DIEM Ltd

QHS Solutions Ltd are hosting a half day Environmental & Waste Management Explained course in Burnley on Friday 26th October.

Delivered by Chartered Environmental Surveyor and Chartered Environmentalist David Inman, of Blackburn based environmental consultants DIEM Ltd, this course will give sensible and practical expert advice on reducing environmental and waste management risks and potential costs, plus demystify some common environmental challenges that businesses face today.

For more details and to book please contact Alison at QHS Solutions on:

01282 839103 

Email, info@qhs-solutions.com

Thanks to all who responded to my poll for

“Are you in favour or against the new High Speed 2 rail link in the UK?”.

The total result was

Yes to HS2 126 (71%)

No to HS2 52 (29%)

The results are interested and varied between the groups I invited to participate on Linkedin:

Linkedin group “Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors”

Yes 98 (70%), No 42 (30%)

Linkedin group “RICS Sustainability”

Yes 9 (90%), No 1 (10%)

Linkedin group “IEMA - Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment”

Yes 19 (67%), No 9 (32%)

QHS Solutions and DIEM Ltd  Environmental Consultants, have worked together for several years delivering related services.   Our firms share the same values in the delivery of high quality and cost effective services to Client.

We are now offering this new half day   

“Environment and Waste Management Explained”

course on Friday 25th May from 0930 to 1230 in Burnley.

Course Aims

This half day course is designed and delivered by Environmental Consultants DIEM Ltd to enable delegates to understand Environment and Waste management systems and legal requirements to help give your business the environmental advantage.

Course Content

·         Introduction to the environment –

·         Managing our environment,

·         ISO 14001 Environmental Management and supply chains and includes:·        

o   Winning work with good environmental management

o   PAS 91

o   Sustainable procurement

o   PAS 2030 (including introduction to the Green Deal)

Part 1: Environmental management on sites  - Minimising the risks:

·         Noise & vibration

·         Waste (brief overview - full waste training to follow)

·         Contaminated land

·         Water

·         Dust and Air quality

·         Ecology

·         Spill incidents  

·         Organising for site work

This section culminates with a short multiple-choice assessment

Part 2: Effective waste management

·         What is waste?    

·         Duty of care and legal requirements

·         Handling and storage of waste

·         Pricing for waste

·         Reducing the cost of waste within the law

This section concludes with a practical duty of care waste transfer note exercise.

A Certificate will be awarded following successful assessment.

This training will be delivered by David Inman of DIEM Ltd. David is a Chartered Environmental Surveyor, Chartered Environmentalist and Lead EMS Auditor. Across the UK, he supports companies and organizations ranging from widely known “superbrands” to small family run companies in reaching their environmental management potential.

Course fees are just £75.00 per delegate (plus VAT) to include course handouts, certificate and refreshments. 

We are expecting a high demand for this course to book, please contact Alison on 01282 839 103 or a.stansfield@QHS-Solutions.com

We look forward to seeing you there!

The RICS APC (Assessment of Professional Competency) pathway guide for Quantity Surveying describes the discipline as:

Quantity surveyors are the cost managers of construction. They are initially involved with the capital expenditure phase of a building or facility, which is the feasibility, design and construction phases, but they can also be involved with the extension, refurbishment, maintenance and demolition of a facility.

They must understand all aspects of construction over the whole life of a building or facility. They must have the ability to manage cost effectively, equating quality and value with individual client needs.

Looking at the term “cost”, QSs hold the key not just to costing financially, but in terms of waste quantities and diverting this from landfill plus more critical, carbon accounting right through projects from design and construction to long term maintenance and eventual disposal.  The information QSs hold is invaluable for analysing material, including waste, quantities and carbon.

From a Chartered Environmental Surveyor who interprets and manages carbon, waste and materials data for environmental and sustainability reporting, my advice to trainee QSs is embrace the wider sustainability applications which you skills can unlock and you’ll be the stars of the future.

Green_Drinks_Lancs_May_12.pdf Download this file

Green Drinks Lancashire returns!

Friday 25th May 2012 

The word on the street is that Site Waste Management Plans (SWMP), which are statutory waste management plans for construction projects in England, however they are still with us.

I’m not going into details of SWMP and details can be found at

http://www.environment-agency.gov.uk/netregs/businesses/construction/62359.aspx

but I’m undecided whether they should end.

