Less than four weeks after CCL Facades was established within the Caddick Construction Group following the demise of Speedclad Ltd, the management team is announcing a £14.3 million business pipeline. Almost a third of that has already been confirmed through the securing of a significant seven-figure contract at One City
ASPEC – AI System for Predicting Embodied Carbon in Construction – Website Launches as Innovate UK Funding Period Concludes Winvic Construction Ltd, a leading main contractor that specialises in the design and delivery of multi-sector construction and civil engineering projects, and its partners in a cross-sector multidisciplinary research group is
Construction, property, and facilities company, The Sovini Group, are investing in offsite construction as part of their ongoing Net-Zero Carbon Commitment. The Group who boasts a unique end-to-end supply chain is supporting their wider environmental strategy with their latest initiative in the form of adapting raw materials for the new build
THE Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) applications for 2023/2024 are open and have a deadline of this month for academies, sixth form colleges and voluntarily aided (VA) schools to register for capital funding. Established by the Department of Education, with the objective of identifying buildings in need of repair, funds are
Less than four weeks after CCL Facades was established within the Caddick Construction Group following the demise of Speedclad Ltd, the management team is announcing a £14.3 million business pipeline. Almost a third of that has already been confirmed through the securing of a significant seven-figure contract at One City Park, for the design, supply, and installation of the external façade, including the glazing and rain-screen cladding at the Bradford city centre scheme. The company’s recent launch to market has also seen CCL Facades appointed as the preferred bidder on a number of high-profile remediation schemes in Leeds city centre under the BSF Programme, which will be announced shortly. These successes come only a matter of weeks since the initial 10-strong management and design team were transferred from Speedclad to the newly formed CCL Facades, led by Managing Director Tony Blake. The senior team had previously worked together on high-profile cladding and glazing projects such as seven phases of grade A offices at Wellington Place in Leeds,The Base Building in Manchesterand award-nominated La Tour Hotel in Milton Keynes. Managing Director Tony Blake said: “It has been a turbulent year for the team, but we are firmly focused on the future, which is already looking incredibly exciting even after such a short space of time as part of the Caddick Construction Group. “We really do feel we have a winning combination. We’re able to offer clients the financial strength and stability with the Caddick Construction Group behind us, but with all the expertise firmly embedded within an independent Company, CCL Facades. It is the best of both worlds for clients, strengthened further when you add our own certified products such as Speedpanel, A2 Rated Spandrel panels into the equation.” As well as securing the contracts and preferred bidder status, CCL Facades is negotiating to act as specialist façade contractor to provide design, supply, and installation of Rainscreen Systems and curtain walling facades fornew buildings and refurbishment projects. The company is now also set up to offer services, acting as principal or specialist contractor, for the replacement of cladding and other facades remediation works. Tony added: “The façade sector market is a difficult one to work within because of the huge obligations that are placed on specialists in terms of delivery, insurance, supply chain, compliance, etc. We now have an offering that not only meets all those obligations but it’s also managed by a team with many decades of experience between them. We believe we are well placed to meet the needs of our clients and are very excited about the future.” Paul Dodsworth, Caddick Construction Group Managing Director, said: “We are confident that the unique offering of CCL Facades and Speedpanel, supported by the financial strength of Caddick Construction, will allow the business to thrive under the stewardship of Tony and the team. In today’s turbulent world having confidence in a financially strong façade contractor will provide real peace of mind in a competitive market.” Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
ASPEC – AI System for Predicting Embodied Carbon in Construction – Website Launches as Innovate UK Funding Period Concludes Winvic Construction Ltd, a leading main contractor that specialises in the design and delivery of multi-sector construction and civil engineering projects, and its partners in a cross-sector multidisciplinary research group is inviting people in the construction industry to register their interest to access a new embodied carbon analytics AI system. Professionals should visit www.carboncalculated.co.uk to join the mailing list and they will be able to access a free trial of ASPEC – which stands for AI System for Predicting Embodied Carbon in Construction – towards the end of the year. Winvic, University of the West of England (UWE Bristol), and Costain make up the consortium that was awarded £800,000 funding by Innovate UK in November 2020 to create a fit-for-purpose technology solution to help drive down industry carbon emissions and meet government’s green targets. The ASPEC website homepage, where professionals can register for the free trial Users will be able to upload a 3D BIM file – a Revit model – to the revolutionary web-based system and it will calculate the building or infrastructure project’s carbon output within minutes. Materials can then be altered within ASPEC to directly affect the real-time calculations of the carbon data – this allows construction schemes to be designed in a ‘green first’, non-time-consuming approach for the very first time. A short video about ASPEC can be found on the brand’s YouTube channel. ASPEC is integrated with the Government Green House Gas conversion factors, Inventory of Carbon and Energy (ICE) and the Environment Agency (EA), making it the largest database of environmental construction data in the world. Nevertheless, the system also allows users to upload their own materials databases which will work alongside the data points already available. Winvic and its research group partners have also been engaging with supply chains and other stakeholders throughout the two-year ASPEC project and 360-degree feedback has been employed to ensure the tool is user friendly and functional. Please see editor’s notes for caption to image of ASPEC The system will help to propel contractors and material manufacturing firms to meet the UK government target to remove 10MT of carbon dioxide by 2030. Furthermore, a 50 per cent reduction in carbon emissions has been set through the Construction 2025 strategy and the target for 2050 is to bring all greenhouse gas emissions to net zero. Winvic Digital Engineering Manager and ASPEC project lead, Morgan Hambling, commented: “When we started this Innovate UK funded project two years ago, embodied construction calculation methods were onerous at best and there was simply no efficient way for design teams to proactively reduce the carbon footprint of projects. Therefore, ASPEC is transformational for the industry as contractors, consultants and material manufacturers can at last sit in the driving seat with this fit-for-purpose cloud-based tool. “With the Innovate UK two-year funding period now over and development in its final stages, we’re now inviting people to visit the ASPEC website to register their interest. We’re looking for professionals to get hands on in a free trial towards the end of the year – this is just the beginning, where we can all make the real impact that is required to meet client and building occupier needs as well as important government and industry targets.” For more information on Winvic, the company’s latest project news and job vacancies please visit www.winvic.co.uk. Join Winvic on social media – visit Twitter @WinvicLtd – and LinkedIn. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
