AUDE (the Association of University Directors of Estates) partners with a very limited number of external companies and organisations each year in order to help our members (directors of estates, and estates and facilities teams in universities in the UK and abroad) access real expertise in relevant areas from those business partner organisations. We are very pleased today to announce that property and construction management consultancy Rider Levett Bucknall (RLB UK ) have joined our Business Partner roster. With global and sector expertise as well as deep experience in a wide range of relevant disciplines it is great to have RLB on our team.

RLB experts will be joining us across the year to talk to the AUDE network about how they have:

• supported university estate teams in their drive to reduce their carbon footprint and whole life carbon usage
• partnered with universities to support rebuild, retrofit and repurpose existing projects for new usage, including shared spaces with local businesses and research organisations, including life science providers
• provided information management strategies specific to university estates as part of estates intelligence and operations
• And worked with universities to deliver cost management and project management for both new build facilities and refurbishments.

While operating in 36 countries, of course scale alone doesn’t guarantee they will be the ideal fit for your project but it is an indicator of credibility, and we know you will want to explore their knowledge, recent projects and case studies as demonstrated on the AUDE website. Among the projects being highlighted are examples from the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Manchester, Bristol, East Anglia, East London, Liverpool, Reading and Wolverhampton.

AUDE Executive Director, Jane Harrison-White, said: “We know that our university members take a lot from our Business Partners. This status is hard won, with potential Business Partners going through a rigorous application process that does not always lead to success. Applicants must have a clear and detailed offer to AUDE’s members. We were very pleased to be approached by RLB and for their clear steer to AUDE around the benefits they believe they can bring to our membership. Their expertise has been developed whilst working with more than fifty universities. Again, that’s the kind of scale that carries credibility.”

Rider Levett Bucknall’s Stephen Scott (Partner and National Head of Education), said: “AUDE is an extremely natural organisation for us to partner with. AUDE’s members are at the forefront of very interesting property and construction challenges as they set out to create and maintain and refurbish estates of considerable size, and all at a time of real change, for instance in digital technologies. RLB is a readymade collaborator for any education estate needing support to think about that digital transition, but also sustainability, and long term estates strategy. We think we have the indepth expertise needed to support AUDE members in a wide variety of positions and we look forward to demonstrating that throughout the time of this Business Partnership”.

We are very pleased to be able to invite you to our first learning session with RLB, to be held on 13 May at 12 noon:

The UK Net Zero Carbon Buildings Standard: From Net Zero ambition to measurable delivery (click for full details).