Tag Archives: LCBPC

PAS91: Update for LCBPC

Although we still await the revision to PAS91 that will align it with the Government Construction Strategy, PAS91 was included in the Lancashire Construction Best Practice Club event looking at winning work, reducing costs and adding value through adapting the elements within the Strategy;

To be updated when the revised PAS91 is issued!

The other presentations from the Winning Work event can be viewed on the LCBP Slideshare page or via links here:
Nw b im_hub_-_march2013 Mark Stodgell

Lancashire: Green Deal, BIM, Green Building and Social Media events

Hi, here is a quick update of Lancashire Construction Best Practice Club related events in the NW region over the coming months which may be of interest:

Green Deal: If you have been following the news you will have seen that £3.5m has been released for Green Deal training and news is expected soon from Ed Davey MP on Green Deal for Busineses.

Our timely Introduction to PAS 2030 session is scheduled for the 30th March as part of our Green Deal Initiative, with monthly sessions thereafter. Also CSkills are holding an Employers Advisory Forum on March 28th, at St Helen’s Rugby League Stadium which will feature Green Deal

Bidding: The Association of Interior Specialists (AIS) are hold a A free webinar  Improve your Bids: 13th March 27th March and 17th April

BIM: Unfortuntaley we have had to push the LCBPC BIM event back until June, however, there are a lot of BIM events happening regionally.

There are Events across in Yorkshire on the 15th March looking at BIM impact on Regional SME’s and on 4th April looking at BIM Level 2.

And in Manchester BIM – Software with Tough Choices Workshop 29 March 2012, 08:30 – 11:00 at the and BIM Compete or collaborate? 16th May. You may also find this “What is BIM, and why should we care” item of interest.

Waste: Waste update will be the topic for the LCBPC event. Details to follow.

Green Building: Again there is a lot happening on this theme as you would expect: What is your Green Vision? is a Global TweetChat (online, via twitter using the #GVisChat hashtag) hosted by Green Vision on 20th March 8pm to coincide with Eco Build. In addition Green Vision Leeds 29th March will feature the lessons learnt from the greenest building on earth, live from Vancouver

Green Build Expo Returns to Manchester on 9th /10th May, I will be there with Be2camp on the 9th and talking Social Media on the Green Deal  as part of the Green Deal Debate stage the 10th, and if you are going to EcoBuild, 20-22nd March in London do let us know via twitter @fairsnape + @lcbpc or on the linkedin Lancashire Construction group

Social Media: Su Butcher and myself will be running a Linkedin and Twitter Workshop for built environment professionals in the NW on 8th May.

Finally, Progress in Procurement: the Effectiveness of Frameworks is at the CUBE Manchester 19th March, and the RICS in the NW have a full programme of events on their calendar.

If you know of any events then please do flag them on the Lancashire Construction group linkedin or in comments below and we can share across the club membership.

You can get details of club membership here and application form here

#Greendeal and the @LCBPC balanced view

The following great article written by David at DIEMLtd appeared on his blog (well worth reading, liking and subscribing to by the way)

The impending Green Deal is really whipping some people up into a frenzy, but I’ve been here before.  Without naming names and these people should have had some professional responsibility, many years ago I attended a Domestic Energy Assessor (DEA) and Home Information Packs (HIPs) briefing where these persons were saying you could earn £150 per energy assessment and do up to 8 a day.

I knew at the time that these fees were way off the mark and qualified as a DEA expecting a sensible rate, in line with other work I do. Well, lots of people were whipped into a frenzy and bitterly disappointed when there was little work, which was down to the housing market’s problems and the disgraceful management of and dithering with the scheme of the last government.  People got trained, then it was delayed by the politicians, but wages needed to be paid. In the meantime, until some more stringent quality approval arrangement were brought in, which actually penalises the ones who do things properly, there were people doing a DEA for as low as £30 (minus about £7 lodgement fee for the report, travel etc which doesn’t leave much profit) and stories about people doing them over the telephone and Google maps.

