Broader reach

ESG

As a group Amey has stated that its greatest priorities are to meet net zero targets, energy transition, and continue to develop its ESG programme to achieve social value. One of the ways to achieve this is by supporting regional and local supply chain partners, which account for around 70 per cent of Complex Services spend.

Explains McGilvray: “It’s not only our obligation to government to support the supply chain but because we want the work to go locally to wherever the contractors are based.

“The other part of it is helping those in the supply chain to become better businesses. For example, we’ve launched an information campaign on the safe use of ladders and working at heights, which is the sort of thing we can do to help them manage the risks by both holding them to account and hopefully helping to develop their resources.”

Within the business, meeting net zero revolves mainly around the fleet, including a company car policy which enables staff to go electric as well as looking at ways of transitioning the firm’s maintenance fleet to Electric vehicles (EV). However, most of McGilvrays focus is in the client space, from encouraging schools to do LED lighting swap-outs that pay back in about four or five years to employing the latest tech to measure emissions.

“The next step is to carry out an analysis of where the energy is being used,” says McGilvray. “This is mostly focused on the M&E issues in a building, and we’ve got drone cameras on trial to help carry out external audits of buildings. But I believe it’s also about challenging user behaviour, like encouraging clients to turn down the heat by two degrees, ensuring doors are closed and assets are switched off if they’re not needed.”

“We’ve got the in-house consultancy skills to continually improve performance. Everything I see comes down to the data we have and using the data we gather to manage buildings better.

“The challenge is in taking out the noise of the data and getting to the bits you want to see underneath. We have our own data analytic teams who aren’t just theorists because I need to deliver it once they come up with the solutions they think will work for us.

“This combination of the thinking and the doing means we’ve got the in-house data analytic capabilities where we can look at an issue and say ‘how can we solve this problem together?’”

INNOVATION

Facilities management providers are often challenged to deliver innovation in contracts, but many complain that clients are unclear on what innovation looks like in practice.

Says McGilvray: “Often our customers can spend a lot of time deciding what they want to procure, but by the time they finalise the contract their world has moved on.

“While the length of a contract is important – it’s the over specification of the detail rather than the desired outcomes which are often a mistake. During my years in the water sector they engaged in the conversation earlier and adjusted what was happening, which in some cases meant dropping a project entirely if it was decided it would bring little of benefit.”

He adds he’d like to see more engaging of the supply chain at the beginning of a process affording both parties the opportunity to have ‘grown up conversations’ on what can really be achieve. Meanwhile within the existing portfolio McGilvray says he’s a great fan of pilots – so alongside the school’s projects, the team is currently focusing on a single prison as a test bed to see what can be done to improve performance.

When it comes to meeting net zero targets and advancing the social value agenda he explains: “We’ve been developing a rehabilitation programme in the prison service teaching offenders’ trades and offering them life skills they can use post release; we’ve a social enterprise in the defence sector to give spouses of service people more support and in the education sector we’ve followed up the Kick Start programme with Headstart – the UKs first contractor-led adaptation of the Department for Work and Pensions’ (DWP)’s Kickstart programme which supports young people in to work, and have also started discussions around a programme which will encourage over 50s back in to employment.

“For us social value means not just fixing the building but having a positive impact on the communities that use the buildings as well. To help achieve that I’d like some new customers as well, which will enable us to achieve more, give staff additional career opportunities and invest further in social value.

“Ultimately we want to create a sustainable future for our people, our clients, and the wider environment.”