Farewell to Transport for London

A very belated farewell to over 18 amazing, challenging and rewarding years at Transport for London where I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to lead a team and make a real difference in the sustainability and environmental performance of TfL’s Head Office buildings.

I am super proud of the achievements I led and helped steer through with the support of some fantastic people. These include the installation of London’s largest fuel cell CHP in a building (sorry Landsec and Canary Wharf, we beat you to that by about 8 years!), helping develop the GLA’s RE:FIT energy performance contracting model, attaining Carbon Trust Standard accreditation since 2003, implementing innovative and progressive standards in building design, operation and materials, multiple success in CIBSE awards, winning Energy Manager of the Year, pioneering in development of building control systems, championing the use of data and reporting, and innovating and delivering in waste and recycling. Above all, delivering great energy, water and waste performance consistently over many years.

Above all, and what I think differentiated us (and much of the public sector), is that we were able to be totally transparent and open about our performance in energy, water and waste, whether through our unprecedented, voluntary use of Display Energy Certificates, to open reporting in TfL’s reports and full disclosure of our performance in the Better Buildings Partnership Real Estate Environmental Benchmark (REEB). We may not have had the slick PR budgets of other organisations, but I think we punched above our weight in reporting – and sharing – what we did and did not do. 

 It was also a great privilege to showcase some of our work to visitors from across the world, Poland to Chile, Norway to China, France – and the UK

Crucially I was lucky to have mostly supportive managers, that helped me develop my career, become chartered, train and take on new, often high-profile responsibilities and roles. Inevitably in a political environment, this meant varying level of support from TfL, the GLA and the Mayor, so this was easier at sometimes than others!

There are so many people I have to thank for helping me on this journey, and hopefully they know who they are, but I want to thank them publicly for their inspiration, confidence in me and support: Quinten Babcock, David Sauntson, Adam Pratt, Keith Nainby, Hayden Matthews, Adrenne Read, Professor Martin Fry, Isabel Dedring, Emma Strain, Ian Sharratt, Gordon Abbott, Graham Craig, Esther Sharples, Emma Devenish, Ian Shaw, David Sauntson, Adrian Maher, Helen Woolston, Neil Pennell, Joe Summers, Pete Daw, Tylaar Haran, David Strong, Daniel Pizarro, Syed Ahmed, Sara Turnbull, Eddie Pope, Robert Sciberras, and John Lichnerowicz, Pat Greene, Anthony Bickmore,

I have worked with some amazing companies too; though fewer small, specialist companies than I would have liked to and who I am sure could have massively benefitted us technically and financially. While I guess that is inevitable, it seriously needs to be addressed by the public sector. Committing to paying SMEs quickly but then effectively barring them from much of the work is not good enough.

Some of the companies I worked with in the FM, construction and consultancy field don’t seem to have progressed much at all in the years I have been at TfL, working in the built environment, other than by buying some new technology and talking about sustainability. No wonder the construction industry is seen as being one of the least forward thinking and progressive sectorsin the UK. They need to up their game! 

I am especially proud of the intern scheme we set up, the Royal Academy of Engineering supported Year in Industry Scheme, which would have been impossible without the persistence of Quinten Babcock. We managed to persuade 12 undergraduates from all sorts of backgrounds to spend a year with us in the world of facilities management.

Leaving TfL meant I also gave up my position on the Board of the Better Buildings Partnership, which I was a part of since its inception in 2007 and has grown substantially since in size, stature and importance to the industry. What an amazing pleasure to collaborate with peers, although mostly in the private commercial sector and REITs, who faced many similar challenges. Hopefully they will take on the challenge of actually publishing the data they have on operational performance of their buildings – more important than ever with the buildings making unsubstantiated claims of being the most sustainable building in the world.

I had a great summer holidaying, training and working on a couple of projects and decided it was time for a new challenge and recently started a new position. But more of that in another post. 

This is a thank you to TfL for allowing me to be a small part of a fabulous organisation with a wonderful heritage and future.