Trunk Low Energy Building Ltd had an award winning 2013. It was an exceptional year for the company, which became a Chartered Building Consultancy, with founder Mike Jacob being listed as one of Building Magazine’s 50 Rising Stars of Sustainability. At the Constructing Excellence Awards London and South-East, Trunk was selected as a finalist in three categories including Project of The Year, and Mike Jacob was awarded the prestigious Achiever of The Year Award.

In 2014 Trunk have already become finalists in the Construction News Specialist Awards for Project of the Year (>£500,000), and have more exciting projects in the pipeline.

Trunk is a completely independent low energy building specialist. Services offered span all aspects of low energy design and Passivhaus consultancy including PHPP and dynamic thermal and moisture modeling. However project management is at their core and all they do is underpinned by knowledge-based expertise.

Trunk’s methodology offers their clients the benefit of choice – not a binary choice of ‘all of Trunk’, or ‘nothing’. Trunk is highly adept at working with existing design teams / architects, consultants / advisors, and is equally experienced at starting part way through a project as it is at leading from the outset.

Trunk clients Mr & Mrs K. from Oxon explained “Trunk became involved when our chosen main contractor had presented us with a contract price more than 25% higher than our budget as estimated by our QS. Mike used his contacts and made new ones to help us completely overhaul the construction method and approach and, without his input, we would not have been able to proceed nor get the project back in line with the budget”.

They continued “Mike manages to have quite difficult discussions on occasions with various advisors and subcontractors but always manages to keep them on side. He is assertive and fair but not aggressive. Mike does not shy away from raising challenging questions and issues for the greater good of the project.”

Trunk are rare in the market place; Trunk’s specific approach, knowledge base and expertise is not easily found elsewhere. They specialise in very low energy and Passivhaus buildings utilising a first principles / fabric first approach. They are experts at running cost analysis and energy modeling in tandem to fully interrogate the cost-benefit of proposed measures. Mr F., from Shropshire stated “Trunk produced an excellent options appraisal, supported by detailed energy and cost modeling,” while Mr & Mrs R. from Essex said “We found they excelled in the following areas: Detailed cost benefit analysis, selecting contractors, finding solutions to inevitable problems.”

The company is sensitive to the enormous investment all involved in a self-build project are making; not least the financial pressure private clients are under. Their clients are usually private individuals but also include architects, developers and others.

One such client Mr M. in Kent reported “Despite only being appointed after detailed planning permission had been granted, Trunk were able to save us well over £100,000 by very cleverly value engineering the design of the insulated fabric of the house whilst still achieving near Passivhaus levels of energy efficiency.”

At the CE Awards Trunk was a finalist in the Leadership & People Development award because of the extensive work that the Trunk team has done in working with all parties on site. The judges were impressed by their site work including the problem solving of difficult details unforeseen at the design stage, and the training and therefore empowerment of all trades and contractors (including those with zero previous low energy building experience).

Mr M. (Kent) stated “Trunk were very useful in co-ordinating the expertly supervised re-housing of bats prior to demolition, as well as identifying a terrific lighting consultant to help discharge a very onerous external lighting condition imposed by the planners.”

Driven by a genuine desire to instil a sense of pride and passion into the work the team work tirelessly to engage everyone on site in best practice principles and to deliver an exceptional project for the client.

Across the board clients report being highly satisfied, describing the company's work as “invaluable”. Better still in the vast majority of cases Trunk was able to save clients more than the cost of their fee, thus making their help an even brighter proposition.

For more information on Trunk Low Energy Building please visit the website at www.trunklowenergybuilding.co.uk