CASE STUDY: WAKEFIELD COLLEGE Wakefield College gives Brand-Rex top marks Based nine miles southeast of Leeds and 28 miles southwest of York on the eastern edge of the UK’s Pennines district, Wakefield College first opened its doors in 1868. After experiencing gradual expansion, it is now West Yorkshire’s largest college and is currently home to 700 staff and over 10,000 students of all ages and abilities, studying a broad range of academic and vocational courses. CASE STUDY: WAKEFIELD COLLEGE “We recognised the need to install a top quality cabling system and after assessing what was available with our chosen installation partner, Connect IP, it was clear that Brand-Rex could meet our requirements.” Wakefield College has gained an enviable reputation for the quality of Brand-Rex has continually set the standard within its own industry and the education it offers. A level pass rates have been above 95 per cent beyond and, as well as boasting carbon neutrality to ISO 14064 and and it currently has an established higher education provision, which is PAS 2060 certifications, it recently won the Vision In Business for the branded as the University Centre Wakefield. What’s more, a recent Ofsted Environment in Scotland (VIBES) Award in the Energy Management report praised its approach to working with the local community and its and Efficiency category. commitment to equality and diversity. ‘Getting to a point where we can describe Cat6Plus as carbon neutral was a Students attend one of three campuses, all located in the Wakefield complex but highly worthwhile exercise,’ says Kennedy Miller, technology and district. The dedicated sixth form college is based on Margaret Street, sustainability manager at Brand-Rex. ‘By establishing the emissions we create while the Thornes Park campus houses all arts and business higher – from the sourcing of the base materials, through to transportation and education courses. Meanwhile, the SkillsXchange centre in Castleford manufacture, and finally to delivery to the customer – we can ensure that we is home to all technical and vocational programmes. offset this with investment in projects that produce fewer greenhouses gasses. We also manufacture our products at our facility in Glenrothes, which itself Like all modern educational establishments, there is a massive reliance reduces the impact on the environment.’ on IT and therefore a high quality network infrastructure is needed to support this demand. Wakefield College’s Shane O’Donnell says: As a result of its activities Wakefield College will be the first educational establishment in Yorkshire to receive the Carbon Trust Standard. ‘In 2012 we completed a £7.6m redevelopment of the Margaret Street site, O’Donnell comments, ‘This publicly recognises an organisation’s efforts which marked an important milestone in our plans to create vibrant state- in reducing carbon emissions and provides tangible proof to employees, of-the-art learning facilities. We recognised the need to install a top quality customers and suppliers that we are committed to making future cabling system and after assessing what was available with our chosen reductions. Working with Brand-Rex has helped to make this possible.’ installation partner, Connect IP, it was clear that Brand-Rex could meet our requirements.’ As a result of the successful installation of the Cat6Plus solution at the Margaret Street redevelopment, Brand-Rex is now the IT network cabling Brand-Rex was invited to discuss the features and benefits of the manufacturer of choice for Wakefield College. The company’s products company’s industry leading solutions. The college was very clear about will be used across the whole estate for new build and refurbishment what they wanted from the network cabling infrastructure and decided programmes, including the new Margaret street campus building – that the Cat6Plus system would tick all the boxes. It is a premium a four-storey structure with approximately 250 outlets per floor. This is performance structured cabling system that provides a stable and due for completion before the beginning of the 2014-2015 academic reliable platform to run LAN applications up to Gigabit Ethernet speeds. year and will be followed soon after by a refurbishment of the Crofton It can distribute video and support Power over Ethernet (PoE), and Academy building. has the additional advantage of being entirely carbon neutral, which will help Wakefield College meet its sustainability and corporate social responsibility (CSR) targets. This was a very important factor, as Wakefield College has had a clearly defined environmental policy in place since 1997. In addition it has created, in partnership with the Carbon Trust, a Carbon Management Plan (CMP) and O’Donnell explains: ‘There are a number of commitments that we have made to continually improve and enhance our influence on the environment. This includes working with companies that can demonstrate excellent sustainability based credentials. Brand-Rex clearly shares our ethos and I was thoroughly impressed with the range of activities it undertakes and the accolades it has received.’ brand-rex head office viewfield industrial estate, glenrothes, fife, KY6 2RS united kingdom tel: +44 (0) 1592 772124 web: www.brand-rex.com email: [email protected] CS_BRX0672_0614.