Elemental

These are my links for October 30th through November 5th:

• GEO DYNAMICS – How sustainable are heat pumps? -:- Construct Ireland – Great, but long, article on the pros and cons of air source heat pumps. Level of detail is just right, with plenty of graphs and good argument.
• BSRIA review of NG Bailey’s Solais House – Great review of Solais House. I hadn't realised that it was a spec office before, having seen David Frise present it recently. That explains why it's aesthetically…dubious. Despite this constraint, promises to be a great example – although we await the POE results.
• A place for PVC in a sustainable world? | Forum For The Future – Fascinating article on PVC. Still not convinced about the green guide rating of A for PVC windows, but things are getting better: "It’s not the first time that TNS has wrestled with the issue. It originally grappled with the stuff in 2000, when, with the support of the UK Environment Agency, it investigated whether PVC could have any place in a sustainable society. The answer was a cautious ‘yes’ – providing the industry addressed some of its most pressing challenges."
• Sir Nicholas Grimshaw – People – Dwell – Great quote from Grimshaw on sustainability: "You’ve got to do a bit of lateral thinking on these green issues. It’s quite important to be pragmatic. The one thing we have to watch very carefully is polarization"
  Unusual to find a pragmatic architect – consultants and engineers usually much more pragmatic as they don't play the same zero-sum game as architects are forced into.
• Footprint » You should have been at the RIBA tonight… – Intriguing – anyone know anything more on Bill's views?: "Dunster also made a strong plea on behalf of the Code for Sustainable Homes, calling it ‘an enlightened piece of legislation in danger of being dumbed down by the UK-GBC and the ZeroCarbonHub.’"
• News : NDS – From Mandelson's Hinto Engineering Lecture: "Snow didn’t use the term, but he was angling at the idea that Britain was becoming a scientific knowledge economy. This is certainly the case now. We need to understand more clearly than ever the way in which our pure science and applied science underwrite our prosperity, not least so we can strengthen their contribution to economic growth.
  The wider costs of any failure to do this are very high, both for our own economy and society, but also globally. Snow was worried about how a scientifically illiterate society might fail to feed the expanding populations of the developing world. That concern is still very much with us, and to it our society would have to add the massive problem of decarbonsiation and the management of our environmental impact on the planet. "
• Constructing Excellence in the Built Environment » Blog Archive » Never Waste a Good Crisis – Another report added to my 'must read and comment pile': "Government, as a client, needs to understand the enlightened thinking that better and more intelligent designs improve patients’ recovery in hospitals and learning outputs in schools. So, rather than reduce the number of schools and hospitals being built, it must sponsor smarter and more productive solutions and reduce the amount of money wasted on the procurement process. For Government as a policy maker, the challenge is to create an environment that incentivises innovation and speeds up the modernisation process."
• Thoughts on Copenhagen: Nicholas Stern | News | Architects Journal – Good series of interviews from Hattie in the AJ, on COP15, including this one from Nick Stern: "Energy consumed in the construction and operation of buildings is responsible for more than one third of total energy use. According to the fourth assessment report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published in 2007, the building sector has great potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions.
  It concluded that the energy consumption of new and existing buildings can be cut between 30 and 50 per cent without significantly increased costs.
  Architects, together with other built environment professionals, have the strategic and technical skills to deliver buildings that both lead to lower emissions and withstand those impacts of climate change that are now inevitable. With existing technologies, these buildings are now affordable. New technologies are constantly being created. What is required is the vision, leadership and commitment to make a low-carbon future reality."
• Thoughts on Copenhagen: Pooran Desai | News | Architects Journal – The run up to COP15 has started, with this snippet the most interesting thing I found in AJ's recent piece, from Pooran Desai: "To achieve effective change, we need elegant solutions and a sensible systems-based approach to zero carbon; for example, recognising electricity as a pooled resource and not unnecessarily converting buildings into power stations. Land use is as critical as carbon emissions."

admin News AJ, ASHP, Bailey, carbon, COP15, CSH, Desai, Dunster, economy, Egan, Engineering, Grimshaw, materials, NG, POE, Pooran, pragmatism, PVC, recession, Solais, TNS, UK, UKGBC, zero

These are my links for July 31st through August 4th:

