Topics and discussions included:

- A feedback from the review of the individual member companies´ Sustainability Reports – three common key areas were environmental, social and economic sustainability.

- The group decided to draft an ENCORD guide on sustainability. Key areas of the discussion and for further actions in this respect were: continued work on CO₂-emissions, Waste, Water, Effluent, Sustainability Materials and Sustainable Sources of Materials, Biodiversity and Hazardous Materials.

- Waste Measurement – Creating a final draft of a common ENCORD Guideline for measuring and reporting construction waste

- Presentations and discussion of member companies´ CO₂ data and reporting-experience

- Update on the cooperation with Sustainable Building Alliance (SBA)

- Presentation of the current status of the interaction with World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) in regard to the ENCORD CO₂ protocol as well as the discussion of their Scope 3 activities

- Discussion on Best Practice proposals

Next steps include

- Charlie Law will produce final draft of ENCORD Waste Measurement Protocol

- Charlie Law, Harry Lakeman and Ron van Wijk (Balast Nedam) agreed to produce a first a draft ENCORD sustainability policy before the next meeting

- Jesse Putzel will pursue the work with the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) on Scope 3 and the adoption of the ENCORD CO₂ protocol

- Louis Demilecamps and Charlie Law will further pursue the cooperation with the Sustainable Building Alliance SBA.

- Member companies will continue to measure their Scope 1 and 2 emissions and the data will be discussed at the next meeting.

- One best practice example per company to be described for the next meeting.

Thank you | ENCORD would like to thank the host Juan Elízaga of Ferrovial for making this excellent meeting possible.

Next meeting | The group resolved to meet again 6 October 2010 in Nieuwegein, hosted by Ballast Nedam.

Some topics of the agenda included:

- a review of the CO₂ workshop March 2010, the Health and Safety Workshop March 2010, and the activities of the Virtual Construction Platform / 5D initiative along with discussions on the next steps

- a review of the Memorandum of Understanding with the Sustainable Building Alliance

- a discussion on the proposed Top Level Executive meeting in June 2011

- an introduction of the new website and newsletter

- an outlook on the planned workshops, including workshops on the “Aging Society” and “Lean Construction” as well as “Health and Safety” and “Virtual Construction”

- an outlook on the next Council meetings, including the November 2010 meeting at IBM´s innovation center

- on overview of European research opportunities

- a detailed introduction, discussion of the infrastructure initiative “reFINE” and an initiative of ENCORD to make an Infrastructure leaflet.

- a feedback from Ger Maas´ presentation at the European Parliament and

- a discussion on ENCORD´s view on the “Europe 2020 Strategy” of EU President J.M. Barroso.

Thanks

Council members extended their thanks to Ilari Aho, Vice President Indoor Climate Business Group and the local organizer Lars Nielsen and UPONOR for hosting and organizing the event.

Next Council meetings

The next Council meeting will be held 15-16 November 2010 in La Gaude, France at IBM´s research and innovation center.

This ENCORD newsletter Number 18 for the member companies gives insight into some of ENCORD’s latest activities.

Download the pdf version of the newsletter: 1006_ENCORD_Newsletter18

Following the initiative of Louis Demillecamp and the discussion at the January 2010 Council Meeting, ENCORD is now a member of the Sustainable Building Alliance. The memorandum of understanding (MOU) was signed by Ger Maas on behalf of ENCORD.

As the Sustainable Building Alliance´s goals fit in very well with the work of the ENCORD CO2 and sustainability working group, one of this group´s active leaders and council member Charlie Law is the Liaison to the SBA, with Geraldine Thomas also being able to represent ENCORD.

Some additional information on the Sustainable Building Alliance can also be found at http://www.sballiance.org/. The Sustainable Building Alliance’s goal is to develop common metrics that can be used to monitor and compare internationally ecological behavior and sustainable performance through the different voluntary rating schemes. USGBC (LEED), BRE (BREEAM), CSTB (HQE), DGNB (DGNB Certificate), FCAV (AQUA), VTT, ITC-CNR and IVEn are part of the alliance. Other members include standard setting organizations, national building research centers, and key property industry and construction sector stakeholders. The SB Alliance initiative is supported by the Royal Institution of chartered surveyors RICS,UNESCO Chair for sustainable buildings, the UNEP sustainable building and construction initiative UNEP-SBCI and the World Federation of Technical Assessment Organizations WFTAO.
Sustainable Building rating systems in general assist decision makers in setting goals, benchmarking, and comparing alternatives, but also innovation processes and improvement options. They help to bring the ideas inherent in ecoefficiency and the «triple-bottom line» thinking down to a practical implementation level by developing, integrating, and applying measurement science assessing the sustainability performance of energy technologies and systems in an integrated building design and operation context.
The Sustainable Building Alliance works to develop a greater level of commonality between the different assessment tools to improve understanding, comparability and take-up.