That wasn’t meant to be a rant, but set the scene to where we are today with Green Deal.  As someone thinking of applying to be a assessor, it’s difficult to write a business plan as nobody knows how much certificaiton will cost, or will the market be swamped by people looking for a fast profit, or assessments being done as a loss leader, making the small firm or sole practictioner be cast adrift.

I was very pleased that RICS addressed some key problems of impartiality of assessors and other factors in their consultation response to DECC (available from www.rics.org and a very good read), but it is an unknown and people do feel slightly lost.

Yes there are Green Deal web domains registered, but the quality of content varies greatly and some could be deemed to lack transparancy on some websites in terms of ownership and professional standards. 

I’m most encouraged about an initiative launching locally to me in the North West by Lancashire Construction Best Practice Club who are looking at setting up a Green Deal Club which will bring interested parties together at UCLan in Preston on 22 February 2012. More details can be found at:

http://greendealclublcbpc.eventbrite.com

I’m very enthusiatic about this Green Deal Club as it’s not suggesting any immediate answers, but are going to address the unknowns and the solutions as they happen in an open, balanced and honest environment.

The only certainty the club is offering is that Green Deal will happen and Construction organisations wanting to become involved in this, and maybe other eco refurbishment schemes, will need accredited certification to PAS 2030, which the club will be looking into giving support.

So, there are more questions than answers with Green Deal, but I’m convinced that we can seek the answers more effectively working together rathern than in isolation.

Green Deal Thoughts: Is green deal missing the behaviour measure?

Could Green Deal fail it its core objective of reducing CO2?

Green Deal is a necessary and welcome approach to funding improvement to our built environment fabric, increasing the use of renewable energy, and importantly providing structure to eco-fit work via the awaited PAS 2030 standard.

Yet, could the Green Deal approach be seen as ‘too’ technical and not addressing user and occupant behaviour, increasingly recognised as the key ingredient to CO2 reduction in the built environment.

I was reminded at the recent Lancashire Best Practice Club green deal event that our comfort levels within homes and buildings has increased by around 7 degrees over the last two decades or so.

Those of us who grew up in the 60’s will recall the infamous morning frost on the inside of windows, since when, building insulation has improved, but at the same time we use more and more energy to improve our comfort levels.

There is a danger that, as Green Deal makes home and workplaces more energy efficient, users and occupiers, especially older and vulnerable tenants, will simply take advantage of the increased comfort level and keep their energy levels and costs as before. (And coupled with the Green Deal Loan charge could increase energy bills and repayments) There is also research that suggests what we save on heating bills we spend on other high CO2 emitting  gadgets or travel.

Alongside the measures within Green Deal we need user behaviour measures.

Perhaps one of the easiest would be the ability to openly benchmark our homes or offices against a CO2 league table of homes in the street, offices on a business park.

The technology and devices exist, see Pachube, the EPC iphone app I blogged on in 2010 and for example I can now easily and freely track my cycle rides against other riders on the same segment of road, on the Strava cycle app. Why not track my energy use against other homes and premises?

This behaviour approach now needs the promotion alongside Green Deal technical measures. And Green Deal Assessors have a prime opportunity to introduce such measures.

Related good reading

CIRS – Where occupants are seen as inhabitants and required to sign a sustainability charter

Tenant Behaviour: Five Keys to Meeting Environmental Performance Goals

Green Deal November

*Updated 11/11/11*

Seems Green Deal is high on my agenda for November! Here is a round up on ‘happenings’ and events:

On the 2nd I attended an interesting Green Skills in construction event hosted by teh Guardian. I blogged here on the Great Green Re-Skilling but the Guardian report will be out on the 16th Nov.

On the same day I attended the GovToday Sustainable Communities event where the reduction on solar FITs seemed to feature in every presentation and discussion, especially in the community solar programmes.

