Green Park is a high-tech business park near junction 11 of the M4 on the outskirts of Reading. The site covers 195 acres and is home to several high-profile businesses including Cisco Systems, Bayer, Symantec and PepsiCo. About five thousand people work on the site, which includes a lake, several restaurants, hotels, leisure facilities and childcare facilities. All the Green Park buildings have solid ‘green’ credentials – the park includes a 120-metre-tall wind turbine generating 2.3 megawatts of power annually – and is the only business park in the UK to achieve the prestigious Wildlife Trust’s Biodiversity Benchmark award.
In 2014 we were approached by the maintenance team at Green Park who needed some help with their outdated estate street lighting luminaires. These had been installed when the park was built back in the mid 1990’s and were failing regularly. Altitude responded quickly and effectively and soon built up a working relationship with the client, becoming the go-to partner for external lighting.
Altitude were rewarded with a long term Fixed Cost Maintenance contract for the external estate lighting, meaning that for a fixed annual fee Altitude would be on hand to carry out any street lighting repairs that were required without any additional cost to the client. This provides both budget certainty and the ability to ensure that the site remains well-lit.
In 2015 it was decided that the park would benefit from LED street lighting. Altitude were asked to put together some design proposals, and a shortlist of two options was settled on. We provided samples of each type and installed them side by side on site so that they could be compared in situ. It was then decided to proceed with the Urbis Schreder proposal.
Altitude Services carried out the supply and installation works, which included re-painting the lighting columns. The aesthetic results have been excellent, as well as improving light levels and reducing outages. The LED scheme generated carbon/energy and maintenance savings that covered the outlay cost of the project within 4.5 years.
Over 250 lighting columns were improved, over a 4 week period. Works were completed on time, on budget and with no accidents.
The project didn’t come without it’s challenges. Altitude had to design and fabricate special bespoke brackets to fit the existing columns. Green Park is a busy hub, with a lot of pedestrians, cyclists, and vehicles but there were no hold-ups or disruptions caused by our works, and nobody got wet paint on anything that shouldn’t have been painted!
Bob Payne, Altitude Managing Director: “Being tasked with lighting such a high-profile site presented the Altitude team with a challenge we were delighted to meet head on, and we’re really pleased with the results. The scheme achieves the high quality and sustainable lighting level needed for the Green Park environment which is used by leading international businesses 24-hours a day, whilst providing our Client with significant reductions in energy and carbon costs. “
