The next Lancashire Best Practice club event will be held on the 20th Sept at Leyland and will look at coastal demonstration projects at Cleveleys and Morecambe. Demonstration projects aim to showcase best practice within the industry .
More details, flyers and registration forms available on the events page.
Noted from the latest Ciria e-newsletter
Standards for the repair of buildings following flooding (C623)
Author(s): S Garvin, J Reid, M Scott
Date: 2005
ISBN (13 digit): 978-0-86017-623-7
ISBN: 0-86017-623-1
Pages: 134
Publisher: CIRIA
CIRIA has made this publication temporarily available as a free download here and reduced the price of printed copies to £40 until 31 August 2007.
A reminder that the Lancashire Best Practice Club Innovation Event takes place tomorrow at UCLAN from 10.00am to 1.30 including lunch.
Speakers
Dr Alexis Holden (Head, Research & Knowledge Transfer Unit, Faculty of Science & Technology, UCLan)
Terry Whitehead (BAE Systems)
Dr Will Swan, Project Manager (CCI NW) – The Need for Innovation?
Neil Middleton (Director, Maple Timber Frame of Langley) – The Importance of Innovation:
Maple Timber Frame Case Study, Winner of Be Inspired Business Awards (BIBA) for Innovation
Workshops
The Construction Knowledge Exchange Andrea Pye CKE
Accessing Information Martin Brown Fairsnape
Attend the event and claim your CPD hours and certificate
As reported on today’s Contract Journal website, WRAP has published plans for a new standard to measure waste neutrality. Further details and a pdf brochure can be downloaded from the WRAP web site Net Waste Method page.
In simple terms, WRAP considers ‘waste neutral’ to be where the value of construction materials wasted is matched by the value of additional reused and recycled content employed on a project. Adoption of this approach promotes consideration of all aspects of materials efficiency: reducing waste, recycling waste that does arise and using materials with recycled content. This is to be achieved with a reduction in overall environmental impact. By focusing on the commercial as well as the environmental costs of waste, it should deliver real benefits for the construction sector.
In particular, it highlights where companies can reduce costs and increase profits through greater efficiency. It also supports the demonstration of Corporate Social Responsibility.
Don Ward, chief executive at Constructing Excellence reported in Contract Journal said:
“We hope that contractors will look carefully at the real opportunity that the Net Waste Method can unlock in terms of improved profitability and reducing the impact on the environment.”
Comment: But are we still missing the point here – real effort need to be applied upstream in the construction process, in the design, specification, procurement and planning stages to eliminate waste in the first place. With recent reports from Defra that 1/3 of all solid materials going to a site are not used on the project, and the UK Green Building Council that construction accounts for 20% of all waste, we really need to focus on the first stage of the waste planning – elimination, then the other stages of Reduce, Reuse, Recycle and Dispose are not as much an issue, and reduction in costs along with increased profits will be easier to achieve. Take a look at the pre-construction sections of the WRAP construction web pages
The WRAP website contains a wealth of information and should be on all construction / facilities management managers bookmark or favourite lists. (there is a section on Asset Management – within the construction section !)
It is possible to sign up for a construction wrap newsletter, but unfortunately I cannot see any RSS feed on the site, even for the news items
NESTA (see below) have published their Hidden Innovation report which looks at innovation systems of six sectors that are seen as having low levels of innovation: oil production, retail banking, construction, legal aid services, education and the rehabilitation of offenders.
It examines whether these sectors are truly lacking in innovation, or whether traditional measures of innovation – such as investment in R&D – are failing to capture all of the innovation that takes place.
Collaboration vital
The NESTA report heralds Constructing Excellence, a scheme which brought together major companies, clients, different levels of government and the research community to identify, develop and diffuse innovation, as a good example of the way in which industry leaders and government can collaborate to the benefit of all. Government gets the right people together, while the sector leaders themselves drive change.
The construction industry patents few new inventions, (less than 1% of companies in the sector file for patents) but efforts to modernise construction methods across the sector have already saved more than £800 million in central government procurement alone.
Hmmm, it would be good to see the sectors investment on R and D in comparison to other industries.
NESTA is the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts, the largest single endowment devoted exclusively to supporting talent, innovation and creativity in the UK. Our mission is to transform the UK’s capacity for innovation. We invest in early stage companies, inform innovation policy and encourage a culture that helps innovation to flourish.
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Do you want to learn more about accessing innovation?
Attend the LBPC Innovation Event on 5th July at UClan
Do you want to tell the world about your innovative product or service?
Exhibit at the LBPC Innovation Event on 5th July at UClan
Details and flyers on the Events Page. Be there and be seen to be innovative. Numbers will be limited so reserve your place now!
Once again we have had to shift events to avoid clashes and to enable better timing with other events and programmes in the North West
The Bidding to Win event will be moved to later in the year. Those who have expressed and interest in attending will be offered (part funded through CKE) in house training or coaching options. More Details
Life After Frameworks – June 14th More Details
Innovation – Hosted by UCLAN – 5th July More Details
We are also now able to offer two further one day (part funded by CKE ) events:
July 12th – What is Sustainability? – An introduction to sustainability, to help you improve your understanding of sustainability management, apply sustainable management approaches to your operations and activities and to prepare for emerging sustainability issues. More Details
July 18th – Modern Construction Project Management – Managing todays construction projects with open book accounting, supply chains, framework supplier, lean management and other topical initiative now expected by clients. More Details
and
September 20th AGM and Question Time Event
For further details on these and others – keep a watch on the Events Page
Housing Construction that both heats it self and cools itself. An interesting innovation from the States can be found at Enertia House
Enertia Building System, named as the 2007 Modern Marvel of the Year is described as
innovative new homes of remarkable strength, economy, and beauty, brought to life by an elegant new architecture and the discovery of a new source of pollution-free energy.
with a built-in “biosphere,” in gradual but constant motion, draws energy from the sun, and geothermal stability from the ground, creating a temperate climate that buffers the primary living space.
The site provides plenty of science ‘background’ which is worth checking out.
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Noted in the Guardians Society supplement recently – What Else Can I do –
Specialist recruiter Hays Building Services says
that with The Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE) recently established professional register of low carbon consultants, energy or environmental professionals could expect to earn 10% more than colleagues.
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