Sister companies Noel Lawler Consulting Engineers and Noel Lawler Green Energy Solutions are growing together as managing director Daniel Ring explains.
Established in Kilkenny 36 years ago by Noel Lawler, Noel Lawler Consulting Engineers (NLCE) had long established itself as a leading mechanical and electrical building services consultancy before Noel Lawler Green Energy Solutions was formed in 2008 to provide an integrated approach to reducing clients’ energy consumption, their carbon footprint and increasing sustainability.
The latter company’s success has exceeded all expectations. In continuing its diversity of energy services offered to customers, it reached another milestone last July when it was awarded Ireland’s first local authority Energy Performance Contract (EPC) by Dublin City Council. Working closely with the Dublin Energy Agency Codema, the landmark project will save the Council up to €100,000 on its energy and maintenance costs per year over the next eight years.
The project involves the upgrade of three Dublin City Council Sports & Fitness facilities, namely Markievicz Sports & Fitness Centre, Finglas Sport & Fitness Centre and Ballymun Sports & Fitness Centre, by using an Energy Performance Contract. In this instance, the EPC project will achieve average energy savings of more than 30 per cent per year through a range of energy-efficiency upgrades, including new LED lighting, new combined heat and power systems to efficiently heat the swimming pools and improving building control systems which will help manage all of the equipment in the centres to ensure that they are working together effectively.
“This model for energy savings is a very smart way to save your business money while reducing its carbon footprint and helping contribute to national targets for energy usage and greenhouse gas emissions,” Daniel says.
“Everyone has an energy bill which they want to reduce. Noel Lawler Green Energy Solutions is focused on delivering specialist energy and sustainability advice. The company work closely with the SEAI (Sustainable Energy Agency of Ireland) who are anxious to fund similar performance-based energy projects to the one we have with Dublin City Council.”
The onset of the recession prompted the directors of NLCE to look at alternative ways of doing business. Eight years on, Noel Lawler Green Energy Solutions now accounts for 20 per cent of overall turnover. “We see it as a real growth area for us,” adds Daniel, who joined the company 20 years ago.
Noel Lawler Green Energy Solutions offers clients a unique service by minimising a site’s energy and carbon emissions. This is achieved by examining all elements contributing to energy consumption and carbon production. Expertise is drawn from an experienced pool of architects, engineers and analysts, allowing comprehensive site evaluations to be made. Unlike many new entrants to the sector, the company has over 36 years’ experience designing, commissioning and monitoring the electrical and mechanical systems that are responsible for energy consumption within buildings. This in-depth understanding of building systems means Noel Lawler Green Energy Solutions is uniquely positioned to reduce energy consumption.
The outlook is also positive for flagship company NLCE which has come through the downturn with flying colours. “We are looking to the future with renewed optimism. The recession was tough on everyone, but our work in the education and retail sectors as well as overseas, sustained the company and we never had to lay anyone off,” says Daniel, whose fellow directors are company founder Noel Lawler, Jason Smith and Jonathon Culleton.
With offices in Kilkenny, Dublin, Cork and London, NLCE is ideally placed to serve a wide range of sectors and clients. The firm’s highly qualified building services engineers offer a range of engineering services, including building services design, project management and sustainability and low carbon consultancy.
The practice is rapidly growing in all construction sectors, including education, commercial, healthcare, retail, leisure, pharmaceutical, residential and public buildings. Its core service is the design and project management of mechanical and electrical building services. The company’s design solutions consistently embrace the technological advances that are a key feature in its industry.
NLCE offers a client-orientated, flexible approach to service that is tailored to fit the client’s specific needs. The extent of its involvement in the project is based on building complexity and client preference. The award-winning practice has successfully completed in excess of 4,000 commissions and this volume of work has cultivated a wealth of in-house experience that is demonstrated through its unrivalled competence in the design process, efficient project management and rigorous cost control during the construction phase.
NLCE is certified to the internationally recognised ISO 9001:2008 Quality Assurance Standard, demonstrating its commitment to providing a reliable and professional service to all projects and clients.
Among the projects the company has worked on in recent years include Brown Thomas, Dunnes Stores, Super Valu / Musgraves, Lidl, Environmental Protection Agency Headquarters, VHI Call Centre, Bord na Mona, C & D Foods European Headquarters, PPP Primary Care Centres, VHI Screening Centres, NDFA School Bundles, Dublin Institute of Technology, Argdillan Community College, Teagasc Training & Innovation Centres, Tottenham Mews, residential developments in Saudi Arabia, Seychelles Eden Bleu Resort Hotel, Kelly’s Resort Hotel, Newpark Hotel, The Watershed Leisure Centre, Claremorris Leisure Centre and Aura Leisure.
NLCE was recently appointed MEP consultants on Ireland’s first healthcare PPP. This is a 25-year contract to construct and maintain 14 healthcare centres throughout the country and also marks the first publicly procured project to be delivered using BIM (Building Information Modelling). The practice has been working with the Prime Balfour Beatty / JJ Rhatigan & Co Joint Venture in the design of these projects and is looking forward to starting the construction phase.
NLCE has also been appointed by the GAA to carry out a strategic review of the mechanical and electrical plant and systems at Croke Park which it is very proud to be associated with.
Noel Lawler Consulting Engineers and Noel Lawler Green Energy Solutions pride themselves on offering clients’ advice aligned with their customers’ business, and work on the simple premise that if they can improve their customers’ business performance through their contribution, they improve their own.
Noel Lawler Consulting Engineers
Kilkenny office:
7 Patrick Street,
Kilkenny,
Co. Kilkenny.
Telephone: +353 (0)56 7721115
Dublin office:
Citywest Business Park,
3013 Lake Drive,
Citywest,
Dublin 24.
Telephone: +353 (0)1 4693711
Cork office:
Acorn Business Centre,
Blackrock,
Cork.
Telephone +353 (0)21 4614264
London office:
1 Lyric Square,
Hammersmith,
London W6 0NB
Telephone: +44 (0)207 9797704
Email: [email protected]
Web: www.nlce.ie
Taken from Building Ireland Magazine, November/December 2016, Vol 2 No 7
Noel Lawler Consulting Engineers
