The Green Compass Scheme & PAS402:2013 at the RWM Exhibition.

The CEW team attended the RWM Exhibition last week in Birmingham promoting the Green Compass Scheme and PAS402:2013. Paul Jennings, Director, CEW spoke on the panel ‘Extracting value from your waste data to unlock resource opportunities’ discussing the role of data and the case for transparency as a means of creating a positive engagement and opportunities.  The demand for accurate and available waste data is increasing and the Green Compass Scheme helps to assist in delivering this. 

What is the Green Compass Scheme?The aim of the Green Compass Scheme is to support the waste industry to move towards a truly sustainable approach to managing waste whilst providing customers with validated waste performance data.The Green Compass Scheme enables waste management organisations to demonstrate their performance with a UKAS accredited inspection against PAS 402. The scheme provides the framework, guidance and process for PAS 402 inspection. 

What is PAS 402:2013? PAS 402:2013 is the publicly available specification (PAS) for waste management performance reporting. Published by BSI, the specification provides the framework for the demonstration of performance against key areas of delivery, including landfill diversion and materials recovery, assuring potential and existing customers of the service they are procuring. 

What are the benefits? An independent evaluation of the Green Compass Scheme, undertaken by AECOM identified the following benefits:

• Improved waste performance data within an increasing number of waste management companies as a result of the scheme;
• Improved operating and safety practices - One of the biggest achievements recorded was the improvement in quality and health and safety;
• A reduction in waste to landfill during the project period, with a corresponding reduction in CO² and operating costs;
• An improved perception of the waste management industry as a whole, influenced by those waste organisations participating in the GCS;
• Increased business activity, where GCS has provided an opportunity to win more work;
• Through ‘awareness raising’ of the concept of landfill diversion, materials recovery and an open system of reporting, PAS 402/Green Compass Scheme promotes application of the waste hierarchy.

How does it work? Compliance is demonstrated through the inspection of an annual report detailing company performance for the previous year against PAS 402. The Green Compass Scheme is applicable to all waste management companies processing waste. To apply to become an accredited company, please email us at info@greencompass.org. For further information regarding the Green Compass Scheme, or for an application form please visit: www.greencompass.org and follow @greencompass402

University of East Anglia is setting the benchmark high for sustainable construction and is sharing developments in a case study via BSRIA.

BSRIA was delighted to support delivery of an innovative new Enterprise Centre, providing the gateway building to the University of East Anglia (UEA) campus. BSRIA support included cursory investigation of innovative materials, life cycle costing, airtightness testing, thermal imaging, post occupancy evaluation (POE) and Soft Landings.

The Enterprise Centre is the latest pioneer building for UEA, following in the footsteps of the Elizabeth Fry Building, the Zuckerman Institute and the Julian Study Centre. BREEAM outstanding was achieved with a 93 per cent rating and now Passivhaus certification is being targeted. The building has been built on a brownfield site using 70 per cent bio-based materials, many of which have been sourced locally.

It exceeds local planning requirements for 10 per cent of the building’s energy to be from renewables, with a 480 m² roof-mounted photovoltaic array, predicted to generate 44 MWh a year. Over the lifetime of the building, the embodied carbon is predicted to be one quarter that of a conventionally constructed building.

The two-storey 3,400 m2 building is the new home for the Adapt Low Carbon Group, which was created to commercialise graduate start-up firms that have grown out of UEA’s world-class environmental sciences departments. Adapt wanted its new facilities to be an exemplar of sustainability.

The building is wrapped in thatch: this traditional Norfolk roofing material is formed of 250 mm thick layers of straw set in prefabricated, vertically-hanging timber cassettes – a world first according to Morgan Sindall’s senior site manager Ken Bassett. The thatch holds, for 100 years or so, carbon absorbed by plants photosynthesising, providing a good carbon negative local material.

Can you help the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales deliver the best possible historic environment services for the country?

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales (RCAHMW) needs more commissioners to help deliver its work. 

Its core functions are to investigate, understand, interpret and disseminate authoritative information about the historic environment, and to care for and maintain its own and others’ records.

Its operations are supervised by ten Commissioners who are Crown appointees and CADW acts as its sponsorship division within the Welsh Government. Right now there are three of these positions available.

Can you help deliver the best possible historic environment services for the people of Wales?

The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Wales is the unique, independent national archive and investigation service for Wales, dedicated to the authoritative recording and interpretation of our rich historic environment. It operates at arm’s-length from the Welsh Government, with skilled staff providing professional advice and expert information to the public. 

"Building on our recent successes and achievements, we’re now looking to grow and develop our organisation for the future. We’re looking for people to join our Board of Commissioners who are prepared to help direct, challenge and constructively review our work. We’re committed to strengthening and diversifying our board, and so are looking for new members who have direct experience or expertise at a senior and/or strategic level in one or more of these areas"

For further details and to apply go to http://gov.wales/about/recruitment/public-appointments or for queries contact the Shared Service Helpdesk on 029 20825454 or email SharedServiceHelpdesk@wales.gsi.gov.uk.

The closing date for receipt of applications is 12th October 2016. Application forms received after this date will not be considered.  It is expected to hold interviews during December 2016. 

