Snow patrol - The Raynsway team is ready for winter

With last year’s poor weather conditions forcing many companies to stop working, client Raysway Properties has invested £35,000 in brand new snow equipment ranging from grit spreaders to high visibility clothing. The new gear will be used at Bridge Business Park and Pinfold Industrial Park in Thurmaston and also at Watermead Business Park in Syston. This will help all staff and occupiers enter the business parks safely and help businesses run as normal during the winter period.

Thank you to Steve Baker for the photography.

The region’s first certified PassivHaus office at client Raynsway Properties’ Watermead Business Park in Syston was given the seal of approval by Business Secretary Vince Cable MP last night after he visited the recently completed project.

Dr Cable praised the ‘extraordinary building’ as he was given a tour around the 6,000 sq ft premises by representatives from key partners Raynsway, Interserve, CPMG Architects and environmental building consultants CPW, during which he was able to learn more about sustainable development and more specifically about the principles of PassivHaus.

He congratulated everyone involved in the project and spoke of the need to look at similar schemes for industrial and commercial buildings across the country, saying that “energy efficiency needs to be a key consideration in the construction of any new build offices and commercial premises”.

The £1.5m state of the art facility pushes the boundary of environmentally friendly design and is now home to around 50 employees from Interserve - one of the world’s foremost support services and construction companies.

Vince Cable is given a tour around the new PassivHaus office at the Watermead Business Park in Leicester

Tom Watkinson from Raynsway Properties (right) speaks in more details to Vince Cable MP about PassivHaus

The new PassivHaus office at Watermead Business Park

There’s lots of great environmentally friendly news with some of our Leicester-based PR clients at the moment:

A brand new website has been launched by the Raynsway Group for the Watermead Business Park in Thurmaston. There’s a huge focus on sustainability around the whole project which is already home to businesses of both regional and international importance, such as Lafarge Aggregates Ltd and Bentley. For more information on the wealth of green features there, then why not visit the site.

Westframe, the timber frame manufacturing division of Westleigh Developments, has made it into today’s Leicester Mercury after supplying and erecting the timberframe for a landmark ‘eco-house’ in Mountsorrel. Once completed it will be the first home in Leicestershire to achieve the highest available rating (Code Six) for environmentally-friendly homes.

And finally, the commercial division of Westleigh Developments, Westleigh Commercial has begun work on a new £12m environmentally aware office development on the outskirts of Leicester, adjacent to junction 21a of the M1. Once completed, LE3 will comprise of a combination of office units from 17,000sq ft upwards.

Keep up the green work everyone!!