BRE acquires CEEQUAL in move to develop new sustainability rating scheme for infrastructure

BRE and CEEQUAL are announcing today, 23 November 2015, plans to bring together two successful schemes – BREEAM and CEEQUAL – to create a single, science based sustainability standard and certification tool for civil engineering and infrastructure projects in the UK and around the world. From today, CEEQUAL will transfer its business operations to BRE Global after which CEEQUAL will be delivered by the BREEAM certification team with continued support from members of the current the CEEQUAL scheme management team.

The move is supported by the Institution of Civil Engineers, through which CEEQUAL was developed in the first place, and has been prompted by the industry’s desire for a single sustainability rating scheme that addresses the challenges that infrastructure clients, professions and contractors currently face in delivering more-sustainable and resilient infrastructure. The new scheme will also address the need for integration with building related schemes so that clients with mixed developments can have a single combined rating for their asset.

BRE Chief Executive Peter Bonfield said ‘Our long term aspiration with a single scheme is to bring together the significant experience and expertise behind the two rating systems to deliver enhanced environmental and social benefits for civil engineering works and better economic outcomes that benefit society, and broaden up-take in the UK and international markets.’

Over the next two years BRE will, with the involvement of the current CEEQUAL and BREEAM delivery teams and communities, combine the best elements and features of both approaches into a new and improved holistic scheme for industry that combines CEEQUAL’s team and process-focussed approach with BREEAM’s more asset-based scientific methodology. During this development period CEEQUAL will remain open to new project registrations and current and prospective users are encouraged to bring forward further CEEQUAL assessments, the contracts for which will be fulfilled to their completion*.

CEEQUAL's Roger Venables said ‘CEEQUAL is an internationally respected rating and awards scheme and has been applied to – and positively influenced – some of the UK’s most successful infrastructure projects like Crossrail and the London 2012 Olympics. It is increasingly used outside the UK, especially in Sweden and, most recently, in Qatar. I and colleagues look forward to working with BRE to develop the next generation rating scheme that will address the significant challenges faced by those working in the sector.’

BREEAM will now launch an open pilot of its new BREEAM infrastructure methodology to verify the science based metrics that have been developed. This, together with the development work and new metrics behind the planned upgrade of CEEQUAL (to Version 6) will inform the next generation scheme which BRE plans to launch in 2017.

*What happens next with CEEQUAL
During the transition period CEEQUAL will continue to operate as normal, with the existing Verifiers and continued support from the Scheme Management Team. It will continue to provide benefits to project and contract teams striving to deliver the evolving sustainability aspirations of the construction industry. Commitments and contracts with current customers of CEEQUAL will continue unchanged.

CEEQUAL will continue to be available for new project and term contract teams, who we encourage to apply for new CEEQUAL assessments, particularly as the new Version 5.2 is soon to be released. CEEQUAL Verifiers will continue to provide the important skills needed for the completion of CEEQUAL Assessments, while members of the current CEEQUAL scheme management team, TAG and Subject Experts will, we trust, maintain their support during the future operational and development period.

CEEQUAL Assessors will be able to transition their qualifications to the new scheme when it is launched, currently envisaged to be in 2017/18. CEEQUAL certificates will continue to be signed by the President of the Institution of Civil Engineers and this role will extend to include infrastructure certificates issued by BREEAM.

At a practical level, we can also tell you that:

• Roger Venables will have a continuing role in marketing and promotion of CEEQUAL, briefing / training of new members of the BRE-based CEEQUAL team, and in explaining the new arrangements to current and prospective users and other stakeholders;
• Ian Nicholson, supported by his colleagues at Responsible Solutions, is continuing as CEEQUAL’s Technical Director on a consultancy basis to BRE, and Ian will also continue to lead on Assessor and Verifier training, with Philip Charles also continuing to run some of the Assessor Training Courses;
• Sadly, the involvement of CIRIA will come to an end as the current team will shortly hand over their administration, finance and training activities to BRE and the BRE Academy respectively;
• Melanie Manton has transferred to BRE staff to continue to work on CEEQUAL;
• From today there will be a new telephone number at BRE for the functions previously carried out for CEEQUAL at both CIRIA’s and Crane Environmental’s offices– that number is +44 (0) 333 014 7880;
• Should you ring 020 3137 2379 or 020 7549 3302 out of habit, you will have a reminder message and be automatically or personally re-directed to the new number;
• Ian Nicholson, Phil Edwards and Charlotte Baker will remain on +44 (0)1509 363101.

