FIRE SAFETY EUROPEAN CITIES PLEDGE
COMPLIANCE AND COMPETENCE
Conor Logan, Technical Director, Colt
Following the tragic events at Grenfell Tower,
the subsequent Hackitt Review into building
regulations and the ongoing Public Inquiry, Colt’s
Technical Director, Conor Logan, who sat on one of the
committees reporting to the government on the new
reforms explains the signifi cance of compliance and
competence.
The word compliance appears in the Hackitt Review fi nal
report 46 times and competence appears 152 times - these
are clearly important terms for the fi re safety industry, yet
a recent conference on competence from the Construction
Industry Council (CIC) working groups representing
specifi c sections of the construction industry struggled to
provide a clear single interpretation of what competence
really means.
At Colt we strive to deliver our projects in an ethical,
compliant and competent way, but what does this really
mean and how can you demonstrate that you deliver on
this commitment?
Ethical is captured by terms such as legal, honest, decent
and truthful but also described by integrity, respect, rigour
and leadership.
Leadership is demonstrated not by market position but
from a duty of care. We endeavour to lead by commitment
to educating our customers and our supply chain, by
developing standards and guidance through partners
such as CEN, BSi and trade associations such as CIC
and the Smoke Control Association but also engaging
with regulators such as MHCLG and other government
departments, Building Control bodies, fi re brigades and
others.
Compliance means an adherence to standards and
regulations, but this has to be tempered through practical
knowledge and application not a blinkered, unthinking
adherence, as not all standards and regulations fi t
all buildings and applications. Adherence needs to be
considered, practicable and justifi able. There will always
be occasional instances where non-conformance and
deviation need to be considered and this will be assessed
and proposed on a case by case basis.
It could be argued that competence could be
demonstrated by signing up to quality management
systems such as ISO 9001, but competence is really so
much more.
Following Grenfell, the Smoke Control Association
launched a 3rd party certifi cation scheme, under the
governance of International Fire Consultants Certifi cation
(IFCC) which verifi es the ability to follow a design, install,
commission and maintain smoke control systems, smoke
curtains and fi re curtains. We have developed a summary
of all operational staff , whether directly employed or subcontracted
that each individual involved in a project in any
technical or related capacity, has a ‘competence passport’
to summarise their skills, knowledge and experience.
We recognise that many people think they are
competent beyond their present expertise and this is
where limitations must be respected - processes can
be developed so that critical functions are subject to a
peer review process. For example, all technical reports
are reviewed by a senior engineer, all drawings for
construction reviewed by the technical team for content
and by the operations team for scope.
So competence is not just about knowing what is the
right way to do the job, it is equally about knowing
what is the wrong way to do it and about knowing
where a person’s knowledge, skills and experience
stops. Encourage your staff to question what they see,
to stop when they are unsure and call out when they see
something that is wrong.
6 DECEMBER/JANUARY 2020
www.coltinfo.co.uk
THEIR COMMITMENT TO NET
ZERO BUILDINGS
A number of European cities and companies have pledged to slash carbon emissions
from their buildings to net zero.
Helsinki, Finland and Valladolid, Spain have signed the World Green Building Council’s
(WorldGBC) Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment, alongside property sector leaders
BuroHappold, Carbon Credentials, Deerns, Grimshaw Architects, Grosvenor Group, Newsec
Finland and Ylva.
By signing the Commitment, the cities and companies pledge to reach net zero emissions
for their own buildings by 2030, and cities pledge that all buildings in their cities will meet
the target by 2050. Several signatories including Helsinki have announced their intention
to get there even faster, with buildings playing a central role in the city’s goal to be entirely
carbon-neutral by 2035, one of the world’s most ambitious city climate targets.
Jan Vapaavuori, Mayor of Helsinki said: “Climate change is the most crucial challenge
of our time and buildings are at the heart of the fight against it. The City of Helsinki
is committed to taking very ambitious measures in its building stock to reduce heat
consumption and increase the use of renewable energy. About 45 per cent of Helsinki’s
emission reduction potential is related to buildings, so for us it’s the natural place to take
climate action.”
Óscar Puente Santiago, Mayor of Valladolid said: “The climate challenge is huge and
Valladolid has demonstrated its ambition to improve citizens’ lives by improving our
buildings. We are working on innovative energy e iciency projects in public and private
buildings, retrofitting our buildings and using solar energy. Becoming the first city in Spain
to sign the Net Zero Carbon Buildings Commitment is a great opportunity to demonstrate
what must be done.”
Helsinki and Valladolid join 26 other leading cities across the world that have already
signed the Commitment. This signal of increasing ambition from European cities gives an
early boost to the ‘European Green Deal’; the upcoming European Union’s flagship strategy
to establish the first-climate-neutral continent.
For Ylva, Newsec, Grosvenor, Grimshaw Architects, Deerns and BuroHappold, joining the
Commitment is a pathway to becoming members of EP100 – a global corporate leadership
initiative for energy-smart companies, delivered by The Climate Group in partnership with
the Alliance to Save Energy.
GOVERNMENT MUST TACKLE LATE PAYMENT ISSUES
The new government must do everything it can to solve the late payment problems that
continue to undermine construction supply chains, according to the Chief Executive o icer of
the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) David Frise.
He told the Association’s National Conference that Whitehall was “terrified of another
Carillion style collapse” and the huge damage that would cause to public sector
infrastructure plans. However, repeated failures to reform the industry’s “payment culture”
meant another major insolvency was very possible.
Frise told delegates in London that poor payment behaviour was part of a culture
highlighted in the Hackitt Review that led to “broken buildings and broken people”.
He added that the General Election was a great opportunity to explain to politicians that
the issue of late payment would undermine plans to tackle climate change.
A recent survey carried out by BESA and the Electrical Contractors’ Association found that
nine out of 10 small business owners were su ering from stress and other mental health
conditions because of late payment. They also found that half of all small business owners
and managing directors had been forced to stop their own pay and one in ten admitted to
being forced to pay their own sta late.
More than one in three have fallen behind on tax bills and almost a quarter have cancelled
training programmes due to payments being unfairly withheld by clients.
BESA’s Head of Legal and Commercial Services Debbie Petford, said this could be “tackled”
if the government legislated to safeguard money due to sub-contractors – as proposed in the
dra ‘Aldous Bill’, which BESA helped to dra and that gained massive cross-party support
during the last Parliament.
NEWS & ANALYSIS FMJ.CO.UK
/www.coltinfo.co.uk
