With energy prices rising and companies keen to combine high environmental standards with lower operating costs, Mott MacDonald made sustainability a top priority when it moved its London offices to the new Fleet Place location and worked with Willmott Dixon to ensure its new premises achieved a RICS Ska Gold Rating.

While the team could only work on two floors of the 10 storey building, which limited how the overall fabric or the management systems could be changed, they still delivered the Rating by integrating sustainability into all aspects of the refurbishment, from inception into design and construction.

To achieve Ska Gold, an office needs to show how it met a series a stringent targets including reducing waste. This saw Mott MacDonald reuse or recycle existing furniture from previous offices, including task chairs, work stations, meeting tables and storage units plus achieve Ska targets for carpets and building elements such as office partitions and doors.

To reduce energy consumption, lighting control and efficiency and water reduction technology were introduced, with products chosen from the Government’s energy technology list and water technology list to fulfil Gold Rating requirements.

In line with all Mott MacDonald offices, facilities and incentives are also provided to staff to encourage them to cycle to work, with separate showers rooms installed for male, female and disabled members of staff as well as facilities for drying wet clothes.

Willmott Dixon Interiors managing director Gerry Graville says, “Mott MacDonald are setting the standard when it comes to ultra efficient, sustainable office accommodation. It’s a sign that companies are taking sustainability seriously in their thinking when they relocate office premises as it benefits the bottom line as well as demonstrates they practice what they preach when talking about sustainable solutions for the built environment.

“It’s one of the reasons we have assembled an in-house team with the skills to help companies achieve RICS Ska Gold and we expect to see this requirement become the norm as companies realise they can achieve a high credited standard of energy management in a cost-effective manner.”