Value Toolkit: Update and discussion on how it can influence project outcomes

Presenter

IAN NICHOLSON

BRE

Ian joined the Hub in December 2020. For Ian, the Value Toolkit provides an ideal opportunity for industry to really embed sustainability into early-stage decision making. He believes the delivery of sustainable infrastructure requires us to consider two key things: high sustainability performance in the projects we deliver; and ensuring we solve the root cause problems and deliver solutions that make our lives more sustainable. The project teams use schemes such as BREEAM and CEEQUAL to guide their decision making and address root causes. Sustainability presents a greater challenge, specifically identification of the real strategic drivers that they need to deliver and use them to shape the project solution. The Value Toolkit plugs this gap by helping clients and their teams identify their drivers, and then prioritise them to enable comparison of different options, thus finding the optimal solution.
Originally trained as a civil engineer, Ian has worked in the construction industry for over 35 years, the first ten of which in frontline project roles. Ian has extensive experience in environmental and sustainability issues within the construction industry as a consultant on topics such as environmental management systems; life cycle assessment techniques; responsible and ethical sourcing of construction products; and learning and development of sustainability skills.
Before joining BRE in 2017 to lead the integration of CEEQUAL into the wider BREEAM family of sustainability schemes, Ian acted as Technical Director for CEEQUAL. Until the end of 2020 Ian also sat on the BSi Technical Committee for Sustainability in Construction (B/558); and was the UK Expert to both the ISO and CEN Working Groups on Sustainability Indicators for Civil Engineering (ISO/TC17/SC59/WG5 and CEN TC350/WG6).