Padiham company's green light for sustainable plans

Rapid IT, in Wyre Street, was notified by Chamber Low Carbon, that it qualified for support under the scheme and the team can now set to work making substantial improvements to the building.

Jack Bannister, managing director at Rapid IT, said: “This comes as fantastic news for the business and we’re keen to get started on the improvements right away.

“We’ve been in the building for eight years now and in 2017 bought it from Craggs Energy, as we sought to secure our future here in the town.

“We’ve been doing a lot work during the lockdown period to refresh the Rapid IT brand both in terms of marketing and internal branding and to get the go-ahead on these additional plans really is the icing on the cake.”

A survey carried out on the former drinks’ factory, once used as a storage depot by Cooke Oil, found the existing Rapid IT premises to be in poor condition and in need of substantial improvements to both the building fabric and the heating and power installations, in order to improve its environmental performance and reduce carbon emissions.

As part of this work, consultants Edge Efficiency advised a project to be undertaken to replace the poorly insulated roof and external wall cladding with modern, well insulated and air-tight cladding system, incorporating high levels of insulation.

This would simultaneously enable Rapid IT to improve the energy efficiency and internal thermal comfort conditions. As part of this work, the building will be installed with a 30kW solar PV system, provide Rapid IT’s own on-site zero carbon power source, further reducing its carbon footprint.

Jack said: “Our ultimate goal is to become a carbon neutral business, and this is a big step towards achieving that. With the grant in place, we’re now ready to start our journey.

“We have already contacted local contractors to go ahead with the works, which we hope will be complete within the next two months.

“It really is a huge investment in the business, in the area and in our staff and we look forward to a long, sustainable future in the county.

“I want to say a huge thank you to everyone who has helped us throughout this process from Chamber Low Carbon, Edge Efficiency and all our suppliers.”