Adapting to a changing world is a key priority, and in 2022, we continued to look for new products, new services and new materials that can drive our business forward. Our innovative approach and use of new technologies and sustainable solutions has helped us to deliver projects that meet and exceed our customer’s expectations while also reducing emissions, waste and environmental impact.
Here we look at some of the innovative products and services we offer to help us work in a more sustainable way, make our projects more efficient and cost effective, and our delivery more agile and responsive.
Energy Synergy
Energy Synergy™ is Willmott Dixon’s unique response to addressing the risk of the ‘performance gap’, between the energy performance of a building at design stage, and its actual performance in-use.
We calculate a building’s projected energy usage at design stage, and then monitor and manage energy performance once in operation. It involves regular, detailed measurement of energy performance to compare with modelled energy performance target data. We then compare targeted output with real performance for two to three years after handover, and work collaboratively with our customers to optimise operational performance.
As the only UK contractor to be taking a structured approach to energy performance at this scale, our experience so far in applying Energy Synergy™ has helped customers to identify and address performance gaps, making energy and cost savings of between 5-15%.
Collida
Collida is Willmott Dixon’s integrated construction platform that empowers customers by giving them greater control over their development needs. By bringing specialists in sustainable design, procurement, delivery and maintenance under one roof, then supercharge them with cutting edge technology we increase productivity and improve sustainability both in pre-construction and on site.
All Collida products offer excellent environmental performance, through simple, affordable designs that look to reduce embodied carbon and aim to achieve low carbon performance targets. Typically, Collida designs achieve 35% better than LETI’s ‘business as usual’ benchmark for A1-A5 upfront carbon. The first two prototypes of our Collida Living have been constructed at the BRE Innovation Park. By harnessing modern methods of construction, we have shown it is possible to create a low cost, energy efficient home that is future-proofed for years to come.
Decarbonise Today
Decarbonisation is a critical challenge facing the construction industry today. As a company that has taken significant steps to understand and reduce the carbon footprint of its own projects, Willmott Dixon is now applying this knowledge and skills to provide a range of solutions to our customer’s existing buildings.
Launched in 2022, Decarbonise Today is a new service to support customers by providing an end-to-end service to improve and upgrade buildings of all kinds across the public and private sector. This comprehensive service builds on our track record of delivering decarbonisation projects for customers, such as Somerset County Council, where we have delivered a range of initiatives from replacing windows to installing heat pumps and photovoltaics, saving approximately 105,000kWh/annum.
We are already working with customers including, Gloucestershire Constabulary and Lincoln City Council, to support them on the journey to net zero. From project inception to post-completion monitoring and evaluation, we support customers using Decarbonise Today with expert advice on all aspects of decarbonisation and funding.
Offsite construction
We are committed to modern methods of construction and the benefits these bring in reducing carbon and increasing efficiency and certainty. By using key elements of a project that are factory assembled, we can deliver better quality projects, quicker.
The offsite components we typically use include lightweight timber and steel frames, cross laminated timber, factory assembled bathrooms and prefabricated and precast concrete.
We won Green Building Project of the Year Award at the BusinessGreen Leaders awards in 2022 for our prefabricated construction of the University of Warwick’s Interdisciplinary Biomedical Research Building (below). Here, offsite manufacturing techniques almost halved both the number of deliveries and number of workers on site. To illustrate, installation of a factory-assembled 27-metre-tall mega-riser took just two days and saved 18 weeks on the project timeline.
We use these modern methods of construction throughout the business to make our operations simpler, more efficient and to reduce risk. For example, bathroom pods, which come from a single supplier, generate less embodied carbon by optimising material use and reduce waste, vehicle movements, and labour on site compared to in-situ bathroom installations. Through our partnership with manufacturer Offsite Solutions, we have installed more than 1,700 pods for student, hotel, care home, and residential projects. Almost 700 of these bathroom pods have been used to create 430 apartments at the Perry Barr residential scheme for Lendlease and Birmingham City Council, completed in 2023 (below). Installed at rate of 15 to 20 pods a day, use of offsite manufacturing has made the project around 30% more efficient than a traditional build. In 2022, we commissioned a further 425 steel bathroom pods for our Northminster project for Cross Key Homes, which is due to complete in 2024.
Digital Construction
We believe that a digital approach is fundamental to both our business and industry, shaping the way we create the buildings of the future in an ever-changing world. Through technology, our people are driving efficiencies for our customers, helping us work in a more sustainable way, making our projects even safer and our delivery more agile and responsive.
Building Information Modelling (BIM) is an integral part of the construction process and one that has helped revolutionise how we share information. Key to this end-to-end digital approach is the production of a digital twin of the building - a digital replica of the as-built physical building, which provides invaluable information for the end users. Using a virtual reality headset, customers can even enjoy a virtual walk around the finished design. The production of a digital twin also enables out people to foresee any potential issues before work starts on the construction.
Our dedicated Building Information Modelling (BIM) Cave, in Nottingham, is an innovative digital design space that uses virtual reality to bring buildings to life and has been used to create some of the Midlands’ most high-profile new developments (below). As well as creating customer experiences, this facility is also used to introduce a new generation of people to construction, hosting careers events for local schools and open days for the general public.
The Yellow Book
The Yellow Book is a central repository for all our combined knowledge when it comes to designing and constructing or refurbishing safe, low-carbon projects of the highest quality. It brings together lessons learned, best practice, brand standards and installation instructions for our people, customers and supply chain partners, in one, easily-accessible place.
The Yellow Book is constantly updated to capture lessons learned from every project we work on, helping to secure a right-first-time culture and deliver the perfect product. The positive impact of the Yellow Book is evidenced by the quality of our end-product, a reduction in the cost of rectifying errors and ultimately reducing business risk.