Find below some information on the life within ENCORD – workshops, Council meetings, etc. Enjoy your look around!

An ENCORD ‘CO2 and Sustainability’ Workshop was held 5 and 6 July 2010 in Madrid Spain, hosted by Ferrovial Agroman SA.

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. Read the rest of this entry »

The 7-8 June 2010 ENCORD Council Meeting was hosted by UPONOR at IDA, the Danish Engineering Society in Copenhagen, Denmark.

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.

Facing the pressure of today’s challenging market circumstances, ENCORD member companies are focussing on new market perspectives as well as on more cost-efficient processes to “overcome” the current economic turmoil. Sharing knowledge in ENCORD’s network guides the members on their way of improvements and stimulates them in the right direction.

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

ENCORD and Sustainable Building Alliance MOU

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 Read the rest of this entry »

29-30 March 2010 | Hemel Hempsted, UK

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.

March 2010 | London, UK

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. Read the rest of this entry »

25-25 January 2010 | Dubai, UAE

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.

16-17 November 2009 | Madrid, Spain

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.

12-13 October 2009 | Helsinki, Finnland

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

5 October 2009 | London, UK

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.

ENCORD 20th Anniversary Meeting – Member company´s Board Members and Council Meeting
8-9 June 2009 | Stuttgart, Germany

The June 2009 ENCORD Council Meeting was held in conjunction with the 20th anniversary celebration. On Monday, June 8th, ENCORD Council Members as well as top level executives of he ENCORD member companies met in Stuttgart. A Council meeting was held on June 9th. The workshop was organized and hosted by the Ed. Züblin AG and the ENCORD General Secretary.

Setting of the 20th anniversary meeting June 8th 2009
All ENCORD member companies are currently operating within an economic situation whose implications and ramifications are not yet predictable. Enabled by ENCORD (European Network or Construction Companies for Research and Development), leaders in the European Construction sector got together and intensely exchanged ideas for a few hours. Read the rest of this entry »

27-28 April 2009 | Vught, the Netherlands

The ENCORD Lean Construction Management Workshop was held on 27-28 April 2009 in Vught, The Netherlands and was organised by Richard Bufferfield of Balfour Beatty Infrastructure Services and Ger Maas of Royal BAM Group. 34 participants from Balfour Beatty, Ballast Nedam Infra, CCC, Ferrovial, Hochtief, Royal BAM Group, Vinci/Vinci Construction, YIT Corporation and Züblin/ENCORD as well as from Arpa Bouw and University of Technology of Eindhoven attended the workshop.
The first ENCORD workshop on Lean Construction Management in 2007 (Copenhagen) offered an introduction. The second ENCORD workshop on Lean Construction Management in 2008 (London) focussed on the value creation. This third ENCORD workshop on Lean Construction Management provided a guide to an approach of Lean Construction Management by sharing examples from implemented construction projects, putting a focus on the operational side of the topic. This also seemed even more essential with the backdrop of the current European (and global) economic crisis, in which “Lean Construction Management” as a toolbox of various approaches and methods is a possible way of improving efficiency to meet constrained budgets – ‘getting the same for less’.

21-22 April 2009 | Copenhagen, Denmark

The 18th ENCORD Virtual Construction Platform (VCP) meeting was held at NCC’s head office in Copenhagen, Denmark 21-22 April 2009. Prior to the ENCORD VCP meeting an ENCORD 5D Initiative meeting was held on Monday the 20th of April.
The ingredients of the meeting of the ENCORD VCP were:
- A presentation by NCC about their BIM implementation and the influence of the Danish government on BIM in construction;
- A presentation by Eurostep on an “Open Information Platform” to collaborate and exchange information from BIM and Document Management Systems between partners in the construction process. Eurostep is the replacement for Oracle in the InPro project;
- A presentation by the General Secretary of ENCORD (Jens-Peter Grunau) on ENCORD and the current eight focus topics and the ENCORD strategy;
- A presentation by Ballast Nedam on the implementation and use of IBM Maximo at Ballast Nedam’s Operations & Maintenance company;
- A series of “Bad Practices” and “What’s new” presentations by all present ENCORD VCP members. We chose to have the members present a “Bad Practice” presentation instead of “Best Practice” presentations, to inform each other about things that go wrong in our Virtual Construction projects, and about the actions taken to prevent this in the future.

17 April 2009 | Condor House, London

ENCORD members as well as participants from Skanska met in London on April 16th 2009 for a Construction Co2 workshop. A draft of a Construction industry CO2 measurement protocol and the list of carbon emissions monitoring and reporting drivers for construction were introduced and discussed at the meeting. Revised versions including input from the participants were created following the meeting.

Hosted by: Vinci, 10-11 February 2009, in Paris
Chairman of the workshop: Wolfgang Katzer, Hochtief    

The aim of this first ENCORD workshop on the subject of Knowledge Management (KM) outside of the Council meetings was the exchange of best practice in general terms while focussing in particular on the subject of Communities of Practice (CoP).
The goal was to inform the other participants how elements of knowledge management are implemented in ENCORD members companies to date and what the future plans are and possibly forming an ENCORD CoP. Each company gave a presentation of KM in their organisation which was then directly discussed in the group. Parallel to these presentations, the participants prepared input for a KM mindmap by writing down important key words and subjects inspired by the presentations and their own experience. This input was assembled on a poster mindmap and then discussed and summarised on day two. The summary led to a matrix of top KM topics and their individual aspects. This will be the starting point to explore the possibility of continuing the dialogue either through a dedicated CoP or a second in-depth meeting on specific KM aspects.