Spring time should always be an exciting time for business and the construction industry. Welsh construction is at a tipping point – there is huge potential for our housing sector to benefit from retrofit work and there is a lot of debate on which major infrastructure projects to invest in and how they will be procured. On top of this, the (hopefully) better weather allowing more work on site, we now also know the UK Government is backing more infrastructure spend.

Where is climate change on your agenda?

The Climate Change Commission for Wales (CCCW) and the Wales Low/Zero Carbon Hub (WLZCH) are arguing strongly that Climate Change must be high on the political agenda.

Our Exemplar Programme continues to go from strength to strength. In it's first year we had 15 projects signed up for the programme and as we move through the second year that figure has risen to 20. We’ve already produced 10 case studies and held 8 events to describe the best practices that are being identified across the programme.

Kick start your Welsh construction career with G4C Wales. Construction is the lifeblood of the Welsh and UK economy. But like any vibrant, innovative industry it needs new ideas and new people, which is why G4C Wales is such an important part of the CEW Clubs.

Constructing Excellence in Wales is looking for a project manager to join the WLZCH team.

CEW receives specific funding to administer the Wales Low/Zero Carbon Hub (WLZCH). Created in 2009, the WLZCH was developed to act as a dissemination mechanism to stakeholders and a source of advice to Welsh Ministers over activities...

Welsh Government is seeking to make sprinkler systems compulsory in domestic buildings. What’s your view?

The number of people who die in their home as a result of fire is still too high. In 2011 the Government passed the Domestic Fire Safety (Wales) Measure 2011.

The Welsh National Procurement Awards 2013 were recently held at Deganwy, North Wales. Despite the best efforts of Mother Nature to spoil proceeding, thankfully the snow did not cause too much bother in the end. The evening was a celebration of good procurement practices across the whole of the Welsh public sector and the Finance Minister, Jane Hutt addressed the audience through a video link.

Does BIM get you all wound up? Let us know by taking part in the NFB survey.

Building Information Modelling (BIM) remains one of the hottest topics in construction. You cannot go far online or in the trade media without finding an article, event or promotion about BIM.

During the Autumn, Tom McClean joined us on a technical exchange from Welsh Government and became involved in and extremely interested in our Recycled Aggregate for Minor Schemes (RAMS) project. Tom is now conducting a survey of the construction industry in order to gauge attitudes towards RAMS.

Independent inspection is an integral part of the CEW Green Compass Accreditation process. In order to maintain standards the independent inspection organisation is, in turn, “inspected”  by UKAS every year. To do this the independent inspection body is required to undertake a witnessed inspection under the watchful eye of UKAS.

Costain is calling on innovators, entrepreneurs, businesses and members of the general public to come and present new and exciting ideas at a series of nationwide events due to take place in May.

The initiative is called Blue Innovation Futures and has been set up to support Costain’s Engineering Tomorrow, the Group’s commitment to identifying, developing and implementing innovative solutions to major national needs.