FREE BACON BUTTIES FOR NEW USERS!!!

The first BuilderScrap Road Show has now started!  Over the month of March, we will be visiting Builders Merchants in the North West region to promote the benefits of reuse to new and existing BuilderScrap members.

The road shows are being run in partnership with Huws Gray, the successful Wales and North West Builders Merchants.

The first event was held this morning at Huws Gray Ellesmere Port, and we are pleased to have signed up many new members.

Anyone interested in lowering their costs and doing their bit for the environment, is invited to join us at any of the below events for a free bacon sandwich*, a cup of tea and a chat!  Just call in any time between 8am and 12 noon.

Friday 5th March 2010 Huws Gray Heswall

Monday 8th March 2010 Huws Gray Aintree

Wednesday 10th March 2010 Huws Gray Burscough

Friday 12th March 2010 Huws Gray Moreton

Monday 15th March 2010 Huws Gray Wallasey

Wednesday 17th March 2010 Huws Gray Heswall

Friday 19th March 2010 Huws Gray Ellesmere Port

Monday 29th March 2010 Huws Gray Aintree

Wednesday 31st March 2010 Huws Gray Flint

Thursday 1st April 2010 Huws Gray Wrexham

For details of any locations, please visit www.huwsgray.co.uk or call us on 0844 2253000

Here are some pictures from our first (rather chilly) day:

The BuilderScrap Team ready to sign up new users

BuilderScrap's Dannii sampling the free bacon sandwiches!

 * terms apply

See you at the next event!

On Tuesday I visited the Hargould Eco Showcase at Old Trafford Stadium to view a series of seminars about environment and sustainability in construction. It was a great opportunity to get an overview of the construction industry and try to gage the environmental feelings within the sector.

Arriving slightly late, after my sat-nav decided to stop giving me directions as soon as the stadium came into sight forcing me to spend the next twenty minutes negotiating myself down a series of side streets around the stadium. Finally I managed to locate where I was supposed to go, park up, register, collect my free cup of tea, say a quick hello to Eddie on the BuilderScrap stand and sit down in time for the first of the three seminars (resource efficiency in construction).

All three seminars followed a similar structure looking firstly at the issue, then the solution and finally the best practice. I was delighted that within the first seminar tackling resource consumption, BuilderScrap got a mention when discussing the practice of re-use and its growing importance to the industry, particularly pleasing with Eddie conveniently poised around the corner waiting for the seminar audience to filter past him ready to explain more about BuilderScrap.

Without going into too much detail about each seminar, the key points of the first seminar were to outline just how much perfectly good materials are being sent to landfill under the false pretence of being waste. Stats were provided demonstrating for example that 13 million tonnes of raw materials go to landfill which have never been used. It went on to explain how much money could potentially be saved each year with improved site management and planning to reduce and reuse as much as possible.

The second seminar discussed carbon management in construction, outlining the need to make carbon reductions in the industry through the use of good design, correct materials, best practice construction and also considering the long term operation of the building, will it be a big emitter of greenhouse gases (the period between construction and demolition). This was discussed with particular reference to BREEAM quality projects.

The final seminar looked into sustainable procurement in construction, this being the information about the products themselves. Where they are from? What they are made of? How have they been transported? And how they will be disposed of? It seems crazy to think that raw materials could be mined/farmed in one country, transported to be manufactured in the next, transported again to another country to be sold, and then end up never being used and ending on a landfill site after all that energy has been expended.

My main thoughts from the seminars were that whilst government in the UK is launching so many initiatives such as act on CO2 and halving waste to landfill, there needs to be more explanation why? It is not right to leave the construction sector feeling as if it is been persecuted by a series of laws without explanation,  why shouldn’t they carry on the way they have been, after all, many companies/individuals will have operated the same way for decades. If the time was taken to issue the relevant information in the industry it could show that sustainability is not that hard to build in to existing policy and with companies like BuilderScrap providing a platform to make it even easier to implement best practice then it can surprise how easy and cost effective a change in attitude can prove.

There is a need for constant reminders from the top down; you are not always going to get through to people first time, the saying is old habits are hard to break and teaching people to act differently can be tough. Having said that I think there is a willingness to change in the construction industry, maybe with les focus on the environment but certainly to save money and also to ensure that they are meeting their client’s expectations, ultimately if the client wants sustainable construction methods, the sector will move to accommodate, those that don’t will be left behind.