For further information on CEEQUAL and future registrations under the scheme please refer to the CEEQUAL website: www.ceequal.com

For further information on BREEAM Infrastructure please refer to the BREEAM website: www.breeam.org.uk/infrastructure

For further information on BREEAM Infrastructure please refer to the BREEAM website: www.breeam.org.uk/infrastructure

For press enquiries please contact Linda McKeown, BRE, 01923 664569, email [email protected]

Roger Venables, former CEEQUAL Chief Executive, can still be contacted at [email protected]

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Multi-package assessments for large and complicated projects

We have published a new information sheet on using CEEQUAL multi-package assessments. On large and complicated projects, it can be impractical to assess the scheme as just one single project. In such a case multi-package assessments can be applied for. This enables separate CEEQUAL assessments of individual packages of works to be completed.The individual package scores are then aggregated on the basis of the individual package contract values to give an overall Whole Team Award for the project or programme.

Greater background on why multi-package assessments are useful and how they work can be viewed in the new information sheet:

Multi-package Assessments for Large Projects Information Sheet

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CEEQUAL Awards presented in Belfast: Antrim Environmental Improvement Scheme and A6 Road Schemes

On 10 June CEEQUAL Awards were presented in Belfast. The Antrim Environmental Improvement Scheme received a ‘Very Good’ Construction Only Award. Certificates were presented by CEEQUAL’s Operations Director Philip Charles to Barney McEldowney, Contracts Manager at BSG Civil Engineering (Contractor) and Andrew McKeown, Project Officer from Capital Development, Antrim and Newtownabbey Borough Council (Client). The Mayor of Antrim and Newtownabbey, Councillor Thomas Hogg, was also in attendance.

Interim Awards were also awarded to the A6 road schemes taking place in the north-west of Northern Ireland. All of the Interim Awards achieved an ‘Excellent’ CEEQUAL score. They were as follows:

• A6 Randalstown to Toome Dualling (Interim Client & Design, Excellent 85.9%)
• A6 Toome to Castledawson Dualling (Interim Client & Design Award, Excellent 85.9%)
  
• A6 Londonderry to Claudy (Interim Client & Outline Design Award, Excellent 90.5%)
  
• A6 Claudy to Dungiven (Interim Client & Outline Design Award, Excellent 83.9%)

Certificates were presented to Andrew Hitchenor (Project Sponsor) and Ronnie Faloon (Project Manager) from Transport NI, Bruce Montgomery (Deputy Project Director) and Gareth Coughlin (Environment Team Lead / CEEQUAL Assessor) from URS, and Joe Martin from AECOM.

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CEEQUAL awareness webinars hosted by IEMA

Over the next two months we will be discussing all things CEEQUAL at two IEMA webinars. The first webinar titled 'The Essence of CEEQUAL' is a lunchtime session being held at 12:30pm (GMT) on Tuesday 19th May and will last for one hour. This introductory presentation will cover the basics of CEEQUAL and will be led by Roger Venables, CEEQUAL's Chief Executive. At the end there is the opportunity for a short question and answer session. The webinar is open to everyone (not just IEMA members).

There will be a second practitioner level webinar held on 23rd June. This will again be held at 12:30pm GMT. To register please click here.