• By Degrees – White Roofs Catch On as Energy Cost Cutters – Series – NYTimes.com – LEED rewards white roofs (heat island effect) and it also pops up in BREEAM Communities – but beware: "Still, the ardor of the cool-roof advocates has prompted a bit of a backlash.
  Some roofing specialists and architects argue that supporters fail to account for climate differences or the complexities of roof construction. In cooler climates, they say, reflective roofs can mean higher heating bills.
  Scientists acknowledge that the extra heating costs may outweigh the air-conditioning savings in cities like Detroit or Minneapolis.
  But for most types of construction, they say, light roofs yield significant net benefits as far north as New York or Chicago. Although those cities have cold winters, they are heat islands in the summer, with hundreds of thousands of square feet of roof surface absorbing energy."
• Five UK firms vie for Masdar standards job – Building – Masdar, the £13bn UAE project to create the greenest city on earth, has invited five UK organisations to tender for the contract to design its sustainability standard
  They are Aecom, Arup, BRE, Hyder and WSP. Cyril Sweett is advising BRE on the cost element of its bid.
  The standard will set out sustainability targets for the project. Abu Dhabi Future Energy Company, the developer of the 5.5 million m2 city, invited bids at the beginning of June and it is understood shortlisting is imminent.
  A source close to the bidders said the standard was intended to go beyond anything done before. He said Masdar would be likely to aim to be carbon positive, water neutral and waste neutral.
• Green Compass – Constructing Excellence in Wales (CEW) has worked with BSI to develop PAS 402 as part of its Green Compass waste programme, which gives assurance to anyone disposing of construction waste that it will be collected, checked, recycled or disposed of in an environmentally sound fashion. PAS 402 provides the framework for waste management organisations to demonstrate performance in key areas. Green Compass, managed by CEW on behalf of the Welsh Assembly, is the first scheme of its kind in the UK and is expected to make a significant contribution to minimising the levels of waste going to landfill.
• Tanya Ross on engineers and the media – Building Sustainable Design – Tanya makes some good points, but there's more to be said. Give me a minute while I go and work out the right answer to 3 decimal points ;o)
  "In a more general context, we need to keep promoting the idea of engineers as shapers of the urban landscape, as solvers of some of the problems posed by climate change. We’re clever, vital people who can help to save the planet, not a collection of wrench-wielding cowboys. Sure, it’s an enormous task, but it’s one we should relish. All engineers would benefit from increased public awareness. Whether it is not having to explain to your grandmother what exactly you do for a living or being considered suitable matrimonial material, even a modicum of greater awareness could mean improved recognition."
• Suburbs get urban makeover – USATODAY.com – An interesting take on the cultural aspects of urban design – asian influences in the US (both investors and occupants). Via @UrbanLandInst on twitter:
  "Suburbs that had not allowed development to rise too high above the single-family homes that have shaped suburbia for decades are beginning to embrace the "urban" in "suburban."
  The trend reflects the priorities of the times: saving energy, reducing traffic congestion, saving land, and promoting walking and mass transit."
• Footprint » WRAP/RIBA competition results – Designing out Waste – Interesting: "architects have yet to get to grips with waste. When it comes to sustainability, the profession focuses on reducing operational energy use and embodied carbon, but that rarely translates into preoccupation with reducing the overall waste stream from a project. WRAP launched a campaign in October 2008 to reduce waste to landfill by half by 2012. Many contractors have signed on, but so far only two architects (Ryder and White Design)."

admin News architects, CE, Energy, Engineering, growth, Housing, LEED, masdar, NYT, roof, roofs, standards, suburbs, Sustainability, urban, wales, waste, wrap

These are my links for February 7th through February 27th:

• Why and how I blog « Robert Kyriakides’s Weblog – Great post from Robert explaining how he manages to blog so prolifically.
• Expedition’s blog » Think Up Mondays – Chris Wise et al are trying to create something useful out of the recession: "For one year, the employees of Expedition will be dedicating their Monday’s to thinking. Thinking about thinking, thinking about what we do, thinking about how we do it, and why. Think Up, the impetus behind this year of Mondays, is an educational company formed within the auspices of the Useful Simple Trust. The remit is large, but so is the ambition: to use the opportunity that the economic downturn has presented us with to think up a new raison d’etre, and modus operandi as engineers, and to train ourselves into shape."
• Study shows 30% above ASHRAE energy efficiency difficult to reach in buidlings, 50% unreachable- 2/24/2009 12:16:00 PM – Building Design & Construction – "Findings show that although significant energy efficiencies can be achieved (varying by climate zone), reaching a 30 percent reduction above the ASHRAE standard is not feasible using common design approaches and would exceed a 10-year payback. The study concluded that achieving a 50 percent reduction above the standard is not currently reachable. "
• buildoffsite – An industry-wide campaigning organisation that promotes greater uptake of offsite techniques by UK construction.
  Buildoffsite is an alliance of clients, developers, designers, contractors, manufacturers, suppliers, government, advisors and researchers.
  Goal – A ten-fold step-change by 2020 achieving a 100% increase by 2010
• Summary — ManuBuild – "The ManuBuild vision is of a future where customers will be able to purchase high quality, manufactured buildings having a high degree of design flexibility and at low cost compared to today. For the first time, inspirational unconstrained building design will be combined with highly efficient industrialised production.
  ManuBuild targets a radical breakthrough from the current "craft and resource-based construction" to "Open Building Manufacturing", combining ultra-efficient (ambient) manufacturing in factories and on sites with an open system for products and components offering diversity of supply in the market. "
• Passive design primer for offices – Building Sustainable Design – Excellent article from an ex-colleague, Doug King: "Finally, I’d like to introduce the idea of “passive survivability”. This is a concept that will become far more important as we start to feel the pinch of declining fossil fuel resources and over-stretched utility infrastructure. One of the first effects of energy demand exceeding supply will be rolling power cuts, as happened in London’s West End during July 2006. While some businesses may be able to operate with emergency generators, for many the impact could be catastrophic as deep plan buildings will be uninhabitable without artificial lighting and ventilation. Some buildings may have to shut down during the power cuts and for a business, having sent staff home, a whole day’s production may be lost. Passive buildings, on the other hand, should continue to be habitable, albeit with reduced comfort levels, and the backup power supply will only be required to maintain the office equipment."
• Le Corbusier – creator of the modern world – Times Online – Great article – I have an aversion to Le Corb after my history of architecture lectures at Leeds Uni, but I'll be pottering off to the Barbican with every other architect and engineer in the UK in the next few months…
• BREEAM: In USE – The successor to the old BREEAM M&O assessment (management and operation) – In Use, has been announced. No sight of the manual yet, so can't really comment. Looks like it will tie up with DEC's…
• What if Jane Jacobs had directed "Slumdog"? | Congress for the New Urbanism – "Despite their appearance of mess and squalor (and struggles with sewage and public health), the world's major ghettoes are in some ways quite green. Residents often live where they work, rolling up sleeping mats each morning and dispensing with petroleum-fueled commutes. Even garbage is picked clean of all reparable items or tradable commodities, making places like Dharavi the world's ultimate recyclers."
• Architecture: Stephen Bayley discerns the shape of things to come | Art and design | The Observer – "The UK's first Passive House, designed by Bere Architects, is now being built in Camden, North London. It will, perhaps, be a little bit like living on the Northern Line: what fresh air there may be is pre-heated through subterranean channels. Other problems? Ecological perfection will demand a quality of detailing hitherto unknown to our native builders. And there will be no flinging open the windows to greet the new green dawn. That way you squander your patiently retained heat."
• Wind turbines on Bahrain WTC start turning – "The BWTC's turbines are predicted to provide 11-15% of the power needed to operate the offices of the 50 storey twin towers."
• 5 Emerging trends from the recession | Penelope Trunk’s Brazen Careerist – "Generation X is the first generation in the US ever that will earn less than their parents. And Generation Y has an incredible amount of debt due to baby boomers pushing up college costs and housing costs while real wages went down."
• Meteonorm – Global Solar Radiation Database – What is it? – METEONORM 6.1 (Edition 2009) is a comprehensive meteorological reference, incorporating a catalogue of meteorological data and calculation procedures for solar applications and system design at any desired location in the world. It is based on over 23 years of experience in the development of meteorological databases for energy applications.
  METEONORM addresses engineers, architects, teachers, planners and anyone interested in solar energy and climatology.
• Imagine – "‘Imagine’ is a database which captures school design best practice from around the world.
  Architects and researchers from the School of Architecture at the University of Sheffield [BDR] have conducted a critical analysis of over 150 schools, highlighting excellence in design according to different themes. It considers integrated ICT, environmental design and flexibility for space and learning.
  This resource is aimed at providing inspiration for creating innovative teaching and learning environments called for by the Government’s Building Schools for the Future initiative. Research for this database is sponsored by Balfour Beatty Education and Partnerships for Schools. New research is conducted every three months to ensure the database is kept up-to-date and topical."
• Building Enclosure Technology and Environment Council (BETEC) – JBED: Journal of Building Enclosure Design – Free pdf's of back issues of this US/Canadian publication are available here. In Winter 2007 issue there is a good article on the UK experience of air tightness from Nigel Potter of BSRIA. Lots of good data scattered throughout the issues.
• Unversity funding will be linked to their carbon performance | Education | The Guardian – via lagavulin: "From 2011, Hefce will link the money it doles out for capital projects to universities' carbon performance. The smaller the reduction in carbon, the less funding they will get."