This ENCORD CO2 and ‘Sustainability’ Workshop in Hemel Hempstead, 29 and 30 March 2010 secured agreement on the ENCORD CO2 measurement protocol, and members agreed to measure and report on emission blocks 1 to 7 for 2009 (where the data is available) and 2010, and that this would be taken back to the ENCORD council for adoption. I was also agreed to set a long term target on emission reductions once a baseline figure has been established. There was progress on measurement of waste and material CO2e emissions and presentations on CO2 reduction initiatives of some member companies.

The meeting also started to look at some of the wider issues regarding sustainability, including the measurement of waste, as well as investigating what other areas member companies were focussing on.

18 people from 10 ENCORD member companies (plus SKANSKA) held a workshop in London, 9th March 2010 to evaluate the benefits that could be gained from using the ENCORD network for driving improvements in Health and Safety. The host was Dr. Rennie Chadwick, VINCI Construction UK.

Background
The construction workforce across EU countries totals approximately 20 million people – equivalent to the whole population of a medium sized country in the EU. Statistically, each construction worker entering the industry at 20 years of age and working for 20 years currently has a 100% chance of being injured by an accident at work (source: ENCORD Council members, meeting February 2009).
Most of the accidents or fatalities could be avoidable.

Scope of the Workshop
Each of the participants shared current performance data and initiatives.  A more detailed presentation of the Balfour Beatty initiative ‘Zero Harm’ was given by John Dunne.  Fred Garner and Terry Penketh of VINCI provided an insight to the VINCI health and safety management system and its application on the King’s Cross railroad station project, including many examples of how to implement the system in a challenging and large scale project.

The participants debated the areas available for constructive collaboration and identified:
-    There is no existing group that facilitates collaboration for improvement in health & safety for the major European contractors and such a group would be of benefit to participants.
-    There was benefit to be gained from collaborating on Health and Safety, using the ENCORD network.
-    The terms of reference / “modus operandi” for this collaborating group should be based on benchmarking, learning and lobbying.

Next steps include
-    An analysis of the different performance measurement approaches, to enable the start of the benchmarking process
-    Examples of construction plant and equipment that, through its normal operation, posed a health & safety risk (MEWPS, telehandlers and tower cranes were identified as possibilities during this workshop).
-    Drafting a ‘charter’ or “modus operandi” document for the activities of the group, to which all the participants had agreed and promoted within the senior management of their company.
-    An insight to the health and safety initiatives taken by the host companies.

The 24-25 January 2010 ENCORD Council Meeting was hosted by Consolidated Contractors Company (CCC) of Greece in Dubai and Abu Dhabi, UAE.

The agenda included
a) the Council Meeting topics as well as
b) a focus on “Sustainability” with site visits to two projects with a strong focus on sustainability – the Masdar project and the Aldar Headquarter, both in Abu Dhabi. The aim was to look at the future of sustainable construction, and what ENCORD was/could be doing to further drive this agenda;
c) a presentation and discussion on the financial situation in the United Arab Emirates by Mr Khaled Sifri, CEO of the Arab Emirates Investment Bank. Mr Sifri has an extensive global banking and investment background, but also a degree in civil engineering.
d) an introduction to  the work of CCC in the region, to discuss some of the technical and logistical challenges facing construction companies on large projects in the middle east.

The November 2009 ENCORD Council Meeting was held 16-17 November, hosted by FCC, Francisco Capilla in Madrid. The venue was the Hotel Agumar.
Key topics of the meeting were a review of the actions of the E2BA, the ECTP General Assembly and conference 2009, the ECTP Task Force Infrastructure, the Construction CO2 Measurement Protocol and the Meeting topic “Communication” with the SharePoint Website / Projectplace, the ENCORD newsletter, Workshops for 2010 and the ENCORD Logo. The Council also approved the Budget and Expenses 2009 / 2010.

The 19th ENCORD VCP meeting was held at YIT’s head office in Helsinki in Finland. 25 participants discussed
- YIT – Vico software in practice \ developments
- Presentations by Vendors: Solibri, Jotne EPM, D-Rofus
- Update on 5Di progress
- Best practices / what’s new by participants

21 people from 9 ENCORD member companies as well as guests held an ENCORD CO2 Workshop 5 October 2009 in Hemel Hempstead, UK. The hosts for the meeting were Charlie Law and Jesse Putzel from BAM Construct UK Ltd.

The workshop was called to finalise the draft ENCORD ‘CO2 Measurement Protocol (Rev E)’ which was in the final stages of production. The output of the meeting is Rev F of the Protocol, which captures the decisions made at the workshop. The following pages capture some of the discussions around the decisions – most results are however directly reflected in the revised version of the protocol. 

Topics of discussion included
- the Introduction and Background of the CO2 Measurement Protocol,
- Construction Areas of Operation,
- Scope of Measurement,
- Measuring Emissions including Transport, Subcontractors scope 1 & 2:, Materials, Waste and Emissions in Use
- KPIs

The meeting was closed with the group deciding to
- introduce the next version of the protocol to the ENCORD Council Meeting in January 2010
- publish the next version of the protocol on the ENCORD website, and to
- meet again in the first half of 2010 with a focus on the implementation of the protocol.