Crosscount Limited

CSA Commissioning Managers Accreditation

In keeping with our commitments to the CSA constitution we are continually enrolling our new staff members and both helping and encouraging them to make their way along the path of development. The new management grading system introduced last year by the CSA has offered further avenues for continued professional development for our senior staff via the ITCM course which highlighted the changes and focus on the newly published CIBSE Code M. We are immensely proud that a number of our managers now satisfy the refreshed criteria and have subsequently attained the top CM3 grade with the expectation to have all of our CxM team fully accredited to this high standard by the end of 2023.

NABERS UK

Like many in the Cx Industry we had become aware of a growing interest amongst building owners, developer and operators to have their properties assessed in accordance with the NABERS scheme. We decided to hit this head on and invest time and money in gaining accreditation to this scheme and we were delighted to be informed on the 12th December 2022 that we had been accepted as a BRE Global NABERS UK licenced organisation. Gary James is our licensed assessor and his certified license and contact details can be found at www.greenbooklive.com. If you require any further details about NABERS and how we can help, please do not hesitate to make contact.

Healthcare Sector

We have been an Approved Contractor to NHS Trusts for many years and always strive to keep up to date with changes to the Health Technical Memoranda (HTM). Our focus was drawn to changes to HTM03-01 – Ventilation Verification – so we decided to take a closer look to see how we could better serve our existing client base and hopefully expand our operations in this critical area. We are delighted to announce that one of our senior Cx engineers is now a City & Guilds Accredited Authorized Person (AP) in accordance with HTM03-01. By the time you read this article we plan to also have 2 further engineers qualified to Competent Person (CP) Accreditation allowing us to undertake Ventilation Verification to critical areas. This was not an easy process and we are immensely proud of our team of healthcare specialists – THANK YOU for your dedicated efforts!

If you would like to discuss Ventilation Verification in Healthcare – or any other critical area -please do not hesitate to contact michaelforrest@crosscount.com or enquiries@crosscount.com.

What Next?

Always at the top of our list is the retention, development, training and wellbeing of our staff and their families – the absolute core of our business. We were proud to be one of the first to assist all employees and sub-contractors with an ex-gratia payment towards their energy bills, proud to offer a monthly incentive to those who go the extra mile and super proud to have only lost one staff member to a competitor over the past 5 years – though that was one too many!

T Zone, 11 – 12 Canal Reach, Kings Cross, London, N1C

After a successful new build Shell & Core and CAT A fit-out of the biggest office building in the Kings Cross estate on behalf of BAM Construction and Argent, the pre-let tenants engaged ISG to deliver the Cat B fit-out with a particular focus on local biodiversity and staff wellbeing.

After achieving BREEAM ‘Outstanding’ for the initial build, the Fit-Out is one of only a dozen projects within London to achieve the coveted LEED ‘Platinum’ certification from the US Green Building Council. Outside of the US, London is the tenant’s largest hub and T-Zone its largest mixed-use office-led space at 425,000sq ft, providing flexible workspace while focusing on ensuring users wellbeing.

It houses the company’s engineering teams working on Reality Labs (V&A Reality), Workplace, Ads & Business products. Crosscount were appointed by the client at Design Stage as the LEED defined

Commissioning Authority (CxA) and oversaw the successful completion and Handover of the project on the 4th March 2022. With handover from the base-build team in late Feb 21 and the industry supply chain issues that many projects had to overcome throughout 2021, this project truly reflected the clients mantra of ‘move fast and fix everything’ to successfully achieve the original programmed ‘first day of business’ (FDOB) date 11th March 2022.

Particular Project Innovation and Technical Advances

T-Zone features approximately 10% of its overall floor sq meterage dedicated to landscaped roof gardens and terraces promoting biodiversity within the local community.

T-Zone succeeded in driving down the levels of embodied carbon by 30% compared to industry practice and is one of the lowest embodied carbon buildings on the KC Estate.

The building is linked to a centralised district heating and cooling network which provides far higher efficiencies than typical alternatives whilst allowing for T-Zone to benefit from Carbon Neutrality with 100% renewable energy delivered via the energy centre (Boilers & CHP), certified by Natural Capital Partners as a Carbon Neutral Development.

Full BMS building optimization and virtualisation, has contributed towards a finer balance and harmonization of personal wellbeing and energy usage, Furthermore, the global accessibility via virtualization for comparative analysis across the clients property portfolio allowing early detection and enhanced fine tuning of their buildings for actual usage optimal performance.

With one of the largest office led commercial kitchen spaces in Europe, an innovative demand controlled Kitchen Extract hood system is featured. The ‘Marvel’ system, via infrared sensors is able to automatically detect exactly which catering units are being utilised and provide only the required ventilation to those areas/hoods.

In addition to the above, the project was designed with exposed services and deliberate ‘no fly zones’ contributing to the contemporary industrial feel benefiting both staff wellbeing and future maintenance.

Customer Benefits and Energy Efficiency

Energy sub-metering is provided across the entire property to allow each floor and each zone to be independently tracked as well as all main plant and distribution on a central web-based portal which in turn provides the insight, analysis and support required to reduce emissions.

As highlighted above, the benefits to the exposed services approach reach beyond the construction phase whereby material, installation and commissioning savings are obvious, but extend throughout the lifecycle of the project as maintenance and accessibility issues are diminished allowing for higher chance of identification and rectification and subsequent ongoing performance and energy savings benefits. The increase in natural light and space promotes creativity and wellbeing which sits hand in hand with the clients identity

The client also benefit from exceeding their corporate responsibility targets and being able to champion T-Zone as a blueprint for their future ambitious project development plans.

The Marvel system employed within the Catering areas provides an innovative optimization solution that can reduce energy usage by up to 64% (when compared to standard kitchen ventilation control strategies). In a kitchen of this scale the cost and energy savings are therefore significant.

The design of the building with its exposed ceilings and numerous atrium light wells allow for increased natural lighting and the feeling of space which contribute to increased staff wellbeing and subsequent efficiencies and retainment which was another target of the brief.