mel starrs News air, ashrae, Blogging, BREEAM, cities, construction_industry, consultants, data, database, design, efficiency, Engineering, gen_X, gen_Y, Jane_Jacobs, Le_Corbusier, manufacturing, MMC, offsite, passive, passive_survivability, passivhaus, payback, recession, renewables, Schools, slums, statistics, tightness, UK, weather, wind

This post is inspired by a conversation I had on Twitter on Sunday afternoon with @dbourbon, @SuButcher and @Revit3D. Yes, I know I bang on about Twitter far too often, but seriously. LOVE it. Revit3D wrote a blog post which I have tried to follow up here.

The conversation started along the lines of debating why some practices (both architectural and engineering) were failing to use 3D software. Is it fear of the unknown? Is it the pain of learning something new?

I have a theory based on my own experience of the timeline of engineering software over the past 10-20 years.

• Firstly, I believe 2D CAD was a red herring of sorts. 2D CAD was not a design tool (architects might argue that it is, but I define a design tool as something with some kind of calculation engine in there somewhere). It was (and is) a drafting tool. Engineers and architects who were used to the old skool way of drafting a sketch to be worked up on paper by draughtspersons, used the same way of working when 2D CAD was introduced. An experienced engineer’s time was too valuable to be wasted learning new IT skills, and so , in general, they didn’t.
• Those who were young and inexperienced were sometimes given the time to experiment with CAD (my brain is still hard wired to AutoCAD LT 98 – I get very frustrated when Google SketchUp doesn’t have the same buttons in the same places). But still, was not a design tool.
• Some engineering tools, such as Hevacomp and Cymap, started to introduce 2D design tools – the ability to draw a line on screen, define for instance, air volumes, and come up with ductwork sizing and fan sizing calculations. A fantastic time saver, especially if there are a number of redesigns. However, many steered away from this and still used good old paper and pen mark-up with a ductulator to hand. Because, if you had to mark up the sketch anyway to give to the CAD technician, what was the point of doing it on screen? (are you beginning to see what happened here?)
• About the same time (early nineties) we had the last recesssion. Many of the Gen X engineers who might otherwise have become IT savvy dropped out and the hole can still be seen in the data.
• The next iteration was IES and TAS. But a strange thing happened. Who was supposed to use these tools? They were first and foremost design tools, but they looked a bit like CAD. So, the young (cheap) inexperienced engineers were encouraged to go off and teach themselves how to use the software. Nothing wrong with this, persay.

However, in effect I would argue we ended up with one group who could drive the software, but didn’t know what the destination was supposed to look like, and another group who saw a black box of tricks which spewed out the wrong answers (their experience often trumped the output from the software, which inadvertently was suffering from ‘rubbish in, rubbish out’ syndrome as the ‘drivers’ didn’t always understand where they supposed to be going).

Now this is a massive generalisation, and there were some practices who embraced the technology head-on. However, I also still know some practices who swear by ductulators, paper and pen, so not everyone is moving at the same speed here.

As Gen Y move into the industry, their expectations are for 3D tools which do everything from the one ‘box’. It’s a natural expectation and indeed the way that BIM is moving.It’s a little like the leapfrog effect one sometimes sees in technologies in the developing world, where for example, the mass ownership of landlines is eclipsed by the use of mobile phones.

But how do we deal with the gap between those who “get” BIM and those who, either consciously or unconsciously, have got left behind? I don’t know the answer to that one, although I do believe in leading by example.