Getting to Grips with CEEQUAL awareness workshop

There is still space on the 'Getting to Grips with CEEQUAL' workshop that is being run by the Supply Chain Sustainability School. The event is being held on the afternoon of Wednesday 20th May. This half day practical workshop will give an insight into the process of conducting a CEEQUAL assessment, give delegates an overview of the CEEQUAL manual for projects version 5.1, cover the basic principles of a CEEQUAL assessment and how they might wish to pursue an assessment on a real project. This event is relevant to contractors, designers and clients of all sizes working in the civil engineering arena.

For further information and booking details please visit the Supply Chain Sustainability School website.

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CEEQUAL's growing use on international projects

(March 2015) It has been an exciting start to the year for CEEQUAL at home and internationally.

International use is growing. A number of activities have been held in Hong Kong, Dubai and Stockholm over the last three months, including training courses in all three cities, award presentations and various meetings with existing and prospective users. With all of this activity we thought it might be an appropriate time to feedback on the progress of CEEQUAL on international projects and outline future plans.

Following the 2011 launch, uptake of the International Edition of the CEEQUAL Assessment Manual for Projects has been steadily growing. To date 25 Assessments are in progress or have already been completed. In response to a number of enquiries relating to international CEEQUAL assessments from already-trained CEEQUAL Assessors, we will be launching an International E-Learning module to allow UK-trained Project Assessors to also assess projects using the International Edition of the Assessment Manual. We anticipate this will be ready by the end of April and will let Assessors know nearer the time.

A key feature of CEEQUAL is the weighting of the question scores. With CEEQUAL International, adoption of the established UK & Ireland weightings and scores is inappropriate in light of differences in climatic conditions and/or cultural influences. A project team using CEEQUAL International therefore needs to undertake a weighting exercise specific to the locale of the project, or work with others in the area and CEEQUAL to create a set of weightings for their specific country or region.

In Hong Kong, a weightings exercise was completed in 2013 and led to an International Manual with Hong Kong-weighted scores, which is now in full use there. In addition, CEEQUAL led weightings surveys are under way in Sweden and other Nordic Countries and will be started shortly for the Gulf States Region.

In Sweden, to support the growing number of projects adopting CEEQUAL, and with support from Sweden Green Building Council (SGBC) and other local supporters of SGBC, we recently launched a Swedish translated version of the International Edition of the Version 5 Assessment Manual for Projects. Roger Venables also spoke on CEEQUAL's positive influence on projects in Sweden at the recent 'Anläggningsdagen' conference, and we will be visiting again in May to deliver more training in Stockholm. So far, Swedish users have actively decided to use the UK weightings on the basis of similar cultures and environment (and similar latitudes to northern Scotland), pending a wide-ranging weightings exercise that is now under way.

If you have any questions about the International Edition of the Assessment Manual for
Projects, or its use then please contact Melanie Manton or William Gates.

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Supply Chain Sustainability School – Infrastructure School launch event

(26 February 2015) The Supply Chain Sustainability School is a multi award winning online training facility that represents a common approach to addressing sustainability within our supply chains. CEEQUAL is proud to be a partner to the School’s new Infrastructure Group - a school dedicated entirely to infrastructure supply chains - and to be a member of the Infrastructure Leadership Group overseeing this exciting new development.

The launch of the School’s Infrastructure initiative is on Thursday 26 February at the Ricoh Arena in Coventry starting at 09.30 and CEEQUAL e-news recipients are invited to attend. The event will be hosted by directors and senior staff from the School's partners in this project. There is no cost to attend but spaces are limited.

To guarantee your place please register by clicking here. Our Chief executive, Roger Venables, who is speaking on the links between sustainability and infrastructure, looks forward to seeing some of you there.

In addition to CEEQUAL, the School's industry partners include National Grid, Morgan Sindall, Sir Robert McAlpine, Kier, Carillion, Balfour Beatty, Laing O'Rourke, BAM Nuttall, VINCI, Lafarge Tarmac, Galliford Try and Skanska.

