The EcoBuild conference, held on the 1st to the 3rd of March at London’s ExCel centre, was the biggest conference that we’ve been to for five years – sustainable construction still seems to be alive and well, despite the recession. If you want to read our report on EcoBuild it can be downloaded from our site: http://www.gesl.net/events.php
I don’t know if any of you have read this report https://www.ukwir.org/report/90140/Water-Mains–Services–Leakage/90145/Pipeline-Technology/90146/Pipeline-Materials/93452/Guidance-for-the-Selection-of-Water-Supply-Pipes-to-be-used-in-Brownfield-Sites but there appear to be some real cost implications in terms of additional testing with this guidance
On March 1st we attended the “The Big Sustainability” conference held at the Institute for Civil Engineers in London. There was an emphasis that best practice for sustainability was now centred in the private sector and Government was lagging in comparison. This is something that you can see if you visit the sites of many of the sites of our customers in the construction and development sectors, however, these companies (along with bankers) are often bashed at these events. Whilst more can be done, this is not a fair reflection on how far the construction sector has moved in becoming more sustainable
Whilst I believe that sustainability is the only way forward, I do have a problem with this attitude. The pragmatist in me says that if we can’t get the economy back on an even keel then caring for the environment and societal issues will be lost by the wayside in an increasingly dog eat dog world – the construction industry is vitally important to the UK in getting the economy moving again.
Construction is also vitally important in creating the infrastructure for a greener Britain and whilst retrofit of existing housing stock is an excellent idea that we should be doing more of, you can’t get away from the fact that some housing stock is beyond redemption and needs replacing.
The challenge is to find a way to work better with construction companies and civil engineers to deliver a more sustainable Britain not to work against them.
We have now attended a number of conferences and meeting where localism and the impact on planning was discussed. The big concern is that there is a real lack of detailed guidance to how this should be implemented. There seems to be an expectation that local people can just start to engage with the planning process and start to make decisions on planning. This is the policy equivalent of taking the stabilisers off your bike without first learning to ride it!
There has to be a framework that people can work within. Without this level of detail there is a real danger that planning could descend into chaos – this will be terribly bad for industry confidence and the knock on effect on economic development will impact the economic recovery of the UK.
So what do we do? Well we can talk with the industry bodies that we are members of such as the ACE, IEMA or EIC and get them to lobby Government on our behalf. We could take the concept of Big Society literally and form our own local industry groups to address the problem.
I think that probably we will have to do both. We do need the framework, but legislation and policy takes a long time to be brought into being. In the interim we can’t allow the planning system to grind to a halt so we need to take action!
Geo-Environmental have achieved accreditation on the Building Confidence framework – a supplier pre-qualification and accreditation service for the UK construction industry.
The process involved the completion of a detailed pre-qualification questionnaire and external audit of our process and procedures, quality system and health and safety record.
We successfully negotiated both of these checks and are now one of the first SME’s to be registered on the Building Confidence framework.
Looks like the publication of BS10175 “Investigation of potentially contaminated sites – Code of practice” has been pushed back by a month. Yesterday when I checked the forthcoming standards page on the BSI website, the publication date was February. Today it’s saying March.
Geo-Environmental have recently been accepted to be members of Construction Line. What we are looking to achieve from Construction Line is:
Success in achieving membership would not have been possible without the hardwork that everybody put in to obtaining ISO:9001, ISO:14001 and OHSAS:18001 accreditation last year, which is now paying dividends.
Geo-Environmental, as part of their business improvement activities, have successfully become approved suppliers on the EXOR framework for Balfour Beatty Ground Engineering and Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services.
Success in achieving this accrediation would not have been possible without the hardwork that everybody put in to obtaining ISO:9001, ISO:14001 and OHSAS:18001 accreditation last year, which is now paying dividends.
Geo-Environmental have become members of the Association for Consulting and Engineering (ACE).
By becoming a member of ACE, Geo-Environmental are joining a strong, influential body that will give voice to our opinions and represent us in the wider business world and also supply us with key information, networking opportunities and the chance to share views with others in the industry.
Gaining membership of this body involved a vetting process and we would like to thank those of you who sponsored our submission by providing references.
Geo-Environmental are presenting at the conference “Delivering Brownfield Redevelopment in a Down Turn”.
This IEMA event is being hosted by Brighton University, on the 1st February between 4 and 7pm, and will give an interesting and exciting insight into issues surrounding contaminated land.
We are speaking on “How new standards for geotechnical and environmental site investigation and design could enable more sustainable developments”
If you want more details on the event please go to: www.iema.net\events
