BLUEWATER OFFICIAL SUPPLIER FOR OCEAN RACE

“We believe the best water is sourced and purified in local communities at point of consumption, not bottled in plastic and transported from faraway places. Bluewater innovates and markets ground-breaking water purification and dispensing solutions to help people to generate pristine water at home, at hotels and restaurants, and when on the go at events, festivals and venues,” said Bluewater communications director Dave Noble.

Noble added that Bluewater has partnered with 11th Hour Racing on multiple occasions in the past, not least in finding meaningful places to leave Bluewater units as a legacy to help serve local communities lacking access to clean, safe drinking water.

Founded in 2013, Bluewater was built on a vision to provide sustainable and inclusive access to clean and safe water for people around the globe, while ending the reliance on single-use plastic bottles and their associated detrimental impacts of marine pollution and carbon-intensive manufacturing and shipping.

“At 11th Hour Racing Team we take a comprehensive approach to addressing our water footprint and usage, and our partnership with Bluewater is an important part of this work. The hydration stations onsite can reduce our freshwater footprint when using non-potable water to produce safe drinking water in each stopover. It’s important for us as a team that we join forces with businesses like Bluewater who understand the importance of local solutions to the global problem of ocean health and climate change,” said 11th Hour Racing Team CEO Mark Towill.

Bluewater hydration stations have helped major events in Europe, such as the British Open golf tournament, increase the momentum towards a sustainable, equitable, and net zero global economy. In 2022, Bluewater stations saw the British Open save 153,738 single-use plastic bottles from landfill and oceans over the week-long event. In November, at the COP27 Climate Summit in Sharm El-Sheik, Egypt, Bluewater water refill stations and sustainable reusable bottles allowed officials, businesspeople, and other delegates to stay healthily hydrated in the Climate Action Innovation Zone, where Bluewater was the Official Hydration Partner.

The Ocean Race will set sail from Alicante, Spain on January 15, 2023.

 

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Stuck in the mud: how soil reuse can unearth construction’s sustainable future

Pick Everard senior geo-environmental engineer Ross Goodband unearths the compliance pitfalls to avoid and the pathways to take to ensure soil reuse does not become a recycling afterthought.

The reuse and movement of waste soils is one of the most common occurrences on construction sites, as built environment specialists strive to maintain costs, maximise resource efficiency and hit wider recycling targets on the path to net zero. Yet despite its sustainable profitability, many project managers are left in the dirt when it comes to regulatory compliance.

When naturally occurring, the use of soil on construction sites should in theory, be a straightforward process.

Typically used as the foundation for all manner of groundworks, soil can be a huge project time and cost saver if reused in an effective manner. The largest carbon store on earth, soil is vital in the quest for net zero and can be a key indicator for meeting sustainability targets for project managers striving to ever reduce their emissions output.

However, when we look at the statistics governing soil reuse, the results are eyewatering. It is estimated by the Environment Agency that 1bn.t of soil and aggregates are sent to landfill as a result of construction activities each year, with no formal measures in place to prevent this activity. Even more staggeringly, research suggests the construction sector is currently paying more £3bn per annum to dispose of waste soil from building sites across the UK and France.

With costs spiralling out of control, it’s clear that more sustainable means of soil control are needed. And with the Environment Agency citing key examples of soil misuse to both prevent and highlight the issue, it’s high time the construction industry got on board with its reuse from a compliance, carbon reduction and profitability perspective.

To begin this journey, it’s worth taking the time to understand when soil is considered a waste and when it is not. And while there are all manner of complexities when it comes to planning permission, and brownfield/greenfield sites, generally speaking there are simplified rules project managers can abide by to begin to understand soil and its reuse journey.

When made ground is dug up, present as stockpiles already on site or natural soils are taken off site, it is considered to be waste under the Waste Framework Directive (WFD) – the European Union Directive concerned with measures to protect the environment and human health. On the other side of the coin, you have what is understood to be outside of the WFD’s definition of waste. This is natural soil that is uncontaminated, excavated during construction and certain to be used in its natural state for construction purposes on its original site.