Any thoughts – please leave a comment either here or over at Revit3D’s blog.

mel starrs Opinion architect, AutoCAD, Building Information Modeling, Computer-aided design, Engineering, twitter

What I’ve been reading about:

• Expedition’s blog » The Call of the Wild: Structural engineers and the next 100 years – " I believe that both Glancey and the ACE are fundamentally wrong. We do not need more engineers. We need better engineers. We need quality, not quantity. We need more thinkers, more engineering designers, more people with judgment who can conjure up something magical out of a complex world and get it out there. I know this flies in the face of conventional wisdom, but it is unintelligent to treat engineering simply as a numbers game. Engineering is much more important than that.
  Before asking, “How many engineers do we need?” we are much better to ask “What will they be doing?” To most people in the developed world at least, the dominant uncertainty of the C21st world is not what happens to structural engineers. The dominant uncertainty of our time is Survival on this planet. I challenge you to name a greater cause. In response, engineers must stand up and say “We helped get the world into this mess, and we are going to make it our mission to get it out again”."

mel starrs News blogs, Engineering, engineers, future

These are my links for June 7th through June 9th:

• The New Environmentalism – Whereas traditional environmentalism perceived the free market as an adversary, the new environmentalism recognizes the marketplace as an important mechanism for problem solving through incentives
• Newsflash: The Economist accepts ‘curbs on traditional forms of growth’ | Forum For The Future – Forum for the Future pointing out that the Economist are catching up with environmentalists…
• Ten Minutes with Michael Della Rocca – ENR | McGraw-Hill Construction – The engineer’s role is moving back to how it was in the 1800s — as a master builder.
• John Tepper Marlin: Green Building News – USGBC to Accredit LEED Certifiers – Two Cheers! – Green on The Huffington Post – Changes afoot for USGBC to rectify:" a do-it-yourself approach which put it at odds with international standards for accreditation and certification because it was both setting the standards and doing the certifying, which is not cricket or kosher."
• BREEAM: BREEAM 2008 Update – Can't find the manual promised on 6th June. Is it me or is it a little late?

mel starrs News BREEAM, Economics, Engineering, environmentalism, growth, Halcrow, LEED, Malthus, quotes, USGBC

Spotted this great retort to Jonathan Glancey from Chris Wise in the Guardian:

This need is poorly served by specialised research universities and corporate engineering practice, rooted as it is in the postwar era and a scientific tendency to avoid responsibility. Nowadays, sums are so easy that many engineers try to analyse their way to an answer, diligently solving the wrong problem, rather than think their way to a solution. That is the root of the shortage of engineering expertise. I believe you can halve the engineering time spent on projects just by thinking clearly first.

He is explicit about the need to overhaul tertiary engineering education (something which I think is widely recognised), but I’m particularly impressed with his laying the blame for torpid engineering at the feet of the blame culture we currently work in.  So how do we change that then?  He doesn’t come up with a solution as such, but is optimistic that the crises facing the industry today will somehow pull us out of the mire we are stuck in…

mel starrs Uncategorized Chris Wise, Engineering, Jonathan Glancey, the Guardian

BIM (Building Information Modelling) has long been the way I think the industry ought to work. It just seems so logical to me. The premise is simple – build an intelligent 3D model of a building which can be exported and manipulated by various designers, including architects, structural engineers and building services engineers. This model is in effect a virtual prototype of the proposed building. Various proposals can be tested in the virtual model, resulting in an actual building whose vagaries are well understood before a brick is laid.

Sounds great on paper, but the reality is that this is still a long way off. What does the industry need to change in order to further this technology, which exists today but is grossly underexploited?

One problem is that the information in CAD is not suitable for direct export into BIM (this article explains well). IES are hoping to have moved one step closer. They have teamed up with AutoCAD Revit to enable BIM more easily.

What worries me slightly is the claim:

This direct link means the user can run a variety of analyses, without needing specialised skills, separate analysis packages or separate models for each analysis. Greatly increasing the quality and speed of the technical feedback this development enables building designers to examine the implications of alternative design strategies at the touch of a button and use the tools for sustainable design rather than just plant sizing.

A nice philosophy, but beware of putting software in the hands of those without specialised skills. You still need to know how to interpret results, even if you no longer need to be a master at 3D building modelling, something which Kathy Sierra* touched on here.

