XCO2 have been working with Costa Coffee since 2013 providing a mixture of regulatory, design and operational guidance services. The most longstanding collaboration is the provision of energy performance analysis to demonstrate compliance with Building Regulations Part L, which XCO2 carry out for all new Costa Coffee stores, whether for retail park, drive thru or high street stores. This includes the analysis of over 150 sites to date and the issuing of almost 80 Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs). Furthermore the company has provided guidance to the various project teams on the implications of updates to the Regulations and how they impact upon the specification of individual systems and components, as well as the overall compliance performance for the sites.
In parallel to the regulatory analysis, XCO2 also act as BREEAM Assessors for all sites where there are BREEAM fit-out requirements. This role means working alongside the fit-out project team to compile the requisite evidence for Design and Post-Construction Assessments, supporting the discharge of Planning Conditions and Green Lease requirements. XCO2 have additionally run client and project team workshops to review specifications and documentation requirements in order to standardise the approach taken for BREEAM.
As a supporting service to the BREEAM Assessment work, a template for a Building User Guide that is provided to staff at all new BREEAM certified stores was created. This was developed in conjunction with the new store openings team, staff trainers and the staff themselves in order to ensure it best suited their needs and provided a comprehensive yet concise guide to the control and operation of their new store. More recently, XCO2 undertook a comfort review to support the store design teams in enhancing the thermal comfort for staff and customers across the portfolio. This exercise reviewed the current performance, using dynamic thermal modelling to identify the root cause of over heating and over cooling that had been observed in certain stores at particular times.
The XCO2 team were then able to consider a range of HVAC and control solutions to mitigate the adverse impacts and demonstrate a more balanced solution for each of the store typologies. The conclusions made were fed back to the design teams as guidance for future projects and retrofit in existing stores. More recently, XCO2 have been working with Costa to optimise the performance of electrical systems in the new Fresco concept stores through a detailed metering, monitoring and specification review.
