________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
apprentice onboard who will shortly become our first female engineer.”
Turning to current projects, Jake continues:“ We’ ve currently got a couple of interesting projects on the go, such as replacing a wet riser for a dry riser in a large Grade II listed building in Manchester. This project includes full mechanical replacement, drilling, fire stopping and testing, and is probably one of the largest projects we’ ve undertaken to date. We’ re also replacing 200 heat recovery units in an apartment building in Birmingham, and we’ re involved with air conditioning replacements in large medical centres across the UK.
“ Across our portfolio, many of our clients are concentrating on the reduction of both costs and energy usage. By collaborating with these clients, we can better understand how they can reduce their carbon footprints and operate more sustainably. We’ re increasingly replacing gas boilers with electric boilers,
for example, as well as installing LED lighting, sensors, and conducting energy audits.”
HFL is also embracing sustainability from an internal perspective.“ Over the last 12 months, we’ ve dramatically reduced our paper consumption in the office by 90 per cent,” Jake says.“ We’ re using an online system for invoices and reports, which includes investing in new hardware for the engineers, and we’ re continuously training engineers as we explore new technologies like air source heat pumps.
“ I’ ve also made some smaller decisions like changing our uniform provider to one that uses recycled materials and providing every employee with a branded reusable cup to reduce coffee cup waste. We’ ve implemented hybrid vehicles across the fleet, and although we’ re currently in a leased building, there’ s potential to purchase our own property in the future, which would enable us to invest in the necessary infrastructure to operate even more sustainably.”
88