National construction charity Band of Builders has teamed up with professional tools brand DEWALT in a partnership that will provide help and support to tradespeople impacted by illness, injury or financial crisis across the UK. Band of Builders (BoB) is a registered charity that aids members of the construction industry when times get tough through hands-on support, as well as providing help and advice through its extensive online community. The organisation was founded by tradesman Addam Smith in 2016 to assist his friend and fellow builder, Keith Ellick, after he was diagnosed with terminal cancer. Addam recruited volunteers from around the country to ensure that the home renovations Keith had originally commenced were completed for his family. Since then, the charity has undertaken numerous projects throughout England, Scotland and Wales to support trade professionals facing adversity or hardship. “We’re excited to welcome DEWALT as a partner this year. Having the backing of a global brand in this way will undoubtedly strengthen our profile and drive awareness on a larger scale than ever before. Our aim is to reach as many construction workers across the country as possible and having DEWALT championing our cause will enable us to communicate our message to a significantly larger audience. Most importantly, it will also allow us to help a greater number of beneficiaries over the coming months and years,” said Gavin Crane, chair of the Board of Trustees at Band of Builders. “The pandemic has hampered many of our fundraising activities and projects over the last twelve months, with countless events postponed or cancelled. With DEWALT’s support, we will be able to resume work almost immediately, and our goal is to complete many more projects throughout 2021.” As part of the collaboration, DEWALT will supply tools and equipment for volunteers to use during construction or renovation projects, and the company will also engage in a programme of activities throughout the year to raise vital funds and drive awareness of the charity’s essential work. “We are passionate about supporting the professional trade community and are eager to start work with Band of Builders – a hugely inspiring charity that is run by tradespeople, for tradespeople. This partnership is an important opportunity for DEWALT to give back to individuals within the industry who have backed our brand for many years. Our teams are extremely keen to participate on a personal level, to boost awareness and fundraising efforts, and provide a helping hand to professionals through the toughest of times,” Chris Wayne, group marketing manager at DEWALT, added.

On 29 December 2020 central Croatia was hit by strongest earthquake in 140 years and the three waterworks of the cities Sisak, Petrinja and Glina were heavily damaged. With the help of their Croatian partners PTMG, GF Piping Systems organized the donation of 5’000 pieces of ELGEF Plus Fittings in various sizes to help repair and replace the damaged water pipes as fast as possible and to ensure sustainable water transport. The earthquake with a magnitude of 6.4 Mw hit central Croatia was the strongest recorded in 140 years, with the epicenter located 3 km west-southwest of the city of Petrinja. The adversely affected areas were mostly in the Sisak-Moslavina County, but the strength of the earthquake was felt in all surrounding countries, even in Austria and Germany. The cities Sisak, Petrinja and Glina along with their surrounding villages were badly damaged, while the center of Petrinja was totally destroyed. The earthquake caused shifts of soil with an amplitude of up to 70 centimeters. The water distribution for the affected areas is provided by three waterworks: for the city of Sisak – Sisacki Vodovod, for the city of Petrinja – Privreda Petrinja and for the city of Glina – Vodovod Glina. Together, they manage almost 600 km of water pipelines.​After the earthquake, Sisacki Vodovod managed to deliver water to all habitants, despite numerous water leakages that resulted in a total water loss of almost 3’000 cubic liters per day. But even 30 days after the earthquake, Privreda Petrinja was still not able to produce water because their water stations were destroyed and they are dependent on Sisacki Waterworks. Vodovod Glina’s warehouse collapsed and they had to ask for instant help from the surrounding waterworks. All three waterworks are trying to locate damaged existing pipes. Their next step will be to replace damaged pipes with more suitable material for earthquakes, such as PE material.​The donation of almost 5’000 pieces of ELGEF Plus Fittings in various sizes from GF Piping Systems will be a tremendous help to start repairing and replacing the damaged water pipes. It helps the waterworks to act fast and eliminate the water loss that was caused by the earthquake. ELGEF Plus is the correct choice for all water, gas and multiple industrial pressure applications. Corrosion-free, low weight, high chemical resistance, low overall costs and an extensive service life of installations are just a few of the many advantages of the ELGEF Plus system. The extensive customization of ELGEF Plus products, coupled with the system’s flexibility, offers decisive advantages.Using PE material will be a resilient and sustainable flow solution for the future.  For more technical product details on ELGEF Plus Fittings, visit: https://www.gfps.com/com/en/products-solutions/systems/elgef-plus.html

