In Your Shoes - Grant Withers

HEALTH & SAFETY

Although I am generally an early starter anyway, today is a necessity to get the usual Monday morning emails away before heading off to Dundee for some Health & Safety training with Paul Donaldson of Health, Environment and Risk Training (HEART), kindly being hosted at Intona’s offices.

Four and a half hours later it’s a quick dash back to the office, after dropping off Alex who has been on work experience with us but will be starting his full plumbing apprenticeship next week.

Back at the office there is never any rest from projects we need to get offers out to clients, (not that this is to be complained about), today’s focus is for a infrared heating option for an office renovation.

Sustainable Angus Week – Business Breakfast

Working with Resource Efficient Scotland, Angus Council and Dundee & Angus Chamber of Commerce to deliver an exciting week of free events this August aimed at helping businesses to be more sustainable and save money.

This morning at the fantastic setting of Forbes of Kingennie presenting some of the renewable projects that we have delivered locally that have benefitted other business, including solar pv, ground and air source heat pumps, biomass boilers and electric vehicle charge points.

It was great to hear so many enthusiastic talkers, especially my good pal Robert Ramsay from Kinblethmont Estate and Soil Essentials, a real champion for renewable energy and always entertaining.

A Typical Day in the Office

No appointments or events today, which is probably a blessing as it is great to get out and about doing the networking side of things, meeting existing & potential clients, talking about renewable energy and it’s many benefits and hearing from suppliers and manufacturers about latest innovations.

However as a relatively new business that has enjoyed significant growth over the past 18 months there is never a shortage of day-to-day administration to be done back at base.

As well as numerous projects needing priced up we started on site this week a large plumbing, heating and electrical contract for Robertson Partnership homes, delivering 58 new properties for Abertay Housing so sorting out containers, work platforms and materials.

We also got a great enquiry into day for 20 air source heat pumps to work on for another housing association project in Aberdeen.

Saying Goodbye to A Wonderful Lady

Another early start in the office to clear some emails and then meeting our new young apprentice Alex to officially welcome him to the team and complete all his college paperwork. Then quick catch up with Graeme to chat through another plumbing & heating project he was working on, 20 houses in Fife.

It was then off to Monikie Church and back to Forbes of Kingennie for the second time this week, however on a more personal and sad purpose as I was attending the funeral of Sheila Edwards, former owner of Wigmores Restaurant in Brought Ferry.

For those of you who may have been fortunate enough to know Sheila you will be aware how kind and accommodating a person she was, who could never do enough for her family and friends.

Sustainable Angus Week – Kinblethmont Estate Showcase Tour

Graeme and I met with a fantastic business in Arbroath this morning to discuss energy efficient measures they could make to reduce what has to be said was a very large electricity bill. Options discussed and proposals to be pulled together for solar pv and LED lighting to replace existing lighting giving around 75% saving on running and maintenance costs.

From there it was up to the Kinblethmont Estate as the last event of the Sustainable Angus Week where Robert was giving other business owners a guided tour of his site and discussing the benefits he has enjoyed through the introduction of multiple biomass boilers, roof mounted solar arrays, micro wind turbine, LED lighting, electric/hybrid vehicles and renting out a field for a 5MW solar farm, comprising of 20,000 modules.