Are you on board?

As agreed in the spring at our members meeting, all of CEWales work sits across four pillars, each with sustainability at its heart:

• Buildings – where we work, learn and play
• Homes – where we live
• Places and infrastructure – what we need around us
• Mobility and travel – how we move around

Every one of these shares cross-cutting themes – decarbonisation and net zero; waste and the circular economy; biodiversity and respect for the environment; innovation; digitalisation; people; health, safety, and wellbeing; integration, collaboration, and procurement.

The four pillars now form four working groups within the CE Wales management board. That means these are the areas we will focus on to help drive the change we all want to see in the business of construction. But we need to determine exactly what the priorities are. Our desire is that each of the four pillars will, taking one or more of the cross-cutting themes, deliver outcomes of benefit to our membership and wider stakeholders.

These outcomes are what you have told us you value most – networking; examples of best practice; supply chain intelligence and prior knowledge of industry pipeline and, of course, recognition, awards, and celebration of success.

Decarbonisation and net zero remain a huge area of focus, touching each of the four pillars and the management board is seeking to isolate key elements of the net zero/decarb agenda to undertake research, advocacy and capture best practice via case studies, Exemplars, and events – as well as representations to Welsh Government. Right across the four pillars hurdles were identified and another key action for the group is to address these. Other key actions to report upon and share with members are on active travel, building safety regulations, designing in resilience, and capitalising on retrofitting opportunities.