Ashden Awards finalists: Max Fordham

On June 11 the success of the renewable energy industry will be celebrated at the Ashden Awards. We asked this year’s finalists to tell us about them, their achievements and the changes they would like to see. Here we take a look at Max Fordham.

Tell us who you are?

Max Fordham, est 1966, is an environmental and building services engineering practice. We employ deeper thinking to make buildings that work.

What does your company or organisation do?

We are environmental and building services engineers.

Where once the engineer’s lot was ‘pipes and wires’, now it encompasses everything from façade performance and sustainability to acoustics and building physics. In essence, everything that impacts on the internal environment of a building and its energy performance.

Our approach differs from that of conventional building services engineers. Each member of our team is trained in electrical and mechanical engineering, environmental design and building physics. This training takes place in-house, creating an integrated understanding that considers the whole building. By being involved early in the design process, right through construction, and into a building’s post-occupancy, we can minimise energy demand, reduce energy waste and increase energy performance. In short, we deliver buildings that work.

Give us some bullets on achievements, lives affected, emissions reduced, etc,

– An estimated saving of 60 megaWatts (mWh) since the beginning of 2012

– An estimated saving of 16,800 tons of CO2 since the beginning of 2012

– Completed over 4,000 projects in nearly 50 years

– Hundreds of thousands of lives affected by reduced energy demand, reduced energy waste and increased energy efficiency

– Our Developing Countries group does pro-bono work on community projects in some of the poorest countries on earth

– Our MAX:R+I team develops research and innovation to drive even lower energy usage

– Engineering Consultant of the Year – 2014 Building Awards

– Building Services Consultant of the Year – 2014 CIBSE Building Performance Awards

– Employer of the Year – 2014 CIBSE Employer of the Year Awards

– New Build Project of the Year – The Hive, Worcester – 2013 CIBSE Building Performance Awards

– Sustainable Project of the Year – The Hive, Worcester – 2013 Building Awards

– New Build Project of the Year – Brockholes Visitor Centre – 2012 CIBSE Building Performance Awards

– Sustainable Project of the Year – Brockholes Visitor Centre – 2012 Building Awards

– RIBA South West Sustainability Award – Keynsham Civic Centre – 2015

What would winning an Ashden Award mean to you?

Receiving the UK Ashden Award gives Max Fordham the opportunity to share our ideas and philosophies behind beautifully engineered building-design with the world. And we look forward to connecting with the other energy champions and Ashden alumni to promote excellence in design and reduced carbon-use.

With the gifted prize-money, Max Fordham will further support our MAX:R+I (Research and Innovation) group which, in turn, will feed back into improving our sustainability systems.

Photo: Max Fordham via Twitter

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Further reading:

UK finalists of 2015 Ashden Awards announced

2015 International Ashden Awards shortlist unveiled