While most earthwork programmes are exempt from waste management regulations when using natural uncontaminated soils, it is clear that a large degree of construction work is governed by soil operating under the WFD definition. The responsibility, in this scenario, falls on the site holder or developer to decide what to do with this resource.

Often, when working in small capacities or on certain types of projects, site managers opt for what is known as a waste exemption. This registered process, conducted online through the UK Government website, allows for specific volumes of certain types of waste to be reused. Soil is limited to 1,000t; however, the same exemption allows for the use of 5,000t of waste concrete, tiles or ceramic and brick. It also allows for up to 50,000t of bituminous mixture of road sub-base, utilised to construct roads. Clearly, however, there are drawbacks to this method when working on large projects that require huge amounts of soil to be reused, typically new builds or redeveloping brownfield sites. Site managers should also note that this process only allows for one exemption per site, and furthermore, you cannot register another within a three-year bracket.

Secondary to this, and one we often see highlighted, is the option to obtain an environmental permit. However, with a three month approval period, which many developers can find extends to several months or even two to three years, it is often a more simple, straightforward and sustainably-led choice to utilise the Contaminated Land: Applications in Real Environments (CL:AIRE) Definition of Waste: Code of Practice process. Launched in 2008, this joint venture between CL:AIRE and the EA is designed to encourage and facilitate the reuse of soils in construction without going through a permitting route.

Applicable in England and Wales, we’ve found that the CL:AIRE process has a number of advantages for project managers. It provides two routes to prove that soil is not a waste, and therefore, crucially, not treated as a waste, as required by the two alternative options. The first route involves the reuse of clean, uncontaminated soils on the site of origin. The second actively encourages collaboration between construction firms looking to share resource for the benefit of project use and, in turn, the planet. This is because it allows for materials to be transferred between sites.

We’ve found that CL:AIRE works hard as an organisation to provide a register of available reuse material, providing a platform for site managers to negotiate a sustainable reallocation of soil. Its second route of soil reuse also provides a mechanism to treat soils via a central facility, known as hub and cluster, ensuring even more natural resource does not go to waste.

In the UK, particularly as levelling up initiatives are carried out across the country, our sector has a huge opportunity to cut carbon emissions and benefit from shared practice and processes in the realm of soil reuse. There are far too many missed opportunities arising, with huge housing developments taking place without definition of thought to actively reuse the soil elsewhere, such as in an ongoing secondary development. If housing developers, for example, can get on board with the CL:AIRE process, actively working together with competitors for the common good, then shared benefits in terms of project costs, deadline and material availability could be achieved for all.

Other countries, for example, are well ahead of us in this respect. In the Flanders region in Belgium, for example, the sector reuses 95% of its construction and demolition waste, with excavated soil meticulously traced and reused. Here, circular construction is gradually becoming the benchmark, something which we feel the UK should aspire to achieve and match on similar levels.

Soil reuse has huge potential to work towards a common good that benefits in kind our sector and the planet. Often understated, its impact could be massive if collaboration can actively be achieved and more lobbying support is delivered to initiatives such as CL:AIRE, which can actively support our sustainably led future.

Source: Ground Engineering

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Construction Skills ‘Boot Camp’

photo Troy Bridges via Unsplash

Young people hoping to start a career in construction are being invited to join a new ‘bootcamp’ launched by Enfield Council after it was awarded a grant from City Hall.

The council has been awarded £93,000 to deliver the construction skills bootcamp, which will offer short, flexible courses to equip residents with the skills to apply for paid jobs in the construction industry. It will train 30 residents aged 19 years or over for ten weeks, who will then be offered a guaranteed interview with an employer.

The funding comes from the £18million ‘Skills Bootcamps for Londoners’ programme to help people into good jobs in the capital’s key sectors. It is part of the Department for Education’s lifetime skills guarantee and is being overseen by City Hall.

