July 2015 – Constructing Excellence Yorkshire & Humber

Guest Blog Post by Simon Owen, Vice-Chairman of CIBSE Yorkshire

I don’t know about you, but while I knew Yorkshire is a big county, and that we have a lot of building and construction work centred within the area, I didn’t know just how good we are at it. That changed on Friday…

At the Construction Excellence Yorkshire and Humber Awards people from all branches of the construction and engineering family came together to talk about what they do and celebrate what they have achieved over the last year. I was the guest of Tekla and it wasn’t until I was chatting with Marian Thomasson and Jill Willoughby that I realised Yorkshire’s history of innovation goes beyond the building as a whole, but also to the local manufacturers; Hepworth Building Products were at the front end of developing push fit plumbing fittings while NavisWorks is a development of a package created in Sheffield.

Kicking off the evening, Chris Gorse, Director and Professor of the Leeds Sustainability Institute and Centre for the Built Environment at Leeds Beckett University discussed with pride and passion the developments that they have been involved with as part of his opening speech, from the students graduating, the establishment of ThinkBIM, GreenVision, Construction Knowledge Exchange while he neglected to mention the launch of BIM4SME’s being held in the region or that the University acts as the central hub for the UK Living Building Challenge team. He made up for it though by talking about the close relationship that they have with industry and the shared enthusiasm for carrying out research to find a better way of doing what we do.

The thing I’ve admired about all of the groups Chris mentioned is that they are accessible; there is an “everybody welcome” approach so that no matter what your base level of knowledge you will enjoy the event and won’t feel daft being there. The other thing that is special about them is that they are all shared via through social media, web casts and tweets – possibly not a secret, but worth knowing if you have an interest in the subject but were a bit nervous about coming along.

Amy Garcia and Tom Oulton

CEYH Chair, Tom Oulton, and host, BBC Look North’s Amy Garcia, taking selfies

The presentations themselves were inspirational; for instance Alison Watson of Class of Your Own introduced three of her students who had been working with Cundall, Mott MacDonald and Laing O’Rourke. They talked about their course, their plans for the future and how they have been supported by the companies that they worked with. There was a huge applause for the Alison as she is well known and recognised for being a trail blazer, but this was almost dwarfed by the one after students had presented; all 350 people in the room could sense their enthusiasm for what they have learned and could see how the “Design Engineer Construct!” programme has the potential to change how we bring people in to the industry.

Luke, Brad and Daniel of A Class of Your Own presenting

There was main contractors, sub contractors, design consultants and industry specialists all rubbing shoulders with client organisations such as East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Northern Rail and Yorkshire Water; it is hard to imagine a more diverse group of people gathering, talking and celebrating. Speaking with Mark Randerson of SH Structures, he told me that the awards are a crucial part of marketing their business; they design, install and manufacture steel structures, but not the standard stuff, they do the work where you look and wonder “just how on earth did they do that”. When they try to get on the supplier list for main contractors they struggle as procurement departments say “we have 6 people on the list, we don’t need anyone else”. When as Mark said, “all I want is for people to remember us when they need to deliver the out of the ordinary”, the awards help as people know that they are the company that won this award, was nominated for that award or completed projects that change local landscapes such as The Kelpies. Procurement may have six people on their list, but there probably aren’t six companies in the country that can deliver projects of the nature that specialists such as SH can.

Above all it changed perceptions and proved that every project being delivered by every organisation has scope to do something amazing and break new ground. Lovell won the award for Health and Safety on their Hull re-roofs project demonstrating that glamour is not required. The Heritage award was won by East Riding of Yorkshire Council for their Sewerby Hall Access Project showing that a high profile and international brand is not essential while the Integration and Collaborative Working award went to Kier and the York Teaching Hospital NHS Trust, marking how the focus of the property team remains on delivering the best facilities they can in the midst of the various wrangling’s and politics.

The Lovell team collecting their award

The East Riding of Yorkshire Council team collecting their award

It would be great to see more public bodies, housing schemes (low energy new builds perhaps?) and what some would say left field works represented next year and really spread the word of just what is being achieved behind so many office doors and site entrances.

For me, one thing is for sure and that our host for the evening, Amy Garcia, summed it up well when she said that “the future of the industry is in safe hands” after hearing Luke, Brad and Daniel of Class of Your Own speak. She’s right, especially if the news is as good in other regions as it is in this one…

Simon Owen

Well, what can we say but what a night! Last Friday saw the culmination of six months meticulous planning by the Constructing Excellence team to bring you this year’s Constructing Excellence Yorkshire & Humber Awards 2015, and what a night it was! Held at the National Railway Museum in York, this event brought together over 350 industry professionals, representing a wide cross-section of the construction sector, in a spectacular celebration to recognise and reward the very best examples of construction excellence, achievement and best practice the regional built environment has been involved in over the last 12 months.

Sponsored by AtlasCloud, attendees were treated to a champagne drinks reception, a gourmet three course meal dining amongst the museum’s magnificent collection of historical carriages, and a fantastic AV show interspersed with a rousing awards presentation. Fourteen different awards were handed out, each representing the core themes of the Constructing Excellence strategy, including leadership and people development, SME of the year and new for 2015, BIM project of the year.

In addition, attendees were also encouraged to share images from their tables to social media with a bottle of bubbly being awarded for the best “selfie” of the night! Our excellent host for the evening was BBC Look North’s Amy Garcia who kept proceedings both professional and relaxed as well as introducing the audience to the “belfie” (look it up if you don’t know!).

Carillion Morgan Sindall secured the biggest haul of the night walking away with three awards for their A1 Leeming to Barton improvement project; Innovation, BIM Project of the Year & Best of the Best categories. Other winners included Interserve who secured the Value category for Huddersfield Royal Infirmary project, Opus International Consultants who took the leadership prize and hull-based contractors M B Roche & Sons who were named SME of the Year. Morgan Sindall Grontmij Joint Venture rounded off a successful night for the Morgan Sindall Group by scooping the much coveted Project of the Year award for highly inventive time & cost efficiencies implemented at Castleford Waste Treatment works.

However the real winner on the evening was the industry itself. The sheer breadth of shortlisted projects, schemes & organisations represented at this year’s awards demonstrate once again that our regional construction sector continues to push boundaries & lead the way in driving up industry standards and “doing things better”. Innovation and creativity shone through all the projects entered with many underpinned by Construction 2025 core themes & vision. Collaboration was also a key theme of the evening with many of the shortlisted projects being undertaken in partnership demonstrating that we really are “stronger together”. The future of the industry also looks to be in good hands with an inspiring presentation delivered by three students from St Ambrose Barlow High School with big plans for their careers in our industry – future keynote speakers perhaps!

So all we have left to say is congratulations and a big THANK YOU to all our sponsors, supporters, entrants and participants who have made this year’s #ceyhawards the best one yet and we look forward to working with you all again to set the bar even higher next year!

Thank you

Liz, Mitch & Donna, CKE Team

Full List of Winners and Highly Commended

Achiever of the Year (sponsored by Leeds Sustainability Institute)

Winner: Tom Dolan , Kier Construction