SIG Insulations has launched a new service, SIG 360o, to help small to medium-sized housebuilders build energy efficient homes and meet the challenging requirements of sustainability legislation.
Faced with increasingly complex guidelines from the Building Regulations, PassivHaus and Code for Sustainable Homes, the only current viable option for housebuilders is to pay fees to a sustainability consultant. While they will make recommendations on how to meet requirements, housebuilders will still have to source the required products through different suppliers, incurring additional cost.
360o provides an alternative solution. A newly formed team of technical experts provides legislative guidance and recommendations, then facilitates the delivery and installation of the products through SIG’s national distribution network. The consultancy aspect of the service is free, with customers only charged the normal costs of the products ordered through SIG.
Andrew Orriss, SIG Insulations’ Head of Business Development and project lead for SIG 360o, said: “We are seeing a real desire from housebuilders to build sustainable properties – not just because legislation demands it, but because by doing so they can limit the lifetime cost of a property to the eventual owners and improve quality of life.
“However, they are caught between a rock and a hard place,” he explained, “because while the desire is there, the money often isn’t. Existing offerings in the marketplace are either prohibitively expensive, or are from providers that don’t have the market reach or experience to solve such complex sustainability issues.”
According to Andrew, the service is about taking SIG’s capability and experience and packaging it in a way that will specifically help small to medium-sized housebuilders.
“Smaller housebuilders often don’t have the capacity or in-house expertise to navigate through the minefield of legislation around sustainable building,” Andrew remarked. “Because SIG does, it seems a logical step to extend this to our customers wherever possible.
“By launching this as a dedicated service,” Andrew concluded, “we can ensure we have the internal structures in place to meet high levels of demand and the scope to add value throughout the build process from start to finish.”