Construction collaboration technologies should be exploited during the delivery of projects for the 2012 London Olympics Games, says an influential task group of the UK’s Strategic Forum for Construction in its 2012 Construction Commitments (available here; see also the press release).
I was recently appointed to the steering group of Constructing Excellence’s Building and Estates forum (BE), and attended my first meeting this morning. One of the topics discussed was the afore-mentioned recently published document from the Strategic Forum: The 2012 Construction Commitments.
The document, developed by the UK construction industry with the Government’s strong support, is intended to maximise the opportunity to showcase the best British construction practices, using the Olympics as a live example. The ‘Commitments’ cover six key areas of the construction process:
- Client leadership
- Procurement and integration
- Design quality
- Sustainability
- Commitment to people
- Health and safety
Much of the document is aspirational in tone, resembling in many respects the content of partnering charters used on many projects and framework agreements since the mid 1990s, so it remains to be seen how far organisations will feel able to adopt the ‘Commitments’ and what will be taken as evidence of their adoption.
However, given that the Strategic Forum was involved in producing the Accelerating Change report (September 2002), I was pleased to see some continuity from that document which advocated "using an integrated IT approach" (p.10). Under ‘design quality’, the final ‘Commitment’ endorses the use of collaborative technologies, saying:
"IT-based collaborative tools and communication technologies will be exploited."
The ‘Commitments’ are being signed by Mayor of London Ken Livingstone, Government ministers Tessa Jowell and Margaret Hodge, David Higgins (chief executive of the Olympics Delivery Authority) and Peter Rogers (chairman of Constructing Excellence and the 2012 Task Group), and the Task Group is inviting the chairman and chief executive of all organisations wanting to participate in the Olympics delivery programme to join them in signing up.
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[…] This regional event includes a presentation regarding the UK government’s “Draft Strategy for Sustainable Construction“, and in prepararing my contribution, I had a look through the document to see what it said about the IT. Sadly, there is just one mention of ICT (a note listing the areas covered by BERR’s Technology Strategy Board), although the draft does at least refer to other industry initiatives which have made more explicit statements – for example, “Accelerating Change” and the 2012 Construction Commitments (see July 2006 post). […]
[…] This regional event includes a presentation regarding the UK government’s “Draft Strategy for Sustainable Construction”, and in prepararing my contribution, I had a look through the document to see what it said about the IT. Sadly, there is just one mention of ICT (a note listing the areas covered by BERR’s Technology Strategy Board), although the draft does at least refer to other industry initiatives which have made more explicit statements – for example, “Accelerating Change” and the 2012 Construction Commitments (see July 2006 post). […]