November Overview – Rudi Klein
The CEM Board held its awayday on 29 September and resolved that our post- pandemic agenda should encapsulate:
- Safer buildings
- Greener buildings (net zero carbon)
- Smarter buildings (embracing cutting edge digital technologies)
Such priorities reflect the zeitgeist but I can’t help wondering whether they are deliverable within a dysfunctional procurement and delivery system.The hallmarks of such system,as we all know,are lowest price,fragmented and disintegrated inputs,and wholesale risk transfer.
The Constructing Excellence movement was built on driving radical change around the concepts of collaboration and integration.
The recent CEM Awards gave a clutch of prizes to two projects which had piloted insurance-backed alliancing(IBA).These were the Derby silk museum and a second pilot project at Dudley College.Both projects ticked all the boxes as far as the above list is concerned.
IBA is about drawing together all the key elements of the delivery team to work with the client in devising the best for project solutions that will effectively and efficiently realise the client’s clearly articulated expectations.This alliance of client,consultants,contractors and specialists works together on a no-blame basis to manage risk and agree a cost plan.The cost plan is than insured against overruns provided that independent
technical and financial risk assurers have satisfied the insurer that project-related risks have been robustly managed.Also a 12-year no-fault latent defects cover is put in place.
The first pilot IBA project at Dudley College achieved over 6% efficiency savings on project costs,a shortened delivery period and zero defects.An
energy performance certificate A was given.In fact there has been a 50% saving in energy running costs over the 3 years since completion of the building as compared to a similar building on the site.There are still zero defects and no operational or performance problems.
Not surprisingly this project won the first prize in the 2018 Constructing Excellence National Awards for collaborative and integrated delivery.
Further information on IBA is available in a CE publication issued over 3 years ago.
We should be using every opportunity to promote IBA and invite more projects to trial it.Safer,greener and smarter buildings will then become more achievable.