New football sponsorship arrangement the latest community initiative to be implemented and follows similar recent tie-up with British Basketball Team Leicester Riders. Glencar, an expanding construction company specialising in the industrial, logistics, distribution, manufacturing, life science and pharmaceutical sectors has today announced a new community partnership with Championship football club – Watford F.C by becoming a regional partner. As a Watford F.C Regional Partner, Glencar will see its branding displayed throughout the stadium during every home game boosting brand awareness and engaging with over 20,000 fans within the clubs fanbase and wider community. Glencar Managing Director Eddie McGillycuddy explained what appealed to Glencar about becoming a Watford FC Regional Partner: “The business, which was founded in 2016, enjoys strong foundations in Hertfordshire and affinity with Watford F.C with several of our colleagues having grown up in the town and with a direct association within the community. So we are therefore enormously proud to become a regional partner and build our association with the club and reach out to a broader community audience.  It provides Glencar with an opportunity to invest in the communities in which we operate as part of our efforts to conduct our business in a socially conscious way that goes towards our approach to delivering positive economic, environmental outcomes for our business, our stakeholders and the world more broadly. Brand exposure is vital to our business and becoming a partner offers a fantastic opportunity to get our name into the community.  When you are connected to a club so grounded in the community, that reputation spreads.  For us being connected to Watford FC enhances our reputation and give us a level of trust. As a Watford Regional Partner, Glencar will see their branding appear on crowd-facing LED boards at the clubs stadium Vicarage Road, displayed on StadiumTV and StatTV within the concourses. The business also features on StatTracker social media content, which is shared to the club’s official channels, reaching a global audience. Additionally, Glencar will connect with local businesses through exclusive Regional Partner events, which have included Q&A evenings with former Watford players, such as John McClelland. Also commenting, Ricky Levenston, Glencar Chief Information Officer explained why the partnership is a fitting one for Glencar: “It’s been great to follow Watford F.C’s achievements over the past few years and we feel the club is an organisation whose core values align closely with our own” he said. “The regional partnership supports our community engagement plan and will be one that’s close to the hearts of many Glencar colleagues.”. For further information about the announcement visit: https://www.linkedin.com/showcase/watford-fc-business-club/

Family-run Seddon, which knows first-hand the importance of cancer treatment, is pledging to raise £175,000 toward a new state-of-the-art cancer centre. The Bolton-based construction firm has once again teamed up with The Christie charity to help raise funds – this time for the new Christie at Macclesfield cancer centre. Seddon – which has been supporting The Christie charity for nearly 25 years – has pledged to donate £250 for every new house it sells nationwide under its Seddon Homes brand. The fundraising drive will run until the end of 2022,raising vital donations for the new £26m cancer centre, which is due to open at the end of the year. Seddon is aiming to sell nearly 700 homes nationwide to raise the incredible sum for the charity. The company hopes its fundraising model will inspire other local construction businesses to support The Christie in the same way. The Seddon family know all too well how important the work of The Christie is, with two family members receiving treatment at the specialist cancer hospital. Seddon began supporting The Christie charity in 1997 when, as part of Seddon’s centenary celebrations, staff raised many thousands of pounds that helped to fund two operating theatres. The partnership developed further in 2009/2010 when Seddon became a Christie charity corporate partner and raised more than £400k towards a revolutionary treatment called radioimmunotherapy or ‘Magic Bullet’ – a treatment that blasts tumours with radioactive material. During these two years, Seddon staff ran, cycled, swam and walked hundreds of miles in teambuilding and fundraising events. In 2017, Seddon committed to a further two-year fundraising partnership by making The Christie its Charity of Choice, with all national fundraising initiatives supporting the charity. Over the years the company has raised an incredible £875,000 and helped fund a wide variety of projects and contributed to the development of a range of pioneering treatments and valuable cancer research, including proton beam therapy research.  “We are thrilled at this latest pledge of support from Seddon which is a much respected and longstanding supporter of our charity. It is through partnerships like this that we can bring the vision of a new cancer centre in Macclesfield to reality. It is an extremely generous pledge from Seddon which is very much appreciated and will directly improve services for a huge number of patients for many years to come,” said Marie Toller, head of major relationships at The Christie charity. The Christie at Macclesfield will transform cancer care in Cheshire, the High Peak area of Derbyshire and parts of North Staffordshire, providing care closer to home for more than 1,500 existing Christie patients a year.  It will bring together essential cancer services into one purpose-built centre delivering local specialist access to radiotherapy, chemotherapy, holistic support and information services, outpatient care, palliative care and a wider range of clinical trials. Around 40,000 appointments per year will take place at the new centre.  The Christie charity supports the work of The Christie NHS Foundation Trust providing enhanced services over and above what the NHS funds. This includes money for care and treatment, research, education and extra patient services. Gifts from the public make a huge difference to the care and treatment that The Christie is able to provide to patients and their families. The Christie NHS Foundation Trust was the first specialist trust to be rated as ‘Outstanding’ twice (in 2016 and 2018) by the health regulator the Care Quality Commission (CQC). It referred to The Christie as ‘a leader in cancer care’ and ‘a pioneer in developing innovative solutions to cancer care.’ The CQC praised the Trust’s staff which it said ‘go the extra mile to meet the needs of patients and their families’ and that they were ‘exceptionally kind and caring.’ In 2017, the CQC rated The Christie as the best specialist trust in the country, and one of the top three trusts overall in England. 

Building materials supplier CEMEX is pleased to confirm that the sale of its award-winning Attenborough Nature Reserve to the Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust has been finalised. The Trust has been keen to purchase the reserve for many years, and this has become possible thanks to a £750,000 grant from Biffa Award and public backing for the Trust’s Attenborough Lifeline Appeal. Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust, which has managed the site for over 50 years, launched its Lifeline Appeal campaign for funding to purchase the reserve in November 2019 – following the end of CEMEX’s commercial sand and gravel extraction which helped shape the site for almost a century. It is now a designated Site of Special Scientific Interest. Such is the popularity of the nature reserve, an area of restored former sand and gravel quarries alongside the River Trent south of Nottingham, that the charity reached its ambitious £1 million target in a matter of weeks – enabling negotiations over the sale of the site to begin. “After more than half a century of partnership, we are enormously pleased to see the transfer of this amazing and award-winning site to the Trust being completed. To see Attenborough evolve into such an important nature reserve in such close proximity to major population centres has been most rewarding. Our partnership with the Trust – which has included the establishment of the impressive Visitor Centre with support from the company’s own Landfill Communities Fund – has been a major success and we look forward to the Trust taking ownership as the site moves on to the next phase in its development,” said Stephen Redwood, Land Development and Permitting Director for CEMEX Europe. Now, with contracts signed and exchanged, Nottinghamshire Wildlife Trust is planning for the long-term future of the site, which provides a safe haven for over 1,000 species including otters and bitterns and welcomes an estimated half a million visitors each year. Since being opened by Sir David Attenborough in 1966 Attenborough Nature Reserve, situated on the edge of Nottingham, has become one of the best loved nature reserves in the UK. The Trust has worked closely with CEMEX over this period to create a reserve which is an excellent example of how industry can work with conservation bodies to create a site high in biodiversity which is of national importance. Speaking on behalf of the Trust, Chief Executive Paul Wilkinson said: “The support of Biffa Award and the backing of the public and our supporters has delivered a prize that we have been working with CEMEX to achieve for some time. Attenborough is a cherished site, where so many come to connect with nature. Our aspiration has always been to take the site into our ownership so that we can plan for its long-term future and that future begins today. We would like to say a heartfelt thank you to everyone that has made it possible including Biffa Award, our supporters and CEMEX.”