The Welsh Economy Research Unit (WERU) of Cardiff Business School is inviting people to take part in research on the benefits associated with business adopting of broadband enabled technologies.

The purpose of the research is to identify how businesses are using digital technologies to improve their competitiveness.

By completing the questionnaire, you will be helping to shape the Welsh Government’s roll-out and future delivery of business support to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Wales.

The invitation to complete the research questionnaire is open to SMEs with up to 250 employees based in Wales. The questionnaire can be found at: https://cardiff.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/digitalmaturitysurvey

This survey is best suited for completion on either a Desktop PC or a tablet device, although hard copies are available on request.

If there are any questions that you do not know the answer to or would prefer not to answer, please leave these blank.  Please be assured that any information you provide in the survey will be treated in the strictest confidence and will be processed in accordance with the Data Protection Act.

The deadline for completing the survey is Friday 30^th September 2016.

If you have any difficulties in the completion of the questionnaire, please contact: superfast@cardiff.ac.uk

New wave energy scheme comes to Pembrokeshire with EU funding.

A new £5.8m scheme to generate energy from sea waves off the Pembrokeshire coast will be launched after securing £4m in EU funding through the Welsh Government. Finance Secretary, Mark Drakeford will today announce the funding for wave technology company Wave-tricity to develop and test a new device called the Ocean Wave Rower. 

The project is the latest investment to help create a world-leading marine energy sector in Wales. EU funding of £12m has been committed to major clean energy projects including Minesto’s Deep Green initiative, being developed in Anglesey, and Marine Power Solutions’ WaveSub technology which will also be deployed in Pembrokeshire waters.  

Mark Drakeford said: 
“Marine energy is an important sector and Wales has excellent natural resources which can be harnessed. I am delighted this investment will bring another significant energy project to Pembrokeshire.

“It’s very encouraging that this scheme, which has such potential is being developed in Wales, particularly as it will lead to good employment and business opportunities in the local area.”

The Ocean Wave Rower will generate clean energy by capturing the natural motion of the waves. The two-year project aims to pave the way for full-scale deployment of the technology and the development of a long-term sustainable business in West Wales following the successful testing.

The EU funding, which will be matched by £1.8m from the company, is expected to lead to the creation of new jobs in engineering and operations at Wave-tricity in Pembrokeshire and supply chain opportunities for local businesses.

The video condenses five years of the station’s transformation into five minutes and highlights various construction milestones reached along the way.

The five-year £750M redevelopment project fully opened to the 170,000 daily passengers on 20 September 2015. Grand Central, the shopping and dining hub situated above the station, opened a few days later on 24 September.

The revamped station saw the creation of a huge passenger concourse, five times the size of London Euston’s, which is overlooked by the new atrium roof that floods the concourse with natural light.

The station’s platforms are now brighter and more minimalist, allowing for greater and easier passenger movement. Entrances to the city centre have also been improved.

New Street Station also features 40 shops at concourse level, with the Grand Central shopping and dining hub situated above it, which includes one of the largest John Lewis department stores in the country.

The original station was only designed to cope with 60,000 a day when it was last rebuilt in the 1960s. The redeveloped station can now cope with up to 300,000 visitors a day.

It is the busiest station outside the capital and is the busiest interchange station in the UK with a train leaving the station every 37 seconds.

Video: Five years construction in five minutes

Patrick Power, Network Rail’s station manager at Birmingham New Street, commented: “This has been a fantastic year for Birmingham and our station as a whole. Seeing passengers’ faces when they first walked into the new concourse and station for the first time was a real highlight and that look of surprise and being wowed by what they see still happens as more and more people use the station every day.

“The redevelopment has visibly given our city a lift and we now have a station everyone can be proud of. We continue to do all we can to make it even better so that passengers and visitors to the city get the best possible impression of the railway and Birmingham.”

Speaking at the opening of Birmingham New Station, Mark Carne, chief executive of Network Rail, said the station was at the “heart” of the rail network, describing the transformation as “stunning”.

He commented: “The station is now bigger, brighter and better able to meet the needs of the growing number of people who use it each day.

“As Britain’s second city, Birmingham deserves a station of this calibre and, along with Grand Central, the investment we have made will help support the local economy and regenerate large parts of city centre.

Mr Carne described undertaking the redevelopment whilst attempting to minimise the impact on passengers’ journeys as a “major challenge” that he was proud to have achieved.

He said: “That’s a significant achievement for everyone who has helped build this fantastic new station of which they, and all of Birmingham, can be very proud indeed.”

The area surrounding the station is also being regenerated, with investment being made in new shops, bars and restaurants. Planning permission has also been granted for the creation of a 26-storey hotel near the station’s Southside entrance.

Work is still ongoing on the transformation, as work continues on the redevelopment of the station’s 12 platforms. Platform 11 will be the last to be completed and will reopen to passengers in mid-October.

Work on the southern hub that will provide an exit-only feature to the station giving direct access to Hill Street from the Navigation Street footbridge will also be finished by the end of October.

A year on and Network Rail research shows that New Street station currently enjoys an 88% passenger satisfaction rate – a record high for the station.

Download: http://www.ukconstructionmedia.co.uk/news/video-five-years-construction-in-five-minutes/