Hemel construction giant’s Christmas gift to the community

The company is in the process of moving its South East operations from St Albans to Breakspear Park, where it already has its UK headquarters, which has about 400 staff.

Its surplus furniture is being gifted to NHS trusts, charities and schools with the donations arranged though collection enterprise Collecteco.

The donation is part of ongoing community action at the company.

Last year the South East team raised more than £43,000 for charities and the community through fundraising, donations, and sponsorship.

Adam Harding, director of BAM Construction in the South East, said: “Donating our furniture is not only helping others but it also saves waste.

“The donations allow those receiving the furniture to spend their money on more important things.

“Collecteco were fantastic in assisting us and we plan to utilise them where we can in future projects.

Mr Harding said: “Our new and improved office space allows us to be based on one main floor area, alongside some informal collaboration areas for smaller teams.

“We will also benefit from having more advanced meeting spaces with up to date audio/visual conference systems, allowing better communication across the virtual network.”

BAM’s South East team employs 160 full-time staff with around 110 of them working on projects across the region, including the Chiltern Lifestyle Centre in Amersham, Balliol College in Oxford, and Chiltern Hills Academy in Chesham.

Last year, the 150-year-old BAM was named Contractor of the Year at the Education Estates conference for its design and construction of primary schools, secondary schools, colleges and university buildings across the UK.

Collecteco director Steve Sliney said: “The 500 items of furniture donated by BAM, diverted over 20 tonnes of good quality, modern kit from recycling, resulting avoiding 19,237 kg of CO2 into the atmosphere and saving tens of thousands of pounds if the community had had to buy new furniture instead.”

One of the organisations that has received some of BAM’s surplus furniture is Ruislip Baptist Church. The donation included much-needed desks and lockable cupboards which would have cost the church about £3,000 if purchased new.

Rev Derek Page, the church’s senior minister, said: “We’re extremely grateful for the furniture.

“As a charitable organisation focused on the needs of the community around us, it’s hard for us to justify spending donations on office furniture particularly during the current pandemic.

“The new furniture has now been set up in the church office.

“We are also pleased to be able to give good quality furniture a new home.”