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ECOBUILD 2013

Posted: 8th March 2013

The Construction Industry Council was involved, directly and indirectly, in several launches, debates and seminars at ECOBUILD 2013:

Jack Pringle, CIC Chairman, was one of five panellists (including the Rt Hon Don Foster MP, Bill Bordass of the Usable Buildings Trust, John Tebbit of Construction Products Association and Pete Halsall of Good Homes Alliance) who, with broadcaster and host Jonathan Dimbleby, debated Beating the Performance Gap – regulate or educate? The panel explored the economic and practical considerations of how, with the imminent new building regulations, it is becoming increasingly crucial to ensure that what has been designed is the same as what is delivered on the ground. This debate was part of the event’s Making Sustainable Construction Happen programme.

Paul Morrell, Chairman of the Route Map Working Group launched the GCB’s Routemap to a Low Carbon Built Environment, also as part of the Making Sustainable Construction Happen programme. He was one of a panel of four (including Neil Jefferson of Zero Carbon Hub, Mark Clare of Barratt and Dr Brenda Boardman of Oxford University) who debated the question: Is this the end of the road for zero carbon? With the Government’s redefinition of zero carbon, its cut back on renewables subsidies and its favouring of watering down Part L of the Building Regulations, the panel explored what this means for the UK’s legally binding carbon reduction targets and European legislation, and what might come next. At Ecobuild 2013 the Green Construction Board also launched ACT ON (MATERIALS) an industry wide initiative designed to share ideas and tips for making construction greener by minimising impacts and maximising benefits of materials and products through the whole lifecycle of buildings and infrastructure. As manager of the Green Construction Board’s commercial arrangements and finances, CIC is part of the GCB’s Secretariat.

At one of the Better through BIM seminars Simon Rawlinson, CIC Executive Board Member and Chair of the Legal, Contracts and Insurance Working Group of the BIM Task Group, joined other members of the Cabinet Office’s BIM Task Group including Mark Bew, David Philp, Mervyn Richards and Roy Evans, to present up to date information for all construction industry practitioners about the developing BIM agenda and the new processes and protocols.

Professor Nicholas Whitehouse of Oxford Brookes University and co-Chair of the review panel that produced CIC’s recently published Offsite Housing Review, presented Offsite: the sustainable approach to construction as part of the Sustainable by design seminars, looking at modular building design and how it can increase green credentials, improve quality assurance and reduce cost. With reference to specific case studies from a variety of building types, this session examined the design challenges. It also looked at how modular design is impacting the issues of lack of onsite skills and waste reduction.

CIC is a supporter of Pinpoint, a UK Green Building Council initiative, launched at Ecobuild. The UK GBC was largely established in order to encourage the sharing of best practice on sustainability but the sheer volume of information, tools, guidance, training courses, products and services, all purporting to help create a sustainable built environment, presented a huge challenge. UK GBC’s new online platform, Pinpoint, has been designed with significant input from the sector to address these issues. It provides a sustainability search function and allows users to apply further filters based on the part of the building lifecycle they are working on, the type of resources they are looking for and more. Pinpoint will also encourage users to review resources themselves, helping others to see what tools, metrics and case studies would be most relevant for them.