Council leader Nesil Caliskan said: “It is important that we use all the means available to help people gain the skills and confidence to apply for jobs in key sectors and to ensure that businesses can benefit from the talent across the breadth of Enfield’s diverse communities.

“In turn, our local economy will be supported by filling vacancies, addressing skills shortages which will boost productivity and creativity.”

Applications can be made online and places are allocated on a first come, first served basis. Training will be focused on the skills required by Enfield-based developers. There will also be an emphasis on inclusivity, including getting women into construction.

Separately, the council is also set to open a construction skills academy at its flagship housing development, Meridian Water, early in the new year.

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‘Housing Misery’

The government’s decision to give up mandatory housing targets will harm SME developers and condemn another generation to ‘housing misery’, the National Federation of Builders (NFB) has warned.

The trade body said compulsory targets had allowed councils to concentrate on sites that could easily be delivered which had helped local SME builders. It claimed that making the targets negotiable would lead to councils concentrating on high-volume sites which take longer to happen.

Campaigners fear that housing secretary Michael Gove’s decision to scrap mandatory targets for local councils in rural and suburban areas puts at risk the government’s manifesto pledge to build 300,000 new homes a year.

Gove has watered down the government’s target to build 300,000 homes every year following a furious backlash from his own party’s MPs.

A Commons vote on the Levelling Up and Regeneration Bill had to be dropped last month after 60 Conservatives signed an amendment calling for the mandatory target to be abolished.

NFB’s housing and planning policy head, Rico Wojtulewicz, said: “We were led to believe that Mr Gove was appointed to ensure Robert Jenrick’s ambitious planning reforms were not lost, yet his first move was to water them down so much that disgruntled Conservative MPs were given a platform to further derail vital change.”

HBF communications director Steve Turner added: “If ministers fail to stand up to the anti-business and anti-development section of the Conservative party it is inevitable that housing supply will fall dramatically, costing hundreds of thousands of jobs, slashing gross domestic product and preventing even more people from accessing decent housing.”

His comments coincide with a public accounts committee, PAC, report revealing the government is likely to fall 32,000 homes short of its 2016 and 2021 affordable homes building programme.

MPs on PAC are critical of the department for levelling up and housing’s admission that it expects 157,000 new homes will be delivered in its 2021 programme rather than the original target of 180,000.

PAC chair Dame Meg Hillier MP said: “The human cost of inaction is already affecting thousands of households and now the building programme is hitting the challenges of increased building costs.”

The committee pointed out that in the London area construction costs inflation was running at 15% to 30%.

“This does not augur well for ‘generation rent’ or those in desperate need of genuinely affordable homes,” added Dame Hillier.

Brokers Hank Zarihs Associates said commercial mortgage lenders were concerned that this would make it more difficult for SMEs to build new homes in areas of acute housing shortage.

They claim that places within striking distance of London such as the home counties would be particularly affected.

Gove has said local decision-making sensitive to constraints and concerns will be given greater emphasis in the forthcoming national planning policy framework out for consultation later this month.

He has asked the Competition and Markets Authority to do a market study on housebuilding to ensure the sector is competitive and benefiting customers.

Source: Property Industry Eye

 

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Builder considers legal challenge to planning decision

New homes on the Jurston Farm development at Wellington (Tindle )

Builder considers legal challenge to planning decision which could put jobs at risk and pause new homes

The company building 650 homes in Wellington is warning jobs are at risk due to a planning decision which could pause work on the development.

CG Fry and Son Ltd, which is building homes at Jurston Farm, between Wellington Relief Road and Beech Hill, said the jobs of staff, sub-contractors, and others in the supply chain were threatened by the ruling.

High Court action is now being considered by the builder after Somerset West and Taunton Council won a planning argument to have EU law imposed nearly two years after Brexit.

It also meant the building of hundreds more new homes would have to be paused while the issue was resolved.

The company has already completed the first two phases of the Jurston housing estate, after Somerset West and Taunton Council (SWT) gave planning permission in 2015.

