ACR Journal

TG Lynes volunteers give hospice gardens a boost Colleagues at heating, plumbing and air movement materials supplier TG Lynes got their hands dirty to help refresh the garden of a Barnet children’s hospice. Seven employees visited Noah’s Ark Children’s Hospice to help weed and tidy the outside areas in time for summer. TG Lynes was keen to o er practical support to Noah’s Ark as its charity partner of the year. The business raised £24,000 for the hospice over 12 months of activities headlined by a gala dinner. Lindy McChesney-Tilley, management accountant at TG Lynes and one of the volunteers, said: “We were delighted to o er practical support to Noah’s Ark, which does such amazing work to help the children in its care. I’m proud that the company has raised so much money for Noah’s Ark and it’s great to complement that with hands-on assistance. “The garden areas are a lovely space for families to have fun and reflect. A few hours of hard graft from our team really helped to make them look much better for everyone.” Noah’s Ark is one of the UK’s leading children’s hospices, providing care for over 350 babies, children and young people with life-threatening or life-limiting conditions every year. Alison Goodman, deputy chief executive o cer of Noah's Ark Children's Hospice, said: “TG Lynes is part of the Noah’s Ark family. The Ark requires a lot of money and manpower to keep going, so we are extremely grateful when businesses in the community decide to get involved and support us. “The gardens are a vital part of what we do and I’m really pleased that they are looking good just as we head into the warmer months. A huge thank you to everyone involved.” NEWS 06 June | July 2023 Volume 9 No.4 Starfrost increases freezing capacity for Newburgh Foods Newburgh Foods has increased its poultry block freezing production capacity by 60% with the installation of an automated Starfrost Helix spiral freezer. The company, which supplies major supermarkets and restaurants across England, had an existing contract with a fast food chain that recently increased its capacity requirements. This led Newburgh Foods to review its freezing process capabilities and seek a solution that would fulfil the substantial increase for its customer. After considering di erent freezing methods, Newburgh Foods awarded the contract to Starfrost, who supplied and custom-built a Helix spiral freezer designed to fit seamlessly within the existing production layout at Newburgh's Warrington factory. Using natural refrigerant CO 2 , Starfrost’s equipment freezes up to 20 tonnes per day and has enabled Newburgh Foods to significantly increase its production capacity while delivering the additional benefit of increased e ciency for the firm by reducing freezing times to less than 85 minutes. This is a substantial improvement from the previously used blast freezing method, which took between 12 to 15 hours. Newburgh Foods operations manager Phil Trew said: “We chose mechanical freezing over a nitrogen cryogenic alternative because it better suited our criteria and, of course, due to the soaring, unstable cost of gas. We needed to produce more product in less time if we were going to meet our new contract target and Starfrost worked with us to provide a freezing system that would perfectly suit our needs and the needs of our customer while being a cost e ective solution. “The spiral freezer has allowed us to significantly increase production capacity by 60% and substantially reduce freezing time. The quality of the engineered equipment and specification provided by Starfrost has impressed the team at Newburgh Foods.” BSRIA publishes retrofit white paper BSRIA has published a white paper looking at retrofit in a summary of its 2022 online conference. Refurbishment for Net Zero, now available from the BSRIA bookshop, explores the case for retrofit, what’s working in terms of technology and process and the theme of performance and wellbeing in relation to net zero refurbishment and indoor air quality. The paper discusses everyday practice in tackling energy e ciency and the ‘fabric first’ approach as well as the ventilation of buildings, air quality, and the wellbeing of building occupants. Attention is also given to the retrofit processes which can help deliver swift progress and positive achievements. The free download is available at https://bit.ly/41UnBGg.