City firm bids for most energy efficient office in Lincolnshire

A Lincoln-based firm will build its new subsidiary HQ with the aim to create the most energy efficient office in the county.

Cool Milk’s new £400,000 premises at Langworth will use some of the latest technology to cut energy costs by half and reduce carbon emissions by up to 75%.

The systems used in the new building will include solar panels for electricity, solar water panels for heating water, rain water harvesting for toilet flushing from Freerain, and low energy LED lighting.

The building will also employ mechanical heat recovery ventilation systems to keep a flow of fresh air and pre-warm it in the winter and air source heat pumps for heating and cooling the building.

Bridge House, designed by SGA Associates and constructed by Collingham-based Gusto Construction, is believed to be the first in Lincolnshire to use a new cutting-edge construction material, called the thin joint solid block system.

It uses specially manufactured aircrete blocks and quick-setting thin layer of adhesive rather than a traditional block and mortar system. This allows for much quicker construction times and makes the building more air tight – allowing for more efficient heating and cooling.

The new offices will house employees from Langworth Resources Ltd, which acts as a head office for Cool Milk’s UK dairy interests.

Cool Milk has a number of dairy businesses in the UK and supplies over 600,000 children a day with school milk.

It has offices in Lincoln and Durham, employing some 200 people in the UK, as well as branches in Hungary, Slovakia and Ireland.

Cool Milk Founder and CEO Jon Thornes said the company had moved out of Langworth four years ago but he was keen to re-establish a base in the village because that was where the company started 15 years ago.

“Cool Milk had to move out of Langworth due to lack of space and lack of facilities. I decided then that I wanted to have some presence in the village where the business started 15 years ago,” Jon Thornes said.

“A modern resource efficient building will pay for itself in the long run by giving reduced running costs and a good place to work,” he added.

“This is a really exciting project. It is always good to work with forward-looking companies like Cool Milk who are keen to build cutting edge offices which will both reduce their future energy costs and create a pleasant working environment for their staff. ” said Gusto chief executive Steff Wright.

“Not only will it be one of the most energy-efficient offices in the county but we are expecting to complete the project quicker because of the innovative building techniques.”