But does BIM actually reflect reality?  I don’t think so.  Do you know anyone who uses Hevacomp or IES to it’s full potential? Or are you more likely to come across engineers who use a mish-mash of pencil and paper, excel spreadsheets with a little bit of hevacomp and perhaps a little IES thrown in? This dissonance between what the software is capable of doing and what the user actually wants it to do is probably part of the problem.  Users see the software as too complex for what they want to do and so don’t want to overcome the hurdle of learning a new way of doing things.  There’s some great writing out there on this topic including this (old) article from Jeffrey Phillips :

 So the conundrum is, we’ve got to design for lowest common denominator in a user interface, while providing as much functionality as is necessary for the customer to be interested and excited in the application.  Unfortunately, the users of applications are rarely the buyers of applications, so we need a better method to get the proposed user interface in front of the actual users as often as possible.

So is the problem with the software or with the users?  It’s probably a bit of both.  Another Kathy Sierra’s post tries to explain some of the reasons from the users’ perspective.

A final word from Jeffrey Phillips again:

The real rationale is that requesting a new feature is costless. A customer or prospect can ask for features all day long. However, the user interface and its complexity has tremendous cost, since most people are lazy and don’t want to think – and good design should not require them to think overly much. In fact good design should lead a user to the right conclusions and actions without a lot of training or support help, regardless of the number of features. What people are really saying is: give me the features I want, but simplify the interface to make it even easier to use, so I don’t have to receive training, or support this application once we start using it.

This is a topic I’ll be returning to.  I hope BIM is the future, for lots of reasons, but for the minute there are hurdles to overcome…

*Sadly, Kathy hung up her blogging boots back in April 2007 after a nasty cyber incident involving death threats.  Yikes.  I still miss her blog…

mel starrs Uncategorized Building Physics, Built Environment, CAD, Engineering, Jeffrey Phillips, Kathy Sierra, Productivity

Among my (many) past employers, I have 2 stints at Babtie, both before Jacobs took over.  Reading this in the Times, it could easily be about any of the larger engineering firms in the UK.  There seems to be a certain size in a company’s life when common sense fails to prevail over corporate bureaucracy:

It (Jacobs Babtie) has told staff at its 36 offices across Britain that they must drive or use public transport. They can use bicycles only if they are working away from roads, such as on canal towpaths.

In an e-mail to all employees, a copy of which has been obtained by The Times, the company’s health and safety manager says: “It’s patently obvious that if you are struck by a wayward vehicle when you are on a bicycle or motorbike you are going to be more severely affected than if you were in a car. The reason for this policy is to protect our employees from other vehicles on the road.

There will be a few limited exceptions when employees will be permitted to travel by bicycle, but that would be when that mode of transport is required to undertake the job, for example, carrying out surveys along river banks and tow paths.”

The ban on cycling on company business has infuriated several staff, who have been cycling without any serious safety incidents for years. They believe the ban is partly the result of conditions in the company’s insurance policy. The e-mail acknowledges that staff are unhappy about the ban and admits it “could be construed as being at odds with our environmental policy and the requirement to be environmentally responsible”.

It also acknowledges the concerns among employees that the company will lose important contracts because the ban “will not please our environmentally friendly clients”.

Sadly, it’s not an April Fool nor a Dilbert cartoon.

mel starrs Uncategorized Britain, Engineering, insurance policy, News, the Times, United Kingdom

Some cosmic vibes must have been passing my way when I posted this (8 March).  An email landed in the inbox this week to let me know that on the 7 March:

SummitSkills completed Stage 1 of its Sector Skills Agreement ‘Horizon’ project last week with a prestigious and creative conference that informed delegates of progress to date and gathered views on how to move forwards.

Held on 07 March at One Great George Street in Westminster, representatives from all four countries of the UK attended the event to hear key research findings from Dr Mike Hammond. A major issue affecting the sector is the impending surge in the specification of environmental technologies and the UK’s lack of skills to install and maintain this equipment.

More details on the day can be found here.  The problems the building services industry faces include:

• Increased demand for green technologies are stretching our already stretched resources, in terms of skills and training
• Lack of strategic business planning by firms in the sector
• Encouraging recruitment and training

A little more information on the Sector Skills Agreement too:

A Sector Skills Agreement is ultimately a deal between employers, training providers and government. Employers lay out what their workforce and skills requirements are now and in the future. In return, the government and providers agree to fund and deliver training tailored to this need, within government policy, providing employers are also willing to make a commitment.

mel starrs Uncategorized Construction Industry, Engineering, environmental technologies, green technologies, Mike Hammond, One Great George Street, Resources, United Kingdom