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Industry first as Biogen food waste to energy plant scores ‘Excellent’ for sustainability

(18 August 2014) Food waste recycling specialist Biogen has achieved a CEEQUAL ‘Excellent’ rating for its new state of the art anaerobic digestion plant near Baldock in Hertfordshire...

View press release

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CITE event a success

(June 2014) CEEQUAL was very pleased to see many of you visiting our stand at CITE 2014 and hope our seminars were of interest. There are also some images from the event that you may want a copy of. See link below.

View photos from the event here

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Newcastle Science Central achieves CEEQUAL ‘Excellent’ Award

(May 2014) Science Central in Newcastle-upon-Tyne, UK, has been presented with a CEEQUAL ‘Excellent’ design award at the Institution of Civil Engineers awards dinner.

Click here to read more

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9-10 April - SustainEx, CEEQUAL CEO seminar

(April 2014) Roger Venables, CEEQUAL’s Chief Executive is speaking on 9th April at SustainEX Day 1, WORKSHOP C, Time: 11.30am-12.30pm Subject: Sustainability Driven Design, held at Le Mon & Hotel and Country Club, Gransha Road, Belfast.

Project teams are being presented with their CEEQUAL Awards following Roger’s talk:

• Lodge Burn Flood Alleviation Scheme: DARD Rivers Agency, Atkins Ltd and McLaughlin & Harvey Ltd
• The Peace Bridge: ILEX Urban Regeneration Company, Aecom & Wilkinson Eyre, Graham Construction
  

Register here to attend

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Engineering Sustainability is planning a themed issue for 2015 on sustainable construction - ICE publishing

(April 2014) Engineering Sustainability issue. This themed issue invites those involved with such large national or international projects in developed countries to showcase their contribution to sustainable development through sustainable construction, or to discuss the role of assessment methodologies in driving the sustainability agenda providing a resource for papers on sustainable construction.

The deadline for abstracts is 1 May 2014. The deadline for submissions is 1 July 2014.

View paper here

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Sir Ian Dixon scholarship

(February 2014) CEEQUAL would like to draw your attention to the Sir Ian Dixon Scholarship, in the hope that it is of interest to you or a colleague.

The Sir Ian Dixon scholarship, jointly sponsored by the Chartered Institute of Building and the Worshipful Company of Constructors – but equally applicable to infrastructure as buildings – is a special way for companies to carry out research and to develop promising talent at the same time. Each year, a number of £2000 scholarships are awarded for research into aspects of construction management.

The subject of the research could relate to any area of construction management including forms of contract, processes on site, emerging trends or management practices. The most important criterion is that the research will benefit the company and the industry.

Recent research projects for 2012/13 were 'How effective are the procurement clauses in securing sustainable outcomes?' and 'What is completion and how can it be achieved more effectively?’. The organisers are especially looking to continue the sustainability theme – hence this announcement!

More details and an application form are at http://www.ciob.org/content/sir-ian-dixon-scholarship.

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CEEQUAL Version 5 for Term Contracts Released

(February 2014) We are pleased to announce the completion and release of Version 5 for Term Contracts. The new Term Contracts Version matches Version 5.1 for Projects, including the addition of a new Section 1 on Client Contract Strategy. There are also significant improvements to the assessment and verification processes.

A Version 5 one-day extension Assessor Training Course has been arranged for the 3rd June for existing Projects Assessors who wish to extend their skills.

There are also now two Term Contracts Awards – Whole Team Award for the Client and its Delivery Team, and a Delivery Award for situations where a Delivery Team wants the work assessed and the client is not able to participate. Given that the Client’s Contract Strategy is crucial to overall success of the contract, if the client specifies the use of CEEQUAL on a contract, it must be a Whole Team Award and include Section 1.

CEEQUAL for Term Contracts has been specifically created for the assessment of civil engineering and public realm works that are undertaken through contracts over a number of years and in a geographical or operational area. The Manual has two question sets, one for Maintenance and one for Construction of multiple small or repetitive works.

