Environment Agency prepares design briefs

The Environment Agency is set to brief consultancies appointed to its newly formed roster on internal and external communications projects concerned with the move of its headquarters next year.


Environment Agency design manager Dawn Fitzgerald says that the move to Cabot House in central Bristol, the new national headquarters for the organisation from 2010, will yield work for the rostered design consultancies.


She says, ‘It’s not just the staff that will be affected. As we’re setting ourselves up as an example of eco building, we need to put this across to the building industry, architects and organisations, to show that you can build sustainably without breaking budgets.


‘We need to show that we’re not wasting taxpayers’ money and find clever ways of putting messages across using our corporate identity and brand ethos. It won’t be anything flashy, but it will be modern and clean-looking,’ adds Fitzgerald.


Internal communications projects are also in store for rostered groups. ‘We have had a lot of changes recently: a new chief executive, a new chairman and a new director of communications, so there will be internal communications projects arising out of this,’ says Fitzgerald.


The groups that have been appointed to the enlarged roster – up to eight groups from a previous six-strong framework – are CDS, Mytton Williams, Thirteen, Robson Dowry, The Brightlight, BWA Design, Pogo and Plus One. These were selected through an official tender process from more than 140 responses, whittled down over a ninemonth period, says Fitzgerald.


Projects will be awarded ‘fairly’ on suitability and without a pitch, says Fitzgerald.


‘We don’t do pitching. Our consultancies have walked across hot coals to get on the books, and by now we are sure of what they can do,’ she says.

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