into gear. The Leeds Liverpool canal is 127 miles long and is a very popular route amongst keen cyclists.
The canal can be cycled in its full entirety apart from two sections of tunnel, Gannow and Foulridge, which need to be detoured. Here, you have to find your way over the top to meet the canal on the other side. For the most part, cycling on the canal is easy and the scenery is fantastic as would be expected in the countryside. As the route is also very popular for fishing and walkers/runners, we will be doing it during the week when the path is less busy. Although it can by cycled in a day, we will be staying overnight to refuel and ensure everyone is in a fit state to reach the finish line.
Mountain bikes or trail bikes are most ideal to deal with the terrain, and the likes of a bell, puncture repair kit, inner tube and pump will certainly come in handy. The charities that we will be supporting are Claire House and The Stroke Association. The link to our donation page will be posted on our LinkedIn and Twitter profiles so any donations are greatly appreciated. If you would like to join us or to find out more information, please feel free to get in touch with Ryan via email:
#ENERGISINGENVI
05
ryan.jones@daviespartnership.co.uk
WORLD ENVIRONMENT DAY & COP26 We celebrated World Environment Day on Saturday 5th June, with the theme for this year being #GenerationRestoration. Our purpose as a business is helping to create a better built environment through sustainable design solutions. We take great pride in our involvement with the urban ecosystem.
Whether this be working on the repurposing of an existing building, or part of the team working on a brand new development, energising environments and positively shaping the world around us is why we do what we do. Head over to our LinkedIn page by clicking HERE to read about some of the other initiatives that we have adopted as a business to ensure we are supporting the environment as much as we can.
Following on from World Environment Day 2021 the UK will host the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, on 31 October – 12 November 2021. The COP26 summit will bring parties together to accelerate action towards the goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. Davies Partnership is committed to working both internally to drive forward our own Net Zero Carbon target and fostering greater collaboration with clients to advise on how they can reach their own Net Zero Carbon targets. Click HERE for more information with regards the COP 26 Summit
FIVE MINUTES WITH ALAN WILLIAMS Alan is a Principal Electrical Design Engineer and joined Davies Partnership in 2019. With over 20 years experience in the Building Services industry, he is an invaluable member of the team and possesses many areas of expertise including MEP Design Coordination, Project Management, Specification Writing, and System Trouble Shooting.
Q. How would you describe your job role? A. I have been a Chartered Electrical Engineer since 2001 and have 20 years experience in the Building Services industry. My current role at Davies Partnership is Principal Electrical Engineer. My main duties include production of specifications, drawings and reports associated with the electrical installations within building services. I am also responsible for supporting the Electrical Associate/Team Leader with Quality Control of other team members documents. Q. How did you get into the industry? A. I had a 13 month ‘sandwich’ placement from University at the Daresbury Laboratory (Scientific Research) outside Warrington and was then employed there for 7 years after Graduating. I then made the transition to building services consultancy with Atkins in 2001.
Q. What advice would you give to your younger self? A. Don’t worry, be happy and variety is the spice of life. Q. What has been your favourite project to work on and why? A. I have been lucky enough to have worked on a number of interesting and different types of projects. Designing and project managing the M&E services for an experimental scientific rig at Daresbury Laboratory was not your standard building services job. Q. What do you enjoy most about working for Davies Partnership? A. I really enjoy the variety of work that the job offers and there is a great team spirit within the team thanks to the culture that we have in place. Q. If you weren’t an engineer, what would you be? A. I was brought up on a dairy...
11
...farm # E N E Ron G I Sthe I N GLlyn E N VPeninsula IRONMENTS so should say farming but I am sure my family would agree that I am not made for that? Anything outside in the countryside.
Q. What are your interests/ hobbies outside of work? A. I have been a member of Denbigh and District Round Table (no we don’t have any silly handshakes) for the last 12 years and been involved in arranging a number of beer festivals and social events. I also wear a red cape and white beard on occasions to raise money for local charities. I enjoy being out in the countryside either cycling, hiking or walking the new dog.
FRAMEWORK SUCCESS We are delighted to have secured our first appointment on the Procure Partnerships Framework. We are appointed as MEP Supervisors on the Alder Hey Children’s Hospital NHS Foundation Trusts Brand New Community Cluster facility.
The £15.8m Community Cluster will include new mental health and neurodevelopmental outpatient facilities, a brand new twelve bed specialist inpatient mental health Unit, alongside other cross
dependent health services and a therapeutic garden area. The Community Cluster will be named ‘Sunflower House’ whilst the garden will be named ‘Dewi Jones Gardens’.