Overall I thought the seminars were excellent and would urge anyone within the industry to make an effort to attend in future, the presentations were very easy to follow and appealed to a wide audience. It did not try to be overambitious, there was an appreciation that you are not going to turn the construction industry into a band of eco-warriors overnight, it had a strong emphasis on monetary savings and client expectations, with the environmental message as an underlying theme throughout.

BuilderScrap recently beat internationally renowned entrants to win The Rushlight Award for Waste Management.
The Rushlight Awards celebrate the leading energy, resource and environmental technologies of Britain and Ireland, and were held this year at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London on Thursday 28th January.

The awards were presented to businesses that excelled in the environmental and clean technology fields. BuilderScrap won the award for waste management, which was accepted by Eddie McGee, Les Owens and Brendon Kenny (Pictured).

BuilderScrap is an innovative new business, which aims to lower the amount of constructions waste being sent unnecessarily to landfill. Using web 2.0 technology, member of this free service are able to ‘post’ details of their surplus materials to the web. Other member can then enquire about these products.

As well as member of the construction industry, other sectors using the website include charities, schools and community groups.

The not for profit business benefits not only the environment through less waste going to landfill and fewer carbon emulsions to ‘remake’ new material, but also the person passing on material through lower disposal cost and the receiver of goals through lost cost free product procurement.

As well as the prestigious Rushlight Award, BuilderScrap has been short listed in the Sustain Magazine Awards, to be presented in early March, and BuilderScrap Apprentice Paul Jones has been nominated for an All Stars Award, to be presented on Friday 5th February.

Managing Director, Les Owens, said ‘I am extremely proud of everyone involved in the project. Since launching less than 16 months ago, we have seen a great take up and this is growing on a daily basis. We have also had a lot of interest from abroad, and I have been invited to present the product to the Massachusetts Department of Environment Protection in March.’

BuilderScrap.com is completely free to use, and is supported by BRE, O2, Salford University and the Centre for Construction Innovation.

From everyone in the BuilderScrap office, we would like to wish our members and readers a very happy new year!  2010 has gotten off to an exciting and busy start already for us!  There is so much happening this year, here is just a taster of things to come! 

 Ecobuild 2010 – BuilderScrap will once again be exhibiting at Ecobuild.  Make sure to visit us on stand 448, as well as catching our seminar – details TBC!

Carbon Calculator – In conjunction with the Centre for Construction Innovation and Salford University, BuilderScrap is currently developing a carbon calculator to measure the amount of carbon our members are saving by using BuilderScrap to pass on their surplus building materials.  Launching Spring 2010 – watch this space!

The BuilderScrap Roadshow – The first BuilderScrap roadshow is scheduled for the North West Region in early Spring.  We are currently still in the planning stage, but details will be coming soon!  The Roadshows will give members and non members alike the opportunity to learn more about BuilderScrap and the concept of Reuse in the construction industry.

Continued Partnerships – Through 2010 and beyond, we plan to continue and grow our partnerships with influential and relevant organisations.  O2 are offering our members an exclusive promotion, and we are also working together with WRAP, BRE and Envirolink on a number of projects, to name but a few!

Team Expansion- We are delighted to be welcoming a new member of the BuilderScrap team in February, Mike Close.  Keep an eye out for his environmental blog posts!

This is just a taster of what’s coming up.  If you have any ideas or suggestions for BuilderScrap, please let us know!

Paul Jones, our Apprentice Customer Service Assistant, has been working at BuilderScrap for three months now and so I have asked him to write a blog post about his time here. 

Over the past 3 months I have been working at BuilderScrap and already I have been away to Birmingham for an exhibition, been to several meetings and even experienced an Edmund McGee presentation first hand(!). I think the biggest challenge I have faced since joining the company is attending the exhibition and having to strike up a conversation about our company to strangers.  I feel by the end of the first day I began grasping at the technique and became much less worried about interacting with the public. The people within the company made me feel very relaxed and comfortable so I was never dreading coming to work as they were all very welcoming. I think thanks to their support I have been able to take on most jobs with minimum fuss, but if I ever needed help whilst doing the database or arranging event dates or pretty much anything there is always someone there ready to help out. I have really enjoyed my time here and hope to be working here for a while to come.