John Sisk & Son (“Sisk”) alongside Moda, developer and operator of homes for rent, have teamed up to deliver 100 toys for children at the West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre in Birmingham this Christmas. In addition to this Sisk has also donated a set of handcrafted wooden toys, created by Sisk’s apprentice carpenters at the company’s workshop in Dublin. This is part of a longstanding Sisk tradition which will see 400 wooden toys donated throughout the UK, Ireland and Europe. West Midlands Rehabilitation Service in Birmingham is a key service provided by Birmingham Community Healthcare NHS Foundation Trust based in Selly Oak. Their specialist teams provide wheelchair services; communication and technology device support; functional electrical stimulation (FES) a technology that helps children with disabilities such as cerebral palsy to walk and amputee and prosthetic rehabilitation. Work on the wooden toys commences in mid-November and takes four to five weeks to complete, with all staff and management in the Sisk training centre getting involved. Each November, the team get together to decide on the toys they are going to make, sourcing ideas from books, websites and feedback from the charities who have received toys in the past. The Sisk Christmas toy project was started by John G Sisk at the Sisk Joinery Workshop in Dublin almost 45 years ago. Today, Sisk has a state of the art training facility for apprentice carpenters and joiners located at its head office in Dublin and also has ten apprentices working at its Broad Street project. Sisk is currently building The Mercian (Birmingham’s tallest residential tower) at Broad Street in Birmingham city centre for its client, Moda. The project is located on the former site of the renowned nightclub, The Click Club at Burberries.  Working in partnership with Moda, Sisk has already delivered on its promise to create hundreds of new jobs at The Mercian. In addition, with support from the WMCA (West Midlands Combined Authority), a bespoke Training Hub has been implemented on site. Simon Dingle, Regional Director, John Sisk & Son, said: “This past year has been extremely challenging for everybody, particularly families who need to access vital support services. We are delighted to be able to team up with Moda to deliver our handmade toys to West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre. One of our greatest success stories has been our ability to give back to the many communities in which we work through our longstanding Sisk Christmas toy story. The toys are handmade by our apprentice carpenters and joiners, utilising the skills taught to them at our training centre. We would also like to thank all our supply chain partners who have donated a further 70 commercial toys as part of our donation the West Midlands Rehabilitation Centre.” Tony Brooks, Managing Director at Moda, said: “With the extreme challenges faced by so many this year, it is a true pleasure to be able to bring some Christmas joy to children in Birmingham, our newest home. At Moda, we work hard for the communities we live in and The Mercian is no different – we’re proud to stand tall against the Birmingham skyline and give back to the community as we look ahead to everything we can bring to the city when we open late next year.”

Leading property development, investment and lettings company, ALB Group, is marking the festive season by donating thousands of pounds worth of Christmas presents to children in five hospitals across the country. The Nottingham-headquartered privately owned group, which has multiple companies specialising in the conversion, redevelopment and letting of residential and commercial properties throughout the UK, is gifting £15,000 worth of presents to children who will be receiving hospital treatment over the Christmas period. This is the fourth year running that ALB has donated gifts to children in hospital – and donations this year will reach communities in which the developer has been particularly active; including Kings Mill in Mansfield, Calderdale Royal Hospital in Halifax, Queens Medical Centre in Nottingham, Derbyshire Children’s Hospital and Arrowe Park Hospital in Birkenhead, Merseyside. This is the second consecutive year that the company has donated gifts to Arrowe Park Hospital in Birkenhead, following its work on the transformation of a local retail unit into 59 residential apartments in the town. As well as gifts, ALB is also donating a new television and Xbox to a local homeless shelter in Nottinghamshire. Arran Bailey, managing director at ALB Group, said: “As a company, we work to improve local areas through the regeneration, redevelopment and conversion of underutilised sites and properties, and we feel a responsibility to give something extra special back to these communities for Christmas. “The festive season is usually such a joyful time, but given the uncertain year we’ve all experienced, it’s going to feel very different for many this year – especially for those who have been and are separated from their loved ones. “We are so pleased and proud to be able to give some joy to children who are in hospital over the Christmas season, and we look forward to seeing the smiles on their faces once the gifts are delivered to the wards. “Our work takes us all over the country, but we are honoured to be so involved in the property industry throughout the East Midlands, where the company first began, providing quality residential and commercial spaces for people to enjoy.”