TORUS & JV NORTH In July, we were appointed on the Torus Development Consultants Framework which will run up until 2024. We were also appointed on the JV North Framework for 2021-2026 after successfully ranking 1st on the evaluation procedure in respect of the M&E tender lot. We’re looking forward to engaging with both frameworks over the coming years and delivering much needed affordable homes in the North West.
UPCOMING EVENTS As the world is beginning to open up again and with full capacity events going ahead, we are excited to be planning a range of upcoming events and will hopefully be able to share details with you very soon.
We will be reorganising our Dublin to Galway bike ride which had to be postponed due to the pandemic, but are planning to organise an alternative more local route, and arrange the trip to Ireland for next year.
12
A party is also in our plans which will be hosted at one of the newest and most exciting developments in Liverpool City Centre later in the year, so be sure to keep an eye out on our social channels for more information along with other events.
TEE-RIFFIC TIME AT CARDEN PARK
In early June, we had the pleasure of attending the Claire House Golf Day hosted at Carden Park Hotel in Cheshire. The event was the first that Claire House have been able to host since early 2020, and it was a huge success having raised a total of over £12,000 to support the fantastic work that they do year-round. The hospice has been one of our charity partners for several years now and we are always thrilled to be able to help and show our support however we can. Our Commercial Manager Kevin Fields even managed to save some of his luck for off the course as he managed to take home a voucher for Elite Bistro – not a bad day at the office!
EURO FEVER
#ENERGISINGENVI
The team got into the spirit of Euro 2020 by participating in a sweepstake for the knockout phase of the tournament.
to kick things off with Associate Paul Dolan and Mechanical
Engineer Matthew Galletly flying the flags for our English and Welsh offices. Our Business & Finance Director
Beginning at the Round of 16,
Gemma Davies had the luck of the
there were some great fixtures
draw and was crowned champion with Italy. Forza Azzurri!
13
WORK-LIFE BALANCE CHARTER
If we have learned anything during the past 18 months it has been in the versatility, dedication and commitment of our team. This is one of the principal reasons why we decided to launch our new Davies Partnership Work-Life Balance Charter. Like any business the greatest assets are its people. Here at Davies Partnership we like to think that the culture we have cultivated gives a positive environment which looks to give equal opportunity for all who wish to progress. We have been developing the charter for just over a month now and have also introduced a fully Agile Working Model.
This doesn’t just mean giving our team the option to work from home, it empowers them to work where, when and how they choose within a framework that gives maximum flexibility and minimum constraints – to optimise their performance and to do their best work.
Our purpose is not only to Energise Environments, but to Energise Lives too through a better work life balance commitment.
14
We have had some great feedback from the team so far and will be continuing to engage with our team to gain feedback on other exciting elements that will be included in the charter. In the past 18 months we have also introduced monthly mindfulness sessions and added more social value activities for our team to regularly engage in which align with our core values and business purpose.
PROMOTIONS & NEW HIRES Despite the challenges that the past year has brought, we are delighted to have been in a position to make a number of recent promotions and new hires to support our continued growth. New hires include Lee Mckevitt who joins the team as a Mechanical Engineer, Walter Holmes joins as an Intermediate Electrical Engineer and Lee Davies has been brought in to bolster our Sustainability Team. All have already made a great impact in strengthening our respective teams.
As for promotions, these include Paul Dolan promoted to Associate, Kevin Fields to Commercial Manager, Matthew Reid to BIM Manager and Ryan Jones to Marketing & Commercial Senior Executive, whilst Matthew Galletly has advanced from Graduate to Mechanical Engineer.
“Our team have a rich diversity of skill sets brought together through a shared culture and vision to make a difference to the projects that we work on. This really is an exciting time for our business and we are all looking forward to what lies ahead.”
Most recently, Alan Williams has been promoted to Principal Electrical Engineer and Dylan Morris to Principal Mechanical Engineer. Tony McDonnell, Managing Director commented:
CAREERS Our team are essential to achieving our business purpose - to energise environments and positively shape the world around us. We invest in our people and empower them through collaboration and strong leadership. This is how we build stronger internal and external relationships by unlocking the energy and ideas within our dynamic team to deliver unique and tangible value for our customers and stakeholders.
Our dedication and investment in people, knowledge and skills fuels a culture of reward and opportunity for all. With a range of benefits from monthly mindfulness sessions with Project Awesome Life, to an agile working model, there are several ways that our team achieve self-actualisation at work.
If you would like more information about opportunities to join Davies Partnership, please get in touch. We love meeting new people who share our values.
? Your Name
15
Get in touch...
THANKS FOR READING.