Supporting our Communities through expert advice
3rd Nov, 2020
SDS is proud of its Corporate Social Responsibility Culture. Part of the Company Mission Statement is commitment “….to the environment and the community around us, focussed on the development needs of our People…”
We take pride in the active role we play in supporting our local community deliver social value, and encourage staff to support causes that are meaningful to them. Read more about recent works our principal mechanical engineer, Keir Mounfield has been undertaking for Hope Rescue, a registered charity that saves stray and abandoned dogs in South Wales.
“Since January 2019, I have been part of the capital projects group for Hope Rescue looking at building services elements of their forthcoming projects and existing assets. My involvement has primarily focussed on reduction of running costs to the estate, to minimise funds spent on their building operations. I’m quite proud of what was achieved in the time I’ve been on board.
At the main rescue centre in Llanharan, we converted the heating in the kennel blocks from bottled LPG to a bulk storage cylinder located below ground. Each kennel has to be heated to meet the requirements of the local authority stray dog contract so the bill for bottled gas was very high. In previous winters, the team had experienced issues in being able to get replacement bottles to site during times of snow, plus volunteers having to move 50kg gas bottles to change over was not ideal. I undertook the design, liaised with the gas supplier and assisted in managing the work on site plus modifications to the existing gas services to boilers to get the system operational before the winter of 2019. The automated re-ordering regime in place with the supplier means that the heat can stay on when required, year round.
The charity shop in Pontypridd was flooded back in February during Storm Dennis and is only just now getting near to re-opening after a long drying out and refit period. The shop provides considerable income as well as a safe and friendly community space for crafters or those just wanting a coffee at the small café so the loss to the charity and wider community has been hard hitting. In this downtime we have looked to procure a heat pump heating and cooling system to replace the non functioning electric heaters. I undertook the design for this, administered a tender process approaching local contractors and are now looking to begin the installation works in the coming weeks. I have also procured a CCTV system for the shop, and am looking to reinstall the system this week as part of the fit out of the shop”.
You can read more about our CSR activities and latest charitable work here. If you are a local charity in need of support, please do contact us.
