Last week I was delighted to join a panel of construction-industry ‘Green Dragons’ at the Pennoyer Centre in Pulham St Mary, to hear pitches from seven East Anglian businesses targeting opportunities in sustainable construction. It was a really enjoyable day away from the office, partly because as architects it is always nice to go back and see your own buildings in use, but mainly because of the range and creativity of the ideas presented.
My fellow Dragons were all senior staff from large contracting, construction and property businesses, exactly the sort of contacts the competitors in the Dragons’ Den-style event need to make as they look to grow their businesses. The finalists had been selected from a wider field of entrants in two previous selection-rounds by organisers Build Norfolk and BEST East.
• Essex-based Avalon Abseiling were stressed the cost- and carbon-savings to be gained by using their teams of professionally trained rock climbers for façade-maintenance on medium and high-rise buildings, instead of conventional scaffolding.
• Master-Thatcher Stephen Letch of Starston extolled the visual and environmental benefits of a traditional Norfolk building material, but was keen to show it in contemporary applications including as a wall-cladding.
• Ron Beattie of Beattie-Passive explained to the Dragons that his innovative design-and-build service, based on the German ultra-low-energy ‘Passiv-Haus’ accreditation system, could be used on commercial and community buildings as well as dwellings.
• Kenneth Gibbs of the Anglia Skills Academy wanted the Dragons’ feedback on possible applications of plastic-encapsulated concrete blocks containing asbestos construction-waste, as an alternative to disposing of it in land-fill sites.
• Enviro-Den Ltd showed their ‘Eco-Foil’ green-roof system installed on number of garden buildings and extensions, and asked the Dragons to help them find larger-scale applications for their elegant curved profile.
• DGT Structures presented their pre-fabricated steel-framed floor-cassettes, which they hoped could find wide-spread application in the house-building industry as a fast and cost-effective alternative to traditional joist or plank floors
The Dragons had a difficult task in selecting an overall winner from such a strong field, but in the end agreed that The Limecrete Company stood out from the rest. The Attleborough-based company run by Myles and Lou Yallop has pioneered the use of spray-applied ‘limecrete’ walling in East-Anglia. Hemp-fibres grown in the region are bound together with lime mortar to form a sort of light-weight and breathable ‘organic concrete’, which can be used instead of traditional concrete blocks as the main walling material in buildings up to three storeys.
Since scooping the top slot Myles has already met with Morgan Sindall to discuss how his product might be used in larger scale projects currently on the drawing-board. Hear his interview with Radio Norfolk here.
The event was master-minded by Stuart Thompson of Morgan Sindall (pictured, front right) who congratulates Myles Yallop (front left) on his winning pitch. Back row left to right: Paul Cockaday (NPS), Matt Wood (Lucas Hickman Smith), Jonathan Churchman-Davies (May Gurney) and David Henry (Kier Eastern).
Hear Myles’s interview with Radio Norfolk here.
More information and including all seven finalists’ presentations is available on Build Norfolk’s website here.
