Adam Alexander

Adam co-ordinates and leads our sustainability and energy offering across all our projects.  Working alongside our mechanical and electrical teams.

He takes a leading role on ESG related schemes and projects, from MEES and EPC compliance, all types of BREEAM assessments as well as the supporting consultancy roles needs to ensure optimum sustainable performance.

Adam is also a CIBSE Low Carbon Consultant (LCC) and Low Carbon Energy Assessor (LCEA), utilising our in house software (GiSBEM, TM44 Airs and ORCal) to make informed building performance evaluations.

What do you enjoy most about working for MEP / in this industry?

The breadth of experience and knowledge found within the team does afford us the ability to seek and accept a wide variety of work and clients.

The industry has changed immensely over the last few centuries, in respect to the energy and climate agenda. The way we build is changing, the challenges we face are changing, and the technology is changing; therefore, what we face is a constantly moving target.  This is the fun part of consultancy.

As engineers, we too have had to adapt, retrain and adopt new strategies.  That is the most enjoyable element to this industry, constant change.

It keeps you on your toes and ensures our consulting engineering mind set is primed for the next legislation change, technology shift or challenge.

 What has been your most challenging project?

BREEAM generally has many moving parts, multiple disciplines involved, and this can be challenging; however, taking this to another country (Luxembourg, for example) and the language barrier just lifted this even higher.

I conducted a project on a large-scale office in Luxembourg for BREEAM In Use.  I had a German client, Dutch & German maintenance engineers, French contractors, and multiple tenants in a government building.  This was immensely challenging to conduct remotely and on-site. 

This was also extremely interesting, pushing myself beyond my usual comfort zone.  The scheme was completed and received a BREEAM In Use grade of Excellent.

It was my first European scheme and first installation of an onsite Apiary (Bee Hive) where the office is now selling its locally produced honey on site, and yes, it tasted bittersweet.

What do you do when you’re not working?

Well, there is the usual DIY (destroy it yourself), we pride ourselves on buying long-term projects and then haplessly let family life get in the way of progress.  I also spend an awful lot of time toiling away in the garden.  It’s a labour of love, most of our MEP LinkedIn posts that involve plants and wildlife have been pinched from our garden (shhhh don’t tell the misses).

Since about 2012, I have been coaching athletics and cross country (Northampton Athletic Club) to junior athletes.  My son being one of them, although he has mysteriously now reached the lofty heights of 6ft 2” and isn’t a junior anymore.  Not quite sure how that has happened?

As it is with this nature of sport, we run and we run a lot.  It started that the two of us would be out jogging, then running together most evenings or weekends, but it appears  ‘old father time’ is no stranger to pair of trainers and so my pace has dropped off and my lads has accelerated!  Now I can be found at least a half mile or county behind.

Tell us one thing no one knows about you?

I like to draw, having been technically taught on the drawing board, which is nothing unusual to a lot of people in our industry.  However, I also enjoy creating cartoon illustrations around favourite characters for friends and family.  I used to do live caricatures which, if I’m very honest, scared me to pieces, but was at the same time also exciting.