Construction, property, and facilities company, The Sovini Group, are investing in offsite construction as part of their ongoing Net-Zero Carbon Commitment. The Group who boasts a unique end-to-end supply chain is supporting their wider environmental strategy with their latest initiative in the form of adapting raw materials for the new build construction arm of business, Sovini Construction. The highly advocated method of construction is set to facilitate the Group’s development framework to deliver 1,000 new high quality and affordable homes within the next four years. Their newest shift in sustainable construction management is the latest in a longline of ecological and biodiverse plans for delivering affordable social housing across the North West. Time for timber The structurally graded timber is sourced from Scandinavia and delivered to the Group’s independent builders’ merchant, Sovini Trade Supplies. The climate-smart raw material is then transferred to a local Merseyside-based organisations, timber frame specialist SticX. The award-winning team at SticX use the latest 3D CAD software to integrate the main architectural design of the structures. Once constructed using the PEFC certified timber, the frame is compartmentalised and transported to site where it is erected. SticX timber frame delivery on site The Sovini Group’s timber framed homes provide a significantly lower carbon footprint through its manufacturing, reducing energy consumption throughout its lifetime and locking-away atmospheric CO2 for generations. John Maddock, Director of SticX shares: “Timber Framing is a great solution for The Sovini Group. For a client who’s genuinely concerned about sustainability it scores highly. By partnering with them, we can help develop improved solutions to save money and time. Ultimately, using timber frames means they can provide higher quality houses for their clients. We’re also a local company, so their spend stays local and benefits the Merseyside economy. We’re delighted to share our expertise with such an enlightened and progressive client”. The Group uses recyclable materials which is designed to achieve superior levels of fabric performance, suitable for their projects which are seeking to achieve the very highest fabric efficiency, airtightness standards, and sustainable credentials. The Sovini Group recently welcomed timber frame specialist SticX to their flagship Morris Meadows development in Merseyside to view the environmentally friendly materials come to life. From left to right, Anita Harrison- Carroll The Sovini Group Chief Business Officer, John Maddock SticX Director, Alan Evans Director of Operations at Sovini Trade Supplies. Sustainable Social Housing The Sovini Group create thriving and inclusive communities which are well-integrated into wider urban systems. The offsite construction has proven performance, providing an advantageous construction method for affordable housing and with the Group’s timber frames being produced off site and delivered in a prefabricated form, construction times to make a building ‘wind & watertight’ can save as much as 30% over that of traditional construction. Employing over 800 colleagues, The Sovini Group is a key contributor to the social, economic, and environmental development and future growth across the North West. To read more about The Sovini Group’s end-to-end supply chain services and Net-Zero Carbon Commitment visit their website here. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
THE Condition Improvement Fund (CIF) applications for 2023/2024 are open and have a deadline of this month for academies, sixth form colleges and voluntarily aided (VA) schools to register for capital funding. Established by the Department of Education, with the objective of identifying buildings in need of repair, funds are granted on the strength of applications, which leading roofing firm, PermaRoof Commercial, is supporting educations facilities with. Applying for the capital grant is essential for the development, maintenance and safety of education establishments – 1,405 projects across 1,129 schools and colleges are already set to benefit from £498M of funding throughout 2022 and 2023. The annual application opening marks an opportunity for education facilities to future-proof their buildings, with roof, window and central heating replacements taking priority. Sunny Lotay, national commercial manager at PermaRoof Commercial, explains: “The CIF provide essential funds for vital building work across schools and colleges, however, like most funding applications, the process isn’t always straightforward. A little-known fact is that suppliers can actually support at the application stage, providing relevant structural surveys and evidence of the work required, which in turn can strengthen an application against thousands of others.” Every project application is scored against three assessment criteria, each weighted independently. Project need contributes to the majority of the score at 60%, followed by project cost at 25%, with the remaining 15% being scored against project planning. Sunny added: “The first step for any education facility considering a flat roofing project with the support of CIF funding is to enlist a flat roofing specialist to conduct an in-depth roofing survey. From this they will be able to report on the current condition, potential improvements required, and recommended solutions. “By choosing to work with a reputable specialist to support an application, the project requirements, planning and costing will all have been outlined by roofing experts. This gives extra authority and structure to the CIF application submitted, which will increase the likelihood of receiving funding. It makes sense, therefore, to enlist the services of a supplier sooner rather than later.” Applications are now open, with a deadline of this month for registration and December for final submission. It then takes four months for all the applications to be individually assessed by the Education and Skills Fund Agency, part of the Department of Education, with successful projects being notified around April time. Discussing PermaRoof Commercial’s recent work in the education sector, Sunny said: “Recently our team has confirmed work at three academies with Southern Industrial and Kiers Group, having worked with them for the last few months on the best approach. “At the schools we conducted core tests and survey reports to determine the solution that was required. From this, we offered full specification support ensuring the schools were aware of the cost, need and planning process – all of which could go on to support a CIF application.” For more information on how PermaRoof Commercial can support with a CIF application and subsequent work, please visit permaroofcommercial.co.uk or call 01773 608839. For more information on CIF applications visit the government website. Building, Design & Construction Magazine | The Choice of Industry Professionals