An e-learning upgrade module is in the final stages of preparation for existing Version 4 Term Contracts-trained Assessors, who will be written to individually when it has been uploaded to the Online Assessment Tool for their use.

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CEEQUAL to exhibit at CITE 2014 - Stand E21

(January 2014) CEEQUAL will be exhibiting at The Civil Infrastructure & Technology Exhibition on 20-22 May 2014 at Earl's Court. CITE will provide a platform for the industry to meet, discuss, and maximise opportunities created by the Government’s National Infrastructure Plan, which is vital to enable the country to compete effectively in the modern world.

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We need your feedback!

CEEQUAL always appreciates feedback and in particular thoughts on the CEEQUAL Online Assessment Tool by Assessors’, including the new discussion forum, pdf assessment report system and the central document location. Please send any feedback to Andy Fowler, we look forward to hearing from you.

Any CEEQUAL Assessors whose contact details have changed please contact Sarah Macpherson and to change their Online Assessment Tool log in details, please contact Philip Edwards.

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More international interest:

(November 2013)

Sweden
Sweden is to host the first Version 5 Term Contracts one-day extension course for Project Trained Assessors. Please let Melanie Mantonn know if you wish to attend this, or a 2-day Projects Course, as dates and venues for both are soon to be finalised for February 2014.

Hong Kong and New Zealand in 2014
Roger Venables and Ian Nicholson will be visiting Hong Kong following the successful Verification of the first CEEQUAL Projects and plan to take this opportunity, due to previous requests, to run at least one more CEEQUAL Training Course in Hong Kong. We are also planning to extend our journey to New Zealand and run a course there. Please let Melanie Manton know if you wish to attend a CEEQUAL Training Course in either of these regions in 2014.

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UPGRADE YOUR CEEQUAL SKILLS TO THE NEWEST VERSION 5 FOR PROJECTS

(October 2013) Version 5 is used on all new CEEQUAL project Assessments, and due to the significant changes between Versions 4 and 5, it is a mandatory requirement for CEEQUAL Assessors to train to this level to assess a Version 5 Project. There are two ways to update:

1. If you are a Version 4 Trained Projects Assessor you can complete the free CEEQUAL Version 5 Assessor Update E-Learning Module on the Online Assessment Tool’s Document Library. It should take you about ninety minutes, and has received some very positive feedback from users so far. You are welcome to log on to the Online Tool with your user name and password and take the Version 5 update course without contacting us further. However, it would be helpful to know that you have taken it - please tell Sarah Macpherson.

2. If you were trained on Version 3, or even Version 2, and have undertaken no updates since, we are currently offering a 50% discount to attend a full two-day Version 5 training course. Please contact Sarah Macpherson or Melanie Manton if this is of interest to you.

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New Welsh highway receives sustainability award

(August 2013) Wrexham Western Gateway has been awarded a certificate of excellence by CEEQUAL. The Gateway, a highway improvement scheme, improves access to Wrexham and the local hospital, as well as opening up land for new development.

Read more | view case study

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Hong Kong scored Assessment Manuals

(July 2013) The Hong Kong Government has recently embarked on their first four CEEQUAL Assessments. As part of our support to the project teams, and to wider interest in Hong Kong about using CEEQUAL, we have been undertaking a weightings exercise there over recent months. CEEQUAL have now developed the first set of weightings for use on Hong Kong projects, and have prepared and distributed to Hong Kong Assessors a CEEQUAL International edition of the Assessment Manual with Hong Kong weighted scores replacing those derived from UK weightings. We have also produced a matching Assessment Process Handbook. This is the first set of CEEQUAL documentation to have country-specific weightings embedded in the question scores.

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APPLICANTS SOUGHT FOR 4-YEAR CEEQUAL ENGINEERING DOCTORATE STUDENTSHIP

(July 2013) CEEQUAL, in partnership with the Centre for Urban Sustainability and Resilience at University College London (UCL), are seeking applications for a four-year studentship to work on an Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council-funded Engineering Doctorate.

