Kidz World Children’s Nursery, Out of School Clubs, and Softplay, in the central Scottish town of Alloa, was acquired by the current owner in June 2017 and the new owner quickly contacted us to ask for a full resource efficiency assessment of the business’s facilities.
The business aims to provide high quality, affordable and flexible childcare to serve the needs of parents across Clackmannanshire, and the new the owner was keen to ensure that operating costs from its energy and water use were kept to a minimum to allow the business to meet these aims. They also wanted to ensure the operation was reducing its carbon emissions as part of a long-term ECO sustainability and education project with staff, parents, and children on best practice and how their actions day to day will drive efficiencies.
An adviser visited the site, which comprises a children’s soft-play area, nursery, gardens, and a sub-let office unit, to review the building fabric, heating and lighting systems, water use and the potential for the installation of solar PV.
Following the assessment, a summary report with recommended improvement projects was provided to Kidz World. This enabled the new owner to fully understand and prioritise the best actions to take and each recommended project included the estimated cost to implement along with the annual savings it would provide.
Several recommendations were detailed in Kidz World’s report including upgrading to LED lighting, insulating the loft space, installing water saving devices in the toilets, upgrading glazing, installing destratification fans, and replacing the gas heating system.
Together these projects would require an investment in the region of £23,000 to implement and provide annual savings of over £4,600 and would therefore pay back in 5 years.
Further energy savings of around £5,000 per year were identified through the potential installation of solar PV technology. This project had an estimated cost of £61,500 and a potential for carbon reduction of 17.6tCO2.
With the support of the interest-free SME Loan from Scottish Government, the business has already acted on the advisor’s recommendations in a managed phased approach, commencing with the installation of PV solar panels, LED lighting, and high efficiency gas boilers/HIVE controls.
“We would not have been able to progress the full-scale ECO transformation of the business without the expert and courteous service provided from the service. They have helped us every step of the way, going the extra mile, and ensuring we progress diligently through the various applications. Our approach is to introduce all the measures captured in our report, and these are being implemented on a phased basis to minimise disruption within our business and ensures that our staff, parents and children are with us on this fantastic journey.” Doug Moodie, Owner, Kidz World Nursery Ltd.
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