Season’s Greetings
As another year draws to a close, we would like to take a moment to appreciate the hard work and dedication of our staff, management team and amazing clients, who always present us with the most interesting challenges, trusting our experience and ability to solve their problems. Here is just a snippet of some of the wonderful feats we have achieved this year.
Always One Step Ahead
This year has been a real awakening in terms of the environment as the public wakes up to the reality of a climate emergency. MacConvilles is proud to say that we have always been environmentally conscious and this year we received certification that we had recycled 970kg of paper through our in-house paper recycling programme. This prevented the cutting down of 12 trees, equating to 1,350kg of CO2. Ultimately, we intend to become a paperless office, before shifting our focus onto offsetting our carbon footprint in other ways.
We renewed various accreditations in February, including ISO 9001, 14001 and 18001. These successes came as we welcomed new Graduate Building Surveyor, Jai Bray, to the surveying team.
Presenting a United Front
Our spring was fairly quiet as we worked on various building projects, ensuring, as always, quality and precision throughout every job. We rewarded ourselves for our hard work with an evening of bingo at The Amex in June, in aid of the Dame Vera Lynn Children’s Charity. We thought we had the main prize in the bag, but we were cruelly denied with a game of heads or tails in the tiebreaker.
Our next team building event was at Philleas Fogg in Hollingbury. This interactive experience whisked us away to 16 different destinations, solving puzzles and collecting treasures and currency in order to buy our freedom. We had enjoyed a presentation of the company business plan for the next five years beforehand and made the most of a sumptuous buffet afterwards, allowing us to compare notes of our fun-packed, yet challenging day.
We rounded off a fantastic month by being awarded the RICS Community Award, which we earned from our collaboration with the Brighton and Hove Food Partnership, in which we helped to build a community kitchen on Queens Road.
Working with Others
One of our long-standing clients is the University of Sussex. In July, we joined an informative guided tour of the various MacConvilles projects around the campus, both in progress and completed, which gave us an opportunity to show the office-bound personnel just what we do there. This was followed up with a slap-up lunch in the Northfield bar and beer garden. In this same month, we were also able to congratulate our Graduate Surveyor Jai Bray on passing her Building Surveying Degree with a 1st Class Honours (BSc Hons).
We ended the month on a high by receiving the Brighton & Hove Business Award 2019 for Professional Services at the Brighton Metropole. And August was just as successful, with reaccreditation of BS76000.
September was all about charity. Our #givingback pledge has enabled us to work with TogetherCo, supporting their move to new premises. TogetherCo are a loneliness charity that creates connections to change lives.
Rounding Off the Year in Style
In October, we took a selection of our clients to the theatre to see The Entertainer, starring Shane Richie, Diana Vickers and Sara Crowe. We were all delighted to see the highly acclaimed play, which was centered around war and relationships – it was a great night.
The year was rounded off with a new well-earned accreditation to our existing ISO 18008, having upgraded to SSIP. We have also welcomed Euan Carmichael to the fold just in time for Christmas – with our annual staff lunch at Brown’s Brasserie, being the perfect introduction to the team.
What a busy year it has been, and with plenty of exciting new projects in the pipeline for 2020, we anticipate just as much activity in the new year! Keep an eye out for Ben and Ash’s training updates as they ready themselves for the Hague 2020 cycle ride for team Army and the Mayor’s Charities. See you on the other side!
This Christmas MacConvilles have made a donation to CRASH who created e-card to wishing all our friend a happy and contented festive holiday. To view the card and find out more about this a unique charity that assists homelessness and hospice charities with construction related projects.