A third phase for 190 properties was then approved in June 2020, a few months before Natural England alerted councils to the damage being suffered by wildlife and habitats on the Somerset Levels due to phosphates reaching the area via watercourses.

Natural England decreed that no new development could be given planning permission unless it was shown that it would not produce further phosphate emissions affecting the internationally-protected Levels.

When CG Fry subsequently asked SWT to approve drainage plans for Jurston phase three, the council retrospectively applied EU environmental regulations aimed at protecting wildlife habitats, not just for the latest stage of construction but for all of the houses already built.

It meant CG Fry needed to come up with a new drainage scheme for the whole estate, potentially adding millions of pounds to its overheads and making the development unviable.

Now, a government-appointed planning inspector has dismissed an appeal by the company and ruled that SWT was entitled to act in the way it did.

Source: Wellington Weekly News

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Economy Grows 0.5% in October

The UK economy is estimated to have grown 0.5% in October, according to data from the Office for National Statistics.

This was a reversion of the 0.6% fall seen in September, a month which was impacted by the additional bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral.

Looking at the three-month window, GDP fell by 0.3% in the three months to October 2022 compared with the three months to July 2022.

October’s growth was slightly stronger than economists had forecast, having put it at just 0.4%.

The main sector contributors were the services sector, which grew by 0.6% after falling by 0.8% in September, the largest driver coming from wholesale and retail trade.

The construction sector grew by 0.8% in October 2022, making it its fourth consecutive increase.

 

Jeremy Batstone-Carr, European strategist at Raymond James, called this data a “positive step back towards growth” but heeded caution about getting overtly excited, since September’s results had been unexpectedly skewed.

He said: “Today’s GDP figures flatter to deceive, concealing an otherwise-shrinking economy.”

The data is key for determining if the UK is in a recession or not, although GDP contracted for the prior two months meeting the criteria for a technical recession, but the strategist said the UK was not “teetering on the edge of a recession, it is fully in one”.

“We are now feeling the pain of relentless inflation and interest rate rises, which are both crippling business and household spending.”

 

James McManus, chief investment officer at Nutmeg, commented: “The worst recessions usually follow a period of excess, where companies and consumers borrow too much and then the downturn is much more painful.

“In recent years there has not been enough of a boom to worry about a bust.”

All eyes will now be on the Bank of England’s next Monetary Policy Committee meeting on on Thursday 15 December and how they go about the next set of rate hikes.

According to reports though the Committee are divided on how much interest rates should be increased by, with the group split between a more modest approach and harsh hiking.

At present a 0.5% increase is the general market consensus.

Comment from Mike Hedges, Beard Construction director

“The slight surprise for the sector here is that as of October, the ONS Construction Output data is still showing a rise in output. This is the fourth consecutive monthly growth, with October 2022 showing the highest level of construction output (£15,248 million) since records began in January 2010, with output being almost 5% higher than before the pandemic began in February 2020. 

“This comes on the same day that GDP rose by 0.5% in the last month, slightly outstripping the 0.4% expected, although the overall trend over the past three months was a decline of 0.3% compared to the previous quarter.

“Much of the rise in construction was led by new housing, with private commercial new work dropping back in volume and it is likely that when the statistics for November and December are released, they will also show further slight decreases in volume.

“On the ground, the construction sector has been dealing for months with inflationary pressures and the rising cost of commodities like fuel, steel and other materials. The effect of continuing price inflation and a challenging new business environment won’t be properly understood until 2023 is fully underway.

“The headline inflation figure does not reflect the true rise in prices of materials like brickwork and aluminium – the price of which is being driven up by up to 50 per cent by increased fuel costs and global disruption to supply chains.

“As the fight for new work gets more challenging, the sector must avoid a race to the bottom on tenders as next year progresses. Continuing an open, realistic dialogue on costs between clients, contractors and suppliers will be important to help us navigate the economic challenges we will face.”

