As 2023 draws to a close, we’ve come together as a team to reflect on some of our best bits from the last 12 months.

It’s been a busy and exciting year for Fulkers Bailey Russell. We celebrated a wonderful 25 years in business and our London head office moved to an inspiring new workspace. We’ve won some significant new work and projects in a diverse range of sectors and have seen personal and professional growth in our teams, not forgetting we have hit some amazing sustainability targets!

Thank you to all our clients and colleagues for helping to make 2023 our best year yet.

We’re feeling energised and excited to start work in 2024 but for now, here are our top highlights from 2023.

1. In January we celebrated a host of promotions, 20 to be precise! What a way to kick off the new year!

2. Back in March, and for the first time we actively participated in B Corp month, an annual, global campaign in which B Lab and the global B Corp community join together to celebrate everything it means to be a B Corp. We shared our commitment to become a certified B Corp and how we were working hard with our internal groups to focus on the five areas of governance, workers, community, customers and environment.

3. In April London South Bank University’s London Road Building won Architects’ Journal’s Retrofit Higher Education and Campus Award. Summed up by one judge as ‘a tired old building that has taken off an old jacket and put on a brand new tuxedo’, Fulkers were delighted to provide Project Management and Cost Management services to this transformative project.

4. Also in April we saw the inception of our new in-house Talent Team who have already had a huge impact on our business, facilitating our biggest hiring year in the company’s history.

5. We were also thrilled to be a finalist for the UKREiiF award for ‘Consultancy of the Year’. These awards recognise innovation, inspirational leadership and world class partnerships across real estate, property and infrastructure.

6. Success continued into the summer when in June, one of our projects, Industria, which we provided Cost Management and Project Management services for won “Best Use of Brownfield Land in Placemaking” at the Planning Resource Awards. Industria is a top-quality development in the heart of London Borough of Barking and Dagenham which sets new standards for sustainability and offers fantastic new workspaces for the neighbourhood.

7. Also in June the Secretary of State for Education, Gillian Keegan MP opened South Bank Colleges Technical College, London’s newest college teaching advanced technical skills to over 2,000 students in state of the art facilities, a project for which we provided Cost Management services.

8. On the 1^st of August it was time to celebrate as Fulkers turned 25! Having grown from a small team working from an office in Kent to a national consultancy with over 170 employees, we now provide a true multidisciplinary service to our clients, across a huge range of sectors. We put people at the forefront of all we do and we make decisions with purpose.

9. In our second appointment of the year for the University of West England (UWE), Fulkers were awarded the contract to provide Cost Management services for the relocation and refurbishment of the School of Health and Social Wellbeing, from Glenside to the Frenchay campus, transforming the way new health and social care professionals are trained, and strengthening our long standing relationship with UWE.

10. More celebrations in August as we were appointed to the HPCCAS (Healthcare Planning, Construction Consultancy and Ancillary Services) Framework Agreement for NHS Shared Business Services. An excellent opportunity for us to work with clients creating great change to improving the lives of others.

11. Celebrations continued into September as we moved up across the board in Building Magazine’s list of Top Consultants 2023, 67^th overall and within the top 25 for Surveyors and Project Managers!

12. Also in September we held our Annual Summer Conference bringing together colleagues from all over the UK to share company updates, celebrate good news, enjoy delicious food and drinks, and participate in team building challenges.

13. And then the big one… in October Fulkers became a Certified B Corporation! Joining a community of over 4,000 businesses around the world that are committed to balancing purpose and profit. Becoming a Certified B Corporation was a huge achievement for our company and validation of our long-standing commitment to sustainability and social responsibility.

14. Continuing the theme of social responsibility and also in October some of our colleague’s climbed the Yorkshire Three Peaks in unrelenting rain and wind to raise money for our chosen charity of the year, CRY (Cardiac Risk in the Young). We could not be prouder of their efforts to push themselves physically in support of such a worthy cause.

15. And that wasn’t it for October, following our successful B Corp accreditation we were subsequently awarded the prestigious Silver Rating from EcoVadis in recognition of our commitment to sustainable business practices. The Silver Medal placed Fulkers in the top 25% of all assessed companies, demonstrating our commitment to sustainability and supporting our company goal to achieve Net Zero emissions by 2035.

16. At the beginning of November our London Head Office moved to Uncommon, Borough, also B Corp UK certified, Uncommon have ambitions to create a truly sustainable environment for their people to thrive in – what better place for our people to be a part of!

17. Just in time for Christmas, The Royal Parks released sketches of a new garden planned for The Regent’s Park that will commemorate the life of Queen Elizabeth II. Fulkers have provided Programme Management for the wider masterplan as well as Quantity Surveying services, and Project Support to the client side Senior Landscape Project Manager on this project. The new garden will transform a former plant nursery, previously inaccessible to the public, into a two-acre tranquil garden that will deliver significant benefits to nature. It is due to open in 2026 to coincide with what would have been the late Queen’s 100th birthday.

18. And to round off the year in style, we have just issued Practical Completion at the new London Institute for Healthcare Engineering (LIHE) at King’s College London’s (King’s) St Thomas’ campus. Fulkers were appointed as the Project Manager, Employers Agent and Programme Manager for the £34m scheme. LIHE brings together world-class research and development expertise across academia, the NHS and MedTech companies, in a new building embedded within the St Thomas’ Hospital campus. We are proud to be supporting King’s and their mission with LIHE to bring impact to patients through medical technology.

We thank our whole team for all of their hard work this year, we look forward to Christmas parties being held around the offices and then a well-earned rest for us all!