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Joinery companies were urged to shout their products environmental credentials from the rooftops in order to grow their market share and head off the ‘single-issue greenwash’ from other material sectors that risks skewing the debate on sustainable products.
The call to action came yesterday (14th May) at BWF Members’ Day 2014 at Loughborough University. The event focused on improving the profitability of the BWF membership through a series of workshops and presentations from expert speakers.
BWF President, David Pattenden, opened proceedings by speaking of how the federation is a voice which works to ensure that its members’ businesses and products are understood, considered and valued.
Rupert Oliver from Forest Industries Intelligence delivered the keynote address on "True sustainability in the wood sector” which focused on the benefits of demonstrating and then displaying the superior sustainability of wooden windows, doors, stairs and other such products over the course of the product life cycle. He urged the industry to embrace studies such as Heriot-Watt University’s ‘Whole Life Analysis of timber, modified timber and aluminium-clad timber windows’ which demonstrated that wood windows could be vastly more sustainable over a number of categories than rival PVC-U products.
Following the opening session, delegates were invited to participate in a number of workshops spread across four sessions. The day featured workshops on ‘the next chapter in the CPR and CE marking’, ‘Innovations in glass’, ‘Profiting from online and social media marketing’, and contained practical tips such as how to get a better thermal transmittance value for windows and how best to use a moisture meter.
The workshop on ‘Becoming the Industry’s Health & Safety Heroes’, hosted by HSE’s Cliff Seymour, Jon Gibson from DIDAC, and BWF membership director Michael Lee, saw the launch of the BWF’s Health and Safety Hero campaign. The initiative set down the BWF’s vision to create a Health and Safety environment for members to ‘Aim Low’ and work towards zero reportable accidents and incidents relating to occupational health.
The final afternoon session began with a minute silence to note the passing of former Director and Technical Committee Chairman of the BWF, Keith Clark. Keith made a phenomenal contribution to the BWF and the development of the Fire Door Scheme over many years and was always a source of wise council and dedicated support to the BWF team.
The event continued with CPA Chief Economist Noble Francis explaining where the opportunities for the construction industry could lie over the next few years and highlighting threats to the sector such as the risk of losing skilled labour to other industries. It was stressed that the UK construction economy could not always rely on labour coming over from abroad – for example from Ireland and more recently Eastern Europe – in order to plug the skills gap as demand increased.
With Liz Male from the Construction Leadership Council facilitating the debate, the session addressed industry hot topics such as proposed changes in the apprenticeship system
Charlie Law of BAM Construct and the UKCG provided the contractor’s view. He noted how contractors were increasingly looking for Chain of Custody certification and highlighted new resources such as the supply chain sustainability school.
Craig White of White Designs Associates, gave a specifier’s perspective, also noting the importance of a dynamic training landscape, and Casey Rutland of Arup Associates picked up on the issues associated with the adoption of BIM.
The day was hailed by members as informative and a great success. Free downloadable resources including the presentations from BWF Members’ Day 2014 are now available for members to download
