Global Associates’ energy-wise gym project powers to victory at prized awards
Helping one of the UK’s leading gym and fitness operators reduce its energy consumption by a staggering 34% across 70 UK sites, building management systems specialist Global Associates was the deserving winner of this year’s BCIA Building Controls and BEMS Installer of the Year Award.
With a design brief to deliver the largest energy reduction project across the UK’s gym sector, Global Associates implemented an estate-wide energy reduction programme. During the first phase of the work, at 70 sites in total, the company more than doubled their reduction target of 15%.
The Head of Energy at the business, was delighted with the significant difference Global Associates’ building management systems had made to the running of their gyms. He said: “I have been particularly impressed with how well Global Associates has managed all the various IoT and integration aspects; in 15 years, it’s the most innovative and cost-effective solution at scale I have seen.”
The complex project, taking place across 400 sites, required the implementation of an estate-wide energy reduction programme. Utilising the very latest BMS, IoT, smart meter, and Cloud technology, along with the Global Spaces platform, the project has, to date, exceeded the energy reduction target of 15% for gas and electricity.
A significant part of that average reduction came through the leveraging of AI to deliver increased customer insights. This delivered an 8% reduction in energy usage and associated carbon footprint, helping the client towards its sustainability targets.
With a real focus on accurate and up-to-date management of site performance and security status, Global Associates’ innovative BMS systems provided 24/7/365 monitoring and reporting, as well as pre-emptive maintenance identification. This gave the client the vital information it needed to reduce its energy usage and carbon footprint across its sites.
Indeed, thanks to the installation of Global Associates’ trusted BMS systems, a total CO2e reduction of 2,675 CO2t per annum was achieved. This equates to over 1,189 UK domestic homes’ annual carbon emissions.
The Head of Energy continued: “Global Associates was tasked with designing, implementing, and rolling out the largest scaled programme of its type within the UK gym sector during 2023. The results have been excellent, superseding our targets, whilst delivering within budget.
“The innovation of the technology solutions allows us to build upon our smart building investment over time, delivering an increased customer experience. We have been able to integrate multiple IT systems with the minimal of effort and drive increased automation/business efficiency, supporting first-time-fix and pre-emptive maintenance.”
Paul Wetherfield, CEO of Global Associates, highlighted the importance of creating a multi-skilled organisation. He said: “Global believes that the best way to deliver ongoing innovation is to create a diverse multi-skilled organisation and is proud to have engineering representation from the BAME and LGBTQ+ communities. It has an organisational commitment to keeping over 50% of its delivery team ‘home grown’.
“In order to achieve this, the company has invested in a market-leading personal development programme, covering all career stages and, in particular, an apprenticeship cohort. This ongoing investment has resulted in some of the world’s leading organisations engaging with Global for expert opinion and thought leadership; in particular, IoT integration and the pragmatic use of machine learning (AI) for building optimisation.”
Founded in 1993, Global Associates has been delivering cost-effective BMS services for over 30 years. Exuding a passion for client success, showing a deep understanding of energy and building services, and providing expert engineering and project management, the company prides itself on offering an unparalleled level of service in the market.
BCIA Immediate Past President and Chair of Judges, Graeme Rees, was impressed with the quality of all submissions, especially Global Associates’ work in the gym sector. He said: “The decision for all the judges this year was an incredibly difficult one. There were so many amazing submissions, and in all honesty, any one of them could have won.
“However, the Global Associates’ submission really stood out. The innovation displayed in the project was absolutely outstanding and really highlights the incredible work Global Associates and others in the building controls sector are doing when it comes to sustainability and energy consumption.”