CLIMATE CRISIS, BUILDING SAFETY AND PROCUREMENT ON THE AGENDA AS CONSTRUCTING EXCELLENCE MIDLANDS REUNITES

LEADERS from across the Coventry and Warwickshire construction landscape have reunited to discuss the challenges and actions being taken to address net zero, building safety and procurement at a local level. The Constructing Excellence Midlands leadership dinner, held by the regional CE club, was the latest event organised by the construction collaboration, networking and business group to attain a closer view of the state of the industry.

Convening at the Coventry Building Society Arena, the evening presented an opportunity for attendees across the sector to offer their insight on these topics and share their knowledge on overcoming the challenges, as CE Midlands strives to increase its learning resources and networking opportunities for construction clients and their supply chains in the region.

Catherine Windibank, business development manager at Richard Jackson and club chair for the Coventry and Warwickshire club (FoRCE), said: “The evening was a fantastic way to bring together great leadership minds from across Coventry and Warwickshire, discuss pertinent issues the whole industry is facing, and in turn dictate the priority actions that CE Midlands can implement on a local level to enhance industry collaboration. This leadership dinner has set out FoRCE’s agenda for the forthcoming twelve months.”

The evening’s discussions were led by Uma Shanker, programme director for capital delivery and design at Severn Trent Water and chair of CE Midlands. He said: “As an industry that emits or influences around half of the total carbon emissions generated in the UK, we learned that in order to address the net zero challenge, contractors must better engage with suppliers to reduce their embodied carbon usage.

“At CE Midlands we will be providing educational resources that better enable firms to engage with their supply chains on reducing Scope 3 emissions in particular, as in its current state the industry is behind on meeting its requirements.

“From a building safety and procurement standpoint, we also need to ensure that construction clients are attaining what they deserve, to deliver safer and more effective projects. Due diligence needs to be implemented more robustly to prevent the bad behaviours that have collectively damaged the reputation of the industry.

“CE Midlands is directly addressing this by delivering workshops to members and creating a best practice guide for the benefit of them and their client advisors, informing what they should be looking for and questions they should be asking suppliers to ensure they meet expectations with the delivery of their products and services.”

Andrew Carpenter, chief executive of Constructing Excellence Midlands, said: “Constructing Excellence’s core strength is that we are pan-industry. We recognise that different organisations bring varying skillsets and knowledge across the construction sector, which enables our collaborative efforts to address the issues that are affecting the supply chain in its entirety.

“We are always looking out for new members to join CE Midlands and our local clubs, which are key to creating a knowledge cascade and a culture of collaboration. We welcome training providers and colleges, through to suppliers, contractors and consultants, as well as property agents, clients and end-users to get involved.”

Constructing Excellence Midlands is hosting its annual housing summit on Wednesday 15 June at Birmingham Conference and Events Centre, giving attendees the chance to get further insight into some of the key issues facing the industry – such as the Future Homes Standard, carbon net zero and the growing focus on procurement routes brought about by the Housing Forum Report. To register to attend the CE Midlands Housing Summit, click here.