The board of Constructing Excellence (CE) has confirmed its merger with the Building Research Establishment (BRE).
The move is designed to strengthen and grow the CE membership and its positive impact on the industry at a time of "significant global challenge" and comes following extensive discussions with its members and stakeholders.
Under the merger BRE will maintain the CE brands*, develop the network and add critical capacity in developing digital tools, delivering training and events and growing the international reach. The move has also been designed to enable CE to achieve its long-term ambition of establishing a Constructing Excellence Foundation under the BRE Trust which would see trading profit channelled into research and education for the benefit of members.
CE’s existing team will relocate to BRE’s HQ in Watford in August.
Constructing Excellence Chief Executive Don Ward will continue in his role. He said: "Joining with BRE gives us access to new resources and markets that we require to develop our membership, benchmarking and training services for the UK and international networks. It means that we can plan for the future with a new level of vision and confidence, and devote our energies to member content, thought leadership and sector influence."
Constructing Excellence was the result of the convergence of several related industry initiatives set up to drive improvements in construction in the wake of the seminal 1997 Egan report Rethinking Construction. Its 80 members are drawn from across the industry supply chain, ranging from clients, contractors and consultants, through to suppliers and manufacturers of building materials and products.
Peter Bonfield CEO of BRE added: "Constructing Excellence has always represented a movement for positive change, harnessing the energy and commitment of many hundreds of organisations at a regional and national level. Both BRE and CE are trusted and independent brands who have worked very closely together for many years - the synergies are strong. But most importantly we share the core objective of creating a better built environment for all. We are very pleased about this."
The press statement said that members have emphatically welcomed the move, confirmed on August 18, and had a number of testimonials to that effect:
"As a national asset and one of the biggest investors in British infrastructure, Heathrow has always promoted the benefits of sharing knowledge and best practise to drive improvements in the construction industry and we will continue supporting Constructing Excellence to achieve this."
David Ferroussat, Infrastructure Procurement Director, Heathrow Airport Ltd.
"We are very pleased with this merger, it brings together two key industry bodies with shared aims and ambitions. The opportunity to take CE's core message of the benefits of true collaboration to a wider audience will hopefully encourage others to get involved and committed. This will be of huge benefit to the built environment, the construction industry and our clients."
Ronald H Edmondson, Managing Director, Waterloo Air Products plc
"CE has a strong vision for our industry and the merger with BRE provides us with the opportunity to strengthen our influence and realise our ambition of being the leading organisation driving improvement in construction and the build environment. It is a good move for our membership who gain additional benefits from BRE’s cutting edge research and global reach. We are all delighted by this development and look forward to sharing knowledge and best practice to benefit the industry."
Murray Rowden, Global Head of Infrastructure, Turner and Townsend, and Chairman of Constructing Excellence.
CE brands * including Constructing Excellence, Constructing Excellence International, Constructing Excellence in Learning (CELL), Construction Clients Group, G4C