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NOT ALL DOOM AND GLOOM

In the wake of the UK Regions Economic Summit, where ICAEW launched the findings of its Q4 Business Confidence Monitor, one of the event’s Regional Chairs Neil Coupe shares his upbeat take on the economic climate.

The biggest fear for business is fear itself, according to Schwing Stetter Finance Director Neil Coupe. “My major concern at the company I work for is that people are talking themselves into a catastrophe,” he says. “Yet we’ve had a very positive year and the order backlog for next year is looking strong. People are still investing in the products we sell because there are still projects taking place.”

Far from riding the wave of doom and gloom surrounding the cost-of-living crisis, Coupe takes the approach that downturns have happened before, will happen again and they’ll get through it.

Coupe accepts that Schwing Stetter – which sells concrete placement and production equipment to the concrete industry – may be shielded from the worst of the UK’s current money woes as it provides specialist products with long lead times. But he believes that while the government must look after the vulnerable facing hardship during this downturn, there’s no reason why businesses offering great service and value for money can’t thrive.

The construction industry’s biggest challenges

The most significant concerns facing his industry right now, says Coupe, are:

  1. Staff retention and recruitment
    “There’s lots of demand for labour in the construction sector, so businesses are finding they need to pay their people more to keep them. But if people are treated properly, the strongest companies will keep the best people.”
  2. Inflation
    “It has not been too difficult to pass the price increases on in the sector, but that’s not sustainable in the longer term. The Bank of England thinks that inflation should decline in the second half of 2023, so hopefully the current rate is just a blip.”
  3. Interest rates increasing
    “Many people buy our machines on finance and there’s a world of difference in funding something at 4% interest to funding something at 7%. Hopefully, from what the Bank of England is saying now, things won’t be quite as catastrophic as we were led to believe a few months ago.”
What can the government do to support businesses?

For Coupe it comes down to two things: cutting post-Brexit import/export red tape and sticking to house-building targets. “At the moment, every time we import goods from Germany and deal with Customs’ formalities, it’s like death by Excel.” 

He also has concerns that the government’s target to build 300,000 new homes a year is coming in woefully short year on year. “Where will young people live? How will they get on in life if there’s nowhere affordable to live? I think that’s a huge issue in terms of social cohesion and fairness.”

Looking forward

Coupe is positive about the future. “I think people will moan and groan and say how difficult things are, but then we’ll all just get on with things. Hopefully unemployment will stay low and businesses will continue to thrive.”

Source: ICAEW Insights

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Plugging the Gaps in Construction Insurance

Miller has launched a new product for the UK construction sector, known as D&O Construct, designed exclusively with DUAL.

Miller said that it partnered with DUAL to create a product that offers companies broader directors and officers coverage and plugs the gaps in the standard coverage being offered. This is amidst mounting regulatory pressures in the UK construction sector.

D&O Construct offers nil deductibles throughout the policy, which, according to Miller, ensures that companies are not financially impacted when faced with covered claims that can amount to substantial legal and defence costs. The product also provides coverage for claims arising out of company insolvency, corporate manslaughter claims and environmental claims.

The directors and officers liability product is applicable to various occupations across the construction sector, including architects, developers, building contractors and surveyors.

“As the UK construction sector continues to face increasing regulatory and legal pressures, I’m delighted to announce the launch of this new product which plugs the gaps left by the market’s more standard coverage,” said Scott Taylor, Miller’s head of financial institutions and D&O (international). “Led by our dedicated and growing D&O team, this offering further highlights Miller’s commitment to providing specialised, tailored insurance policies and working in partnership with like-minded underwriters to provide the best solution for our clients.”

Source: Insurance Business UK

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Looking Lean – Strand Makes Warehouse Improvements

Strand Hardware has developed leaner assembly, dispatch and warehousing processes – saving hundreds of staff hours each year – in a joint project with a crack team from Warwick University.

The project with WMG (Warwick Manufacturing Group) has optimised warehouse layout and movement for the efficient flow of picking, assembly and packing operations across key ranges.

