Concrete Society

MPANI Committees

NEIL COOKE, CHAIRMAN, CONCRETE SOCIETY NI REGION

The Concrete Society is a member-based body, with no affiliation to any Trade or Corporate Organisations and is proud to be recognised as independent. The Society is built on a technical base and has become a leading provider of information serving the needs of Clients, Architects, Engineers, Specifiers, Suppliers, Contractors and users of concrete.

The Concrete Society’s independent Concrete Advisory Service provides prompt, impartial technical advice on concrete and related matters to subscribing members of any discipline. Their Chartered Engineers have vast experience in many aspects of the use of concrete.

The Society is represented throughout the UK by various regions and clubs, with Northern Ireland having its own regional membership and committee. The NI committee is represented by many disciplines including: Chartered Civil and Structural Engineers; Architects; Government Bodies; Quantity Surveyors; Universities; Concrete Suppliers; Cement and construction material suppliers; Precast companies; Building & Civil Engineering contractors; and Construction materials testing companies. With the support of a large network of members and commitment from the construction industry, the NI committee organise seminars on highly topical events over the year. We would like to thank those companies who also provide additional annual sponsorship towards the running of the NI region, which is invaluable. There is no doubt that we have faced some very difficult times in the past two years. Who would have thought that the threat of Brexit would have been overshadowed by the various strains of COVID and then be replaced by the war in Ukraine. If that is not bad enough, in Northern Ireland we have our own unique circumstances that leave us once more without government at a time when strong leadership is essential. However, I fear that we are not out of the woods just yet and we are facing some very strong headwinds. I note from the most recent Ulster Bank Business Activity Report that: business activity has fallen for the first time in 14 months; pessimism is on the rise; new business from abroad has fallen solidly; input and output costs are accelerating; and supplier lead times continue to increase. On the plus side: staffing levels continue to increase; and the export climate in the longer term looks promising. Other challenges include the fact that around 600,000 people over 50 have left the workforce since early 2020 and we need some 250,000 additional construction workers by 2024 to meet current demands.

Enough of the depression. What we need is clear leadership and decision making, coupled with greater productivity through innovation and technological advances. In addition, we must try and maintain a focus on the environment, carbon neutrality (net zero) and biodiversity. With the wide variety of membership of the Concrete Society, we are perhaps best placed to understand these needs and more capable than most to meet the demands.

To that end, the NI Region of the Concrete Society have placed an emphasis this year on sustainability within the concrete sector as well as promoting the importance and collaboration of our younger colleagues in construction. In January, we co-hosted an online seminar with the NI region of IStructE on concrete sustainability. The title

Mr Neil Cooke (Mattest