M-SParc (Menai Science Park), a wholly owned subsidiary of Bangor University, will be the first dedicated science park in Wales. Located on Anglesey, and part funded by European Regional Development Funding through the Welsh Government M-SParc will drive growth in knowledge based science, with a focus on low carbon energy, the environment and ICT sectors, targeting the brightest and best companies in the region to facilitate economic growth.

Willmott Dixon Construction ltd have just begun constructing phase one. The 5,000m² ,three storey building is Part of CEWales’ Exemplar program and will provide offices, laboratories and workshops for around 200 people.

Working with the Enabling Zero Waste team Willmott Dixon and the team are looking to prevent, reuse and recycle as much waste as possible. Plans include;

Design Review

• Identifying opportunities to reduce waste, enhance resource efficiency and end of life benefits by examining material choices.

Material Use

• Set up a pop up surplus/reuse area allowing any surplus construction materials to be donated into the local community.
• Working with Bangor University to develop innovative solutions for some of the site waste with the intention to turn this waste into product.
• Work with Bangor University to research what waste materials make up ‘the final 10%’ of wastes which are difficult to recycle.

Supply Chain

• Liaise with the supply chain with the aim of minimising product packaging without jeopardising and damaging product through transportation and storage on site.
• Work with suppliers to introduce packaging or product take back schemes.

Site Waste Management

• Waste data recording and analysis.
• Assistance with raising awareness amongst subcontractors of waste incentive schemes.
• Encourage segregated waste practices at the site, and provide guidance in line with the Environment (Wales) Act.
• Waste management resource will help to raise awareness of waste with the project team through tool box talks, site meetings, and the provision of signs and posters and procedures, if requested.

Canteen and Office Waste

• Set up canteen and office waste collections to ensure 100% recovery.

M-SParc ‘Ignite’

• M-SParc are out to tender for the artistic elements of the project, and one part of this is the ‘ignite’ project.  Tendering artists will be encouraged to find new, innovative ways to actively use the waste from site to create something practical and long lasting.

If you would like to find out more about Enabling Zero Waste please visit http://www.cewales.org.uk/current-programme/enabling-zero-waste/; follow @EZWaste_Wales or call a member of the team on 02920 493322. For further innformation on the Exemplar programme please contact Gordon.Brown@cewales.org.uk

Aberystwyth University and AIEC Limited are working in partnership with Constructing Excellence in Wales to avert waste generated during the upcoming construction of the new Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus at Aberystwyth University’s Gogerddan site (www.aiec.wales). As part of Enabling Zero Waste, the AIEC project will focus on monitoring waste arising from different activities, identifying any problematic waste streams, establishing benchmarks upon which improvements can be made and identifying opportunities for solutions.

Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus (AIEC) will provide world leading facilities and expertise for the agri-tech industry and the bio-science sector. Set between the Cambrian Mountains and the Irish Sea, this £40.5M campus will be a progressive environment to encourage business and academic collaboration to flourish. Aberystwyth Innovation and Enterprise Campus will offer a range of high quality facilities to support innovation, enabling commercial enterprises to grow, prosper and drive economic growth in the food & drink, bio-processing and biotechnology sectors throughout Wales and beyond. 

Initiatives planned for the AIEC include:

1. Innovation Zone
2. Analytical Science Centre
3. Future Food Centre
4. Bio-refining Centre
5. Seed Biobank and Processing Facility 

Willmott Dixon Construction Ltd. are the chosen contractor for the scheme. Working with the Enabling Zero Waste team Willmott Dixon are looking to prevent, reuse and recycle as much waste as possible. As part of the EZW initiative CEW will:

• undertake a pre-demolition survey to identify opportunities for reuse/repurposing, material reuse/recycling of the elements identified for demolition.
• carry out a design review in terms of quantifying savings made between the earlier scoping site design and current design.
• review the final design to examine the material choices with a view to identifying opportunities to increase waste prevented/minimisation, enhance resource efficiency and end of life benefits.

A final planning application for the Campus has submitted to Ceredigion County Council with a decision expected in the Spring of 2017. If planning permission is granted, construction is due to start mid-2017 and is expected to take two years to complete.

The campus is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, through the Welsh Government; by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) and by Aberystwyth University. 

Enabling Zero Waste is a CEW initiative which aims to establish if and how the industry can achieve the zero waste targets outlined in the Welsh Government’s waste strategy document Towards Zero Waste. We work alongside the industry to identify challenges in achieving the targets and disseminating best practices. To find out more please visit www.cewales.org.uk/enablingzerowaste or follow @EZWaste_wales or call 02920 493322 to speak to a member of the team.

Construction of the new Parc y Tywyn is in the early stages with piling complete. The new Parc y Tywyn in Burry Port will provide a Passivhaus and BREEAM Excellent primary school. It is a replacement to the existing Ysgol Gymraeg Parc y Tywyn and will offer 330 pupil places. The school and site works have a contract value of £12m, and will see Dawnus deliver;

• A primary school for 330 pupils
• A nursery for 45 pupils
• Facilities accessible to the wider community
• New access to the neighbouring sand facility

The Dawnus team have been working with the Enabling Zero Waste team to look at how to best prevent, reuse and recycle waste on the Parc y Tywyn site.

   

A site waste compound is already established. It is fenced and well signed, encouraging waste segregation at source. Having the waste compound established at this early stage will make waste segregation the norm throughout the project, making it part of the site ethos.