It involved measuring processes via time study and motion analysis through site visits, video capture and process flow assessment. Findings outlined cycle times and mapped the movement of people.

The resulting report outlined a series of recommendations to improve process capacity, including quick wins and minor modifications to warehouse and workstations layout to introduce time savings.

This has led to the introduction of mobile Kanban shelving within the assembly area to allow components to be picked and assembled more efficiently. The double-sided racks allow bins to be restocked by a dedicated person who conveys stock between Strand’s warehouse and its head office on another part of the site.

 

Steve Marshall, Managing Director of Strand Hardware, said that the project had been “thorough and exacting”.

“Strand Hardware has grown over 30 years. Like most companies, while scaling up, we have focused on customer requirements and day-to-day business operations. We felt that the time had come to review what we were doing and whether we could be doing it more efficiently, which led to the opportunity to work with WMG.

“Having experts come into the business with fresh pairs of eyes, ask the right questions and with the knowledge to assess and analyse our operations has been invaluable. It was important for us not to disrupt warehouse activity, so recommendations had to incorporate improvements that would be easy to apply. In the long term, this will make our business leaner and more efficient – the ideal foundation for future growth,” he said.

 

The project was undertaken with funding from the Digital Innovation for Manufacturing programme.

 

Strand Warehouse and Production Manager Andy Michel said that it had been fascinating to work with the University Team: “The results will make the job easier for many of the team and help Strand Hardware in its continuous improvement.”

 

Chris Wang, of WMG SME Group added: “WMG and Strand Hardware have worked collaboratively to analyse their current assembly area in readiness for optimising their production facility. Across the three recommendations put forward, a maximum 50% reduction in cycle times per unit has been predicted which allows for a 5.105% capacity increase.”

CLICK HERE For more information on Strand Hardware’s range of products

or call: 01922 639111

www.strandhardware.co.uk

 

 

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Zentia renames one of its most popular ceiling tile ranges

Zentia’s new Fission range will incorporate the former Tatra, Cortega and Fine Fissured tiles.

Leading UK ceiling manufacturers Zentia are bringing together and renaming three of their most popular mineral tiles.

The new Fission range will comprise Fission (formerly Tatra), Fission ND (formerly Cortega) and Fission FT (formerly Fine Fissured) which are all fire rated to Euroclass A2-s1, d0.

Despite the renaming, there are no changes to the products or their technical performance, and they are still warrantied for up to 30 years (when fitted with the Zentia grid system). Alongside this, they are manufactured with up to 51% recycled content and remain 100% recyclable.

Fission and Fission ND are white tiles available in two different edge details – Board (600 x 600mm and 1200 x 600mm), and Tegular (600 x 600mm) for greater design flexibility. The Board edges fully expose the suspended ceiling grid, while the Tegular tiles are rebated, creating a semi-bevelled visual.

Featuring directional and non-directional fissured patterns, they balance the need for sound absorption and sound attenuation in open plan spaces such as atriums, libraries, storage facilities and warehouses.

The premium product in the Fission range is Fission FT which is available in black as well as white and in three different edge details (Board, Tegular and MicroLook). The MicroLook edge is designed for use with Zentia’s 15mm grid range, with a vertical edge creating crisp shadowed effects. Its ultra-fine non-directional fissured pattern offers an optimum balance between sound absorption and sound attenuation.

All three ceiling tiles are suitable for new-build and refurbishment projects in the commercial, industrial and retail sectors.

 

Zentia’s sales and marketing director Graham Taylor said: “In 2020, we began our journey transitioning from Armstrong to Zentia. It is an exciting time that will deliver opportunities for us and our customers. As part of this process, we’re renaming our products and reshaping our ranges. But there’s no need for our customers to worry, their favourite ceiling solutions won’t disappear, and they can still rely on us to manufacture and deliver the same quality suspended ceilings we always have.”

CLICK HERE TO VISIT THE ZENTIA WEBSITE

 

 

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