On the 10th I am talking to SELCA with an overview and awareness session on Green Deal. And of course the 9/10 November is Sustainability Now with plenty of Green Deal essentials, and fringe chats.

On the evening of the 10th I will be across in Leeds for the Green Vision event ‘The Landlord/Tennant Divide: Understanding User/Occupier motivations and engaging people’ A great line up of speakers. Details here

The 17th November is our be2camp Retro-fiting and the Green Deal event In London, taking a look at how the role of the web and social media amongst other aspects, all in the familar be2camp styled un-conference, with some great presenters.

I am sure Green Deal will pop up in the TBIMChat tweetchat on the 22nd November, exploring how BIM and Sustainability will work together.

I will be talking at the Lancashire Best Practice Club  Preparing for Green Deal event on the 23rd in Blackburn, Lancs with Brian Berry from the FMB and many others. (only a couple of spaces left for this one!)

The UKGBC have an interesting Green Deal Consultation event on the 30th November

And then finally to round off the month we have the Green Vision half day web enabled conference, Retrofit Reality, in Leeds. This will again be with a twist, keynote speeches from industry leaders and a range of expert led round table discussion groups to really get to grips with the issues.

And in between all this supporting some great contractors such as Emanuel Whittakers and others prepare for Green Deal  an exciting trial of PAS 2030 requirements on a live retro-fit project with Salix Homes.


best practice procurement and support

The Lancashire BPC event last Thursday saw a good number of organisations exhibiting and discussing procurement and support issues with around 70 delegates.  The objective of the day was to allow organisations in the Lancashire area to showcase their procurement requirements and or areas of support, and for delegates to find out their customers requirements and talk to organisations who may be able to support them.

Throughout the day there were a number of small seminars on related themes:

Clive Weston – College and Apprenticeship schemes available through ACCROS

Martin Brown – Bid To Win – ten top tips for improving bid submissions

David Parsons – BSRIA – an overview of the work of BSRIA

Andrew PlattenSustainable Stars competition as part of the Constructing the Future October conference

Chris Gold – Elevates Women into Work programme

My thoughts on the day:

  • a successful and well attended event with plenty of buzz and discussions. It was good to see small group discussions within the networking area.  The seminars were well attended with about 25 present at each. A formula for the club to repeat, taking on board the feedback from delegates and lessons learnt.
  • as expected the sustainability based seminars generated the most discussion.  David from BSRIA generated discussions on biomass boilers not being suitable for schools,  on air tightness and zero carbon homes. Once again it was evident sustainability issues are only just being to be understood by construction people, with the efforts required for zero carbon targets of 2016 for example not fully appreciated as yet.
  • on my ‘stand’ I talked about and gave out information relating to fairsnape services.  I was also pleased to be able to communicate information and goodies on footprintfriends. However the take up on a free one to one session to demonstrate how using web2.0 on the Internet can save time, through bringing news, planning and project leads freely to your computer, was extremely poorly taken up.  Maybe if I charge a corporate fee the take up would be better?

Slides from the seminars should be available soon on the club pages

free event – best practice procurement and support

UCLAN will host the free Lancashire Best Practice Clubs event this Thursday 10th July.  Visitors to the event will be able to discuss with their clients and supply chain what elements of best practice in todays construction industry are important to them.  There will also be the opportunity to discuss best practice support with leading regional and national support organisations.
Details:

VENUE: University of Central Lancashire, Foster Lounge, Foster Building, Preston PR1 2HE (car parking available on Foster Car Park and surrounding car parks)

Register to attend or for updates and further details contact 01772 893558 OR EMAIL

· Find out the best practice requirements of your clients

· Inform your suppliers and potential suppliers of your best practice requirements?

· Talk to organisations who can support your best practice activities and intentions

· Attend mini seminars on improvement topics throughout the day

· Discover the technical solutions and materials to achieve best practice

· Meet with some of the alternative and green solution providers

Details of participating organisations available here

(note this will be continually updated)