It’s a company that started on the water, but which has made a huge impact on land. With consistent growth, a major prize saw Greengauge’s success skyrocket. Now, a change to employee ownership has helped solidify the company’s existing structure.
A Design for Life
Greengauge Building Energy Consultants was formed by Hannah Jones and Toby Cambray. The couple were living on a houseboat at the time, with Hannah working for an engineering company. It was during that period that she began to think about better ways of doing the work and, with Toby, formed Greengauge with the plan to do things differently.
For a while, their home on the water was the company HQ as the company found its feet, growing quickly from its two founders to a staff of 16, and taking up permanent residence firstly in Bradford on Avon, and more recently, a second base in Huddersfield.
Though not architects, the company provides low energy design solutions for buildings that combine comfort, simplicity and efficiency. That could include the insulation, designing the electrical and mechanical elements of a property, or specifying what’s best suited to the building – for example heat pumps and photovoltaic cells.
The team work to determine the best, most optimal efficiencies that can be achieved from the fabric of the building. That comes primarily from either the internal or external wall insulation. This idea of building physics also ties into Passive House, the German Swedish devised standard for energy efficiency that reduces a building’s carbon footprint.
As well as working to Passive House standards, Greengauge is one of a handful of UK companies able to certify work as well. Other design companies approach Greengauge to talk about their work, and seek Greengauge’s help to do the certification work, recognising the skill and expertise within the team.
Another aspect of the building physics work undertaken by Greengauge is around moisture. In fact, Toby is undertaking a PhD on the subject, looking at moisture risk in buildings. Covering older, heritage buildings right up to more recent builds, looking at the building material and the design, using the findings to inform the best insulation strategy. They also undertake modelling analysis of structures, a specialist area which also forms part of retrofit projects, to understand how best to proceed with any redevelopments.
Taking the Prize
While its reputation continued to grow, it was a social housing project which saw Greengauge accelerate. Working alongside Mikhail Riches Architects, Greengauge did the Mechanical and Electrical (M&E) designs for the Goldsmith Street development for Norwich City Council (NCC).
NCC decided to develop the site themselves, rather than sell to a local housing developer. The council chose to make the housing Passive House certifiable, a groundbreaking idea for social housing. It became the biggest 100% Passive House, 100% social rented housing scheme in the country, comprising 105 properties. It was also the largest scheme that Greengauge had worked on, designing the water systems, heating, ventilation and all electrical systems.
That work led to the project picking up the Royal Institute British Architects Stirling Prize, the most prestigious architecture award in the UK, and one of a flurry that saw the Goldsmith Street development become a multi-award-winning project.
Following the project’s success, Greengauge began working with more individuals and developers from across the UK, with big architects in London, to smaller practices and individuals undertaking projects of their own. Much of that has come via word of mouth and referrals, a testament to the quality of Greengauge’s work and burgeoning reputation. That’s included work in Scotland, with the government there keen on Passive House design due to the economic benefits for public buildings which are more energy efficient.
Best of Both Worlds
Richard Day is Studio Manager at Greengauge, overseeing and supporting the technical team in the day-to-day running of projects, onboarding new work, responding to enquiries, undertaking data analysis and anything else required to keep the Engineering and Physics teams running effectively. When discussions were taking place about making a change to become Employee Owned (EO), it felt like a natural switch. Richard said, “People ask what’s your structure, and actually one of the reasons we moved to being EO is because Hannah and Toby have always been very inclusive in the way they’ve run the business, and it was a model that seemed to fit the way we were heading.”
Another reason for wanting to make the switch was a desire to maintain what was working and the company’s ethos. “We’ve seen other consultancy firms like ours be sold to other venture capitalists or competitors, and that was certainly not a route that Toby and Hannah wanted to go down. Greengauge is their baby, and they wanted to stay involved and be able to influence its direction, and there’s still greater involvement from the rest of the team. Becoming EO gives them the best of both worlds. It was just a no brainer.”
Working with Finance Director Jeremy Kirk from SouthWestFD Ltd., the Greengauge board leaned on his EO experience and spoke to other organisations who had made the change. Richard also attended workshops run by the Employee Ownership Association, and by September of 2024, the decision was announced to Greengauge’s employees.
Doing the Work
It was Jeremy’s links with Gavin Poole, Partner in the Corporate team and one of Stephens Scown’s EO specialists, which saw both parties come together to formalise Greengauge’s switch to an EO company. Stephens Scown’s own status as an EO firm also helped, demonstrating how the model could be successful for an organisation.
With much of the work and contact taking place online, between the regular catchups and information being relayed between the parties, the process was done quickly. From the decision in June, and an announcement to the team in September, the transition was concluded by the end of October. Alongside Gavin, Molly Ripley and Jennifer Short-Martin from Stephens Scown’s Corporate team helped hit the deadline, with Greengauge wanting to start their new financial year (from 1 November) as an EO business.
Speaking about the experience and working with Stephens Scown, Richard said, “Gavin came recommended because of his experience, and it made good sense. We were very, very lucky and it all ran smoothly, I have to say. One thing that was useful was that Gavin put together a very good timeline plan with key milestones marked out for us. We were keen to make sure that we stuck to those milestones, and I’m pleased to say that we did. In fact, towards the end, we were a couple of days to a week ahead of schedule.”
“For something you look back on and which doesn’t seem such a big thing, given the volume of documents that had to be created and registered, it was all straightforward. Greengauge has always been a company that prides itself on team ethos. The way we approach projects, the way we undertake research, the way we do everything has a team element, so this was a natural progression for us.”
With two employee representatives on the board and a first board meeting under the new structure scheduled, Richard says, “Having done this, we want to keep up the momentum. We’ve just taken on a new engineer and we’re seeing natural growth, we want to keep that rolling. We work on a diverse range of projects with a great group of engineers and people who have fantastic knowledge.”
As an EO company which continues to thrive, Greengauge’s methodical, deliberate planning and philosophy makes an outstanding blueprint for others to follow.