Paul is studying for a Level 3 NVQ in Customer Services and has just been successful in the nominations for the Wirral Business Apprentices all Star Awards, which we will be attending in the New Year.

Some of us from the BuilderScrap office have this week been in Boston, Massahusetts.  Apart from being a stunning city with great restaurants and fascinating places of interest, we have met with some extremely interesting people, including representatives from the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection, Habitat for Humanity, The Green Roundtable, Tocci construction and NASDI.  Everyone we have met have found the BuilderScrap idea an exciting one, and we are looking forward to working with our American colleagues to determine the potential for BuilderScrap in the states. 
I am writing this blog in the lobby of a very nice hotel, waiting for the Build Boston exhibition to open, so we can go and have a look at what is happening in the industry over here.  Looking forward to meeting with more American businesses, builders and contractors, and to learning more about the construction industry and the ‘green movement’.
Here are a few snaps I have taken whilst over here in this stunning city.

The Boss

Not your usual use for a crane!

BuilderScrap is pleased to announce an exciting new collaboration with Construction Centre for Innovation North West (CCINW) and Salford University.  The partnership has been created in order to develop a technology to accurately measure the amount of carbon saved by members of the BuilderScrap website.

The BuilderScrap website launched a year ago and, at the time of writing, has 900 members using the site, a figure which is growing continually.  The website works simply, effectively, and is free to use.  Members can register and upload any leftover, surplus construction materials to the website.  Other members can then search for these materials, and contact the seller to make an exchange.  The website has been received very well by the construction industry, as this partnership with CCINW shows.  The initiative is supported by CCINW through the North West Opportunities Programme, which is linked to the region’s Carbon Reduction Targets.

The development of the ‘Carbon Calculator’ is still in the very early stages, and it is hoped that this will be up and running by the New Year.  The aim of the Calculator is to provide statistics on carbon reductions to the individual companies involved in an exchange, and also to local councils and corporate clients.

 BuilderScrap is pleased to be part of WRAP’s Halving Waste to Landfill commitment and is also partnered with Envirolink Northwest and Envirowise.The main benefit of using BuilderScrap, is that by encouraging reuse of surplus materials within the industry, less waste is sent unnecessarily to landfill, offering significant cost savings to the user.  The introduction of the Carbon Calculator service will allow members and corporate clients to quantifiably prove their individual savings, which can potentially help them to gain new clients and work and improve their Corporate Social Responsibility.

Well, we are back in the BuilderScrap office after a hectic few days at the Interbuild exhibition.  The show went really well, we met loads of interesting people and signed up a massive new 850 BuilderScrap users!  One of the best things about Interbuild is meeting people from all walks of the construction industry, and seeing how BuilderScrap can be o benefit to them.  We met with some major builders and contractors, councils, charities, colleges and self and home builders. 
We were also running a competition to win a weekend for two in the stunning Coach House Hotel in Chester.  The winner will be drawn next week, and announced on this blog, so watch this space if you entered the competition!
Sustainability Street was a major feature of the Interbuild show this year, with full size intelligent home, hotel pod and a classroom!  We at BuilderScrap were delighted to be involved with Sustainability Street through the display of several boards highlighting the process of Buildability - which will be discussed in a later post. 

The BuilderScrap team at Interbuild

Buildability Boards on Sustainability Street

The BuilderScrap team hard at work

Interbuild 2009 is only a few short weeks away!  The construction exhibition is a great chance for us to meet people from all walks of the construction industry; including home builders, builders and contractors, architects, students and self builders, and talk to them about our ideas of reuse and passing on surplus building supplies. 
The BuilderScrap stand will be located in Hall 5, stand nmber E2.  Make sure to come and say hello!  People registering during the show will get the chance to enter a fantastic competition – visit stand E2 to find out more!
Interbuild runs from October 18th – 21st in the Birmingham NEC.

We’ve decided go back and highlight some great posts for the newer subscribers to BuilderScrap.com

10 Green Practices to Help Boost Profit

What is BuilderScrap.com?

Guide to Help Small Building Contractors

More Ways to Go Green

We loved them!