On the side who wants rid of SWMPs, their diabolically poor implementation by the previous government, meant that they were a good idea badly implemented. They now have seemed to vary in quality and accuracy across projects which is a shame as they are useful, but they have lost their way and maybe it’s time for a new start.

When they were brought out, I attended many (state funded) training sessions which were very poor in quality. Also, they were attended by environmental professionals in the main not estimators, quantity surveyors, designers, project managers and the like. People who cost, agree and drive projects from their conception.

SWMP if done right, ie start at the design phase, have been proven to save projects money, but their mandatory nature can make them a formality instead a chance to save money and identify waste minimisation opportunities starting at design.

They are not dead yet, so why not rethink their potential.

Green Deal is coming and whether you are basing your business plans on it or not, it won’t go away.

I’ve recently, in conjunction with Martin Brown of Fairsnape via the Lancashire Construction Best Practice Club have given several talks to construciton professionals about Green Deal and the PAS 2030 standard.

Construction profesisonals I’ve been talking who are interested in PAS 2030 and Green Deal are preparing to modify their existing practices for them or develop new ones, but I’d say start testing the systems now.

The mindset for Green Deal for installers is to deliver everything PAS 2030 asks for so why not start testing the standard on current projects.

There is professional help from Martin Brown & myself to assist and whilst there are off the shelf software products available, bespoke professional advice is far more beneficial and economic. With some parties saying one to one professional business support is unaffordable, I’d like to say that DIEM Ltd offers affordable professional services which can be tailored to resources available at clients and also existing systems as not to duplicate work.

I travelled to Holland with my partner last weekend and in a commuter centre between Amsterdam Centraal Station and Schipol Airport I saw a park and ride which was about 2 Euro per day. The ironic thing was that it was only about a quarter full of cars on a weekday. 

Unlike this, the cycle storage facilities were vast, well used and in good condition.  Why is this? Well, in my opinion the modern, clean public transport is the reason with commuter trains like this:

How ironic that it’s the same organisation, Nederlandse Spoorwegen, which operates these trains and some of the shocking commuter stock in the UK under the brand “Abellio” (Northern & Merseyrail are joint ventures with Serco and Greater Anglia).

The Dutch have the mindset and the infrastructure to provide and use good quality public transport, whilst the UK, having minimal cycle facilities and few segregated cycle lanes, view bikes as a dangerous and risky option.

I had the most uncomfortable rail journey ever yesterday between Formby and Ramsgreave & Wilpshire (near Blackburn) and I feel I should share my thoughts.

The first leg was actually not too bad on Merseyrail as it was fast, frequent on old but refurbished and clean stock.

I had to change at Southport where things got bad when passengers were shoehorned class 142 Pacer, a train which was not fit for service when new. The train got quite busy and ironically on a train bound for Manchester Airport, passengers with cases coudln’t get them down the narrow isle very easily.

The seat was the most uncomfortable I have experienced on public transport and the ride quality was bordering on the terrifying.

Thinkfully I had to change in Bolton when I travelled on a class 150 Sprinter. Whilst more comfortable the unit smelt of urine and it was really dirty.

Why does Merseyrail, owned by the same Serco/Albellio JV keep its trains clean, whilst sister company Northern Rail never clean them? When I mean clean I don’t mean pick up some litter, I mean scrub, wash, polish etc. By the layers of dirt and grime “infrequently” is the word I’m going to politely use.

My view is that with Merseyrail being a consession let be the regional travel authority Merseytravel, there are higher service levels than on a franchise let the more standard route.

Sadly the Northern Rail journey passed through many political districts in Merseyside, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Blackburn with Darwen which rediculously is not in Lancashire.

The only saving grace was that the train was on time, despite it taking 2 hrs 7 mins for a journey I could have driven in 55 mins. Why travel this way, well I want to reduce carbon and also fancied a change from driving, even though my ticket cost over £17.

However, with franchises only being worries about financial penalties for late running trains, there is little apparent focus on passenger compfort.

There needs to be more of a focus on passengers in the North West and not let another franchise on the basis to keep old and work stock on the rails.

I’ve heard people say travel is about the journey and not the destination, but yesterday I just wanted to get off.