Similarly, dedicated bins for canteen and office waste disposal have been provided to embed segregation of waste across the whole site from early on. Past EZW projects have highlighted that canteen and office waste disposal can be an issue. Often it is a forgotten waste stream, which ends up being comingled and disposed of in mixed waste skips. CWM Environmental will dispose of food waste and dry recyclates, expecting to recover 100% of the canteen and office waste.

SMARTWaste training has been given as part of the EZW initiative to help Dawnus record and report waste produced. 

If you would like to find out more about Enabling Zero Waste please visit http://www.cewales.org.uk/current-programme/enabling-zero-waste/ ; follow @EZWaste_Wales or call a member of the team on 02920 493322.

Times running out and if you have not organised your entry to the CEW Awards 2017 or thought about how you might promote your work or reward that of a colleague, partner or supplier then think about it now. It’s easy.

Are you ready to stand out from the crowd? 

The Constructing Excellence Awards focus attention on some of the most important issues in the construction sector. They recognise the very best companies, collaborations and projects sharing best practice and inspiring others to adopt new and better ways of working that deliver outstanding results. All types of organisations enter our awards throughout the UK each year, private and public sector, SME and large, contractors; designers, professional advisors, clients, suppliers - in fact anyone and everyone that is part of construction’s extended family. 

From all those entrants, typically around 500+ organisations each year, our hard-pressed judges select the 108 they consider best represent the ethos and values of the Constructing Excellence movement to go forward to the National Constructing Excellence Awards. 

You can find out more via the CEW website, simply click on this link

There is no cost to enter the Constructing Excellence Awards you do not need to be a Constructing Excellence or regional Member to be able to enter. These awards are as big as the sum of their parts. They may be big in your region but they are even larger nationally when all nine regions come together - and you have an opportunity to take part! 

Every year, the nine Constructing Excellence regional partners collaborate to host their own awards ceremony – a gala dinner with anything from 300 to 650 people in attendance - adding up to more than 3500 construction people across the regions. Our attendees have a thoroughly enjoyable evening, raising some money for charity and celebrating all that is good in construction – patting each other on the back, giving congratulations. 

If you want to attend any of the regional awards ceremonies, here are the dates for your diary: 

West Midlands 28th April 2017
East Midlands 19th May 2017
South West 9th June 2017
North East 16th June 2017
North West 23rd June 2017
London & South East 29th June 2017
East of England June 2017
Yorkshire & Humber 7th July 2017
Wales 14th July 2017

CEW is delighted to join the growing number of organisations who have signed up as ambassadors of the Right Waste Right Place programme.

This new initiative which sets out simply and clearly an organisation's Duty of Care regarding the waste that they produce during their business, is the brainchild of the Environment Services Association. The messages for the construction industry are right on our agenda for construction and demolition waste and we are delighted to lend our active support to ESA.

More details can be found on the web site www.rightwasterightplace.com 

A £20m boost to funding for affordable housing in Wales has been welcomed by Carl Sargeant AM, Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children.

Following on from the Welsh Governments announcement last week by the Cabinet Secretary for Communities and Children has challenged the industry to show how it can up its game.

The target is to provide new innovative and sustainable homes that will help to deliver against the target of 20,000 homes over the five-year period with solutions that overcome the issues currently facing the industry in delivery. Here at CEW we are continually looking for schemes over all elements of the built environment to share the knowledge, learning and understanding across the full industry.

We were delighted to see that recent More | Better work by the Welsh School of Architecture demonstrates the potential of alternative approaches to deliver new housing in Wales. Be sure to read their Executive Summary to see how the seven different construction techniques have been analysed.

We are currently in discussion with various clients, designers, developers and suppliers in the early stages of applying for the Exemplar badge, but there is always room for more. Please call or email Gordon.Brown@cewales.org.uk in the first place to discuss.

Some of the current schemes being looked at by Constructing Excellence in Wales for the Exemplar projects are looking at the off-site manufacture, new forms of funding, collaboration within the team, community input and transformation, high levels of insulation, simple controls, CDM compliance and many other aspects within the schemes.

These schemes are based over the whole country and could well provide different learning and understanding based upon geography, exposure and locality.

The exemplar scheme’s process is to review each of the schemes at the design stage, during the construction phase, and to return after construction is complete to look at the post occupancy evaluation and any lessons that could and should be learnt from these innovative housing solutions and to share that knowledge back through the industry and to any others that wish to listen. 

Earlier this month, the Cabinet Secretary for Environment and Rural Affairs, Lesley Griffiths AM officially opened Wales’ first Solar village. The cluster of six homes which is called ‘Pentre Solar’ in Glanrhyd, North Pembrokeshire, will house tenants from Pembrokeshire County Council’s social housing waiting list. All houses have extremely low energy consumption and running costs, superfast broadband and access to a shared electric car. Click the link to Read more 

Lesley Griffiths AM also announced that a £40m scheme will be available to farmers to help them reduce their carbon emissions and to improve their resilience and competitiveness, including through diversification. A small capital grants scheme for farmers was a commitment in Taking Wales Forward, the Welsh Government's programme for government for the next five years.  Read more

And finally… the Welsh Government will invest an extra £40m over the next four years to improve the energy efficiency of up to 25,000 homes across Wales and support other green growth initiatives. The funding will be targeted at households on low incomes or in deprived communities, to help them to heat their homes at a more affordable cost and improving their health and wellbeing. Read more.