Thomas Cook has been an established international holiday brand for nearly 170 years, and currently employees more than 600 people at its worldwide headquarters near Ghent in Belgium. Solar control window film was recently installed to improve heat re-jection and reduce solar glare across the modern office building’s 2000m2 of windows, optimising working conditions for employees that had struggled to deal with the solar heat and glare during summer months.
THE PROBLEM
Thomas Cook’s worldwide headquarters were constructed in 1996 in the business dis-trict of Zwijnaerde in Belgium. Over the years, employees working in the building had struggled with heat during the summer months, when temperatures often reached over 30°C. Solar glare also became an issue, with employees finding it difficult to con-centrate on their screens because of sunlight streaming through the windows.
The high temperatures were made worse by poor ventilation in the affected areas as well as the fact there was no air-conditioning system in every office. Thomas Cook Bel-gium enlisted a glazing expert to advise on the most appropriate solution for their re-quirements. He recommended solar control Window Fillm.
THE SOLUTION
Almost 1000m2 of specialist solar control Window Film was installed onto Thomas Cook’s global HQ in just two weeks time, with almost no disruption to normal opera-tions. It provided an environmentally-friendly and energy-efficient alternative to other replacement options such as extra air conditioning.
The chosen Window Film ensured high heat rejection of up to 61%, while maximising the visible light entering through the windows. It could also block up to 62% of solar glare, minimising the issues that employees were facing. Jean Marie Baetens, Head of Infrastucture at Thomas Cook Belgium, praised the positive impacts of the installed film for their staff: “we have a much better work environment and no longer face any em-ployee sickness due to excessive heat and glare (…) we will now be considering installing Window Film throughout the rest of the building”.
For a better understanding of how window film can help tackling a number of prob-lem situations, please visit: www.ewfa.org
Facilitado por: www.EWFA.org
