8am-2pm, Wednesday 7th March 2012
The Innovation Centre, University of Exeter
With 40% of the UK’s carbon emissions currently coming from buildings, it’s no surprise that the Government is taking action, with plans to ensure all new buildings are zero-carbon by 2019 and creating initiatives such as the Green Deal. Adapting to these changes is not only important, it’s essential. Businesses will need to seek out new ways of innovating in order to maintain competitiveness and capitalize on new opportunities. Chaired by the Environmental Sustainability KTN and with speakers from the Eden Project and Zero2050, this half day event will bring together industry professionals with academic experts in a series of interactive workshops.
(in partnership with CIOB)
The entry deadline for the South West Built Environment Awards for 2012 is 29th February 2012. This deadline is earlier than last year so do not delay with your entry.
David Mortimer MD of CS Williams limited celebrates with Tom Haprer after scooping the Heritage Award at the Constructing Excellence National Awards in London on Frday 25th Nov. We congratulate CS Williams for a job well done at the Tyntesfield House Conservation project
Other SW companies and projects were also short listed and will be available on the National Constructing Excellence website soon.
Bristol’s attractiveness as a good place to set up and run a business is highlighted in the new edition of the Bristol Business Guide.
The guide gives details of over 5,000 Bristol companies and promotes the goods and services they provide. It also sets out the advantages Bristol has to offer to prospective national and international companies wishing to do business or invest in the city. Local construction companies are strongly featured.
Thank-you to all those that attended and contributed to our highly successful and interesting conference on climate change adaptation in the built environment which was held at Arup's office in Bristol on 14 September 2011. You can now view the Construction in a Changing Climate: Building for Resilience Conference film here
You will also find below a copy of the speakers' presentations.
UK BIM strategy has been launched. See the Constructing Excellence response to the strategy and the strategy download here is here: http://www.constructingexcellence.org.uk/news/article.jsp?id=11787. Adopting an industry-wide BIM process is likely to reveal a significant learning gap in many companies with people left wondering how to implement this into their own practice. In response CE South West and ARCOM, ICE, RIBA, UWE and CIOB organised a successful seminar designed to promote a deeper understanding of the impacts of BIM on your businesses and supply chain organisations.Delegates had the opportunity to voice their views on how a BIM may affect organisation and the preparation for smooth progression towards BIM adoption and use.
For more information click here.
Supported By 
Constructing Excellence South West is proud to be partnering with the National Refurbishment Centre to support the practical delivery of green refurbishment and retrofit, based on evidence gathered from a network of up to 500 refurbishment exemplars.
The National Refurbishment Centre is using performance data held in the largest database of its kind to help industry take an evidence-based approach to delivering mass sustainable refurbishment in the UK.
The National Refurbishment Centre aims to become the evidence hub for sustainable refurbishment and to foster a more joined-up approach to delivering it on a nationwide scale.
To find out more visit www.rethinkingrefurbishment.com
QualityReviewer by HCA:The HCA’s approved practical method for appraising the design quality of development proposals and planning applications.
QUALITYREVIEWER is for everyone involved in the planning and development process: planners, councillors,clients, developers, planning applicants, communities and anyone who helps to shape places and influence design quality. They can help set an effective project brief, steer dialogue about projects, assess design quality based around acknowledged criteria and influence the eventual design quality of the places we shape. It helps us think about design, ask the right questions,obtain the right information/ drawings and challenge projects through informed inquiry. For more info click here.
Health and Safety Films for Designers
Low Cost and Quality CPD that you can achieve in-house
The series of films has been coordinated by CESW in partnership with the BBC, RIBA and Health & Safety Executive, to provide high quality ‘in practice’ CPD material specifically for architects and other industry designers at very low cost. This groundbreaking series of films affirming great design whilst safeguarding people working in construction has now been launched. The films are aimed at architects (including architecture students) and other construction professionals who have a key role in creating safe, sustainable and buildable designs. The series is not-for-profit and can be viewed FREE here.
.jpg)