The studentship covers UCL tuition fees and provides a tax-free stipend of £18,226 pa.
Some recipients of this E-News may well be potential applicants; if so, we look forward to hearing from you. We also recognise that most of you are unlikely to be candidates, yet we are sure that many of you will know people who are! If you know of anyone who may be interested, please make them aware of this opportunity.

For more information about the vacancy, what we are seeking to achieve through the studentship, and how to apply, please visit http://engd-usar.cege.ucl.ac.uk/vacancies/. To apply, candidates are asked to upload a covering letter and CV that indicates clearly how they meet the criteria, and demonstrates their passion for the proposed research.

Informal enquiries may be made to Roger Venables, CEEQUAL’s Chief Executive, Ian Nicholson, CEEQUAL’s Technical Manager, or to Professor Tim Broyd who is not only the designated main supervisor at UCL, but is also a CEEQUAL Director. Please note that the closing date for applications is 5pm on 25th July 2013, so please pass this on very soon to anyone you know who might be interested.

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WRAP awareness seminars on resource efficiency

(July 2013) Many of you will recall that WRAP was of considerable help to CEEQUAL in the preparation of the Version 5 of the Methodology, and in particular the upgrade of the resources sections. We therefore feel that you are likely to be interested in a series of free seminars in England, Scotland and Northern Ireland that WRAP have organised to introduce a new approach to resource efficient construction.

This approach will build on the highly successful ‘Halving Waste to Landfill Commitment’ and take in a range of related topics such as energy, water, recycled content and material quantity. The seminars still to take place are in: Manchester - 9th July, Leeds - 10th July, London - 16th July, Solihull - 18th July. Please click here to find out more details and register your attendance.

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Stafford works have no equal for CEEQUAL

(July 2013) Network Rail’s Stafford Area Improvements Programme (SAIP) is helping set the sustainability standard on major projects, recording one of the highest ever scores in the prestigious CEEQUAL scheme.

Read more

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Version 5.1 forProjects

(April 2013 ) Version 5.1 Assessment Manual for Projects (International and UK & Ireland), together with matching revisions of the Scheme Description and Assessment process Handbook, will be distributed early next month to all Version-5-trained Assessors.

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CEEQUAL in Sweden

(April 2013) CEEQUAL’s Chief Executive Roger Venables and Technical Manager Ian Nicholson have just returned from CEEQUAL meetings and an Assessor Training Course in Stockholm. Whilst there, they completed the third Projects Assessor Training Course to be held in Sweden, and met with a number of local organisations to discuss plans to use CEEQUAL International in Sweden and the possibility of ultimately developing locally-operated CEEQUAL Sweden Editions.

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CEEQUAL in Qatar

(April 2013) CEEQUAL’s Technical Manager Ian Nicholson was in Qatar in February speaking at the IQPC 3rd Annual Road Planning Design and Construction Middle East Summit. Whilst there Ian also had a number of meetings with existing Assessors now working in the region as well as some other prospective users.

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Olympic Park, London awarded the Eric Hughes Award for Contribution to Improving Sustainability in Civil Engineering at CEEQUAL’s 2013 OAAs

(April 2013) Chairman of the Olympic Delivery Authority, Sir John Armitt CBE presented with the Eric Hughes Award at the 2013 CEEQUAL Outstanding Achievement Awards in recognition of outstanding achievement in civil engineering. The Park is the highest ever scoring Assessment in CEEQUAL’s 10 years of operation.

View why they won this award | View press release

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CEEQUAL’S 2nd Outstanding Achievement Award winners and highly commended announced!

(April 2013) Earlier this year saw the return of CEEQUAL’s Outstanding Achievement Awards (OAAs) ceremony and dinner. Project teams travelled from all over the UK, Ireland and Sweden in anticipation of receiving an award in recognition for pinnacle best practice achievements in improving sustainability of civil engineering, infrastructure, landscaping and the public realm.

Click here to see who the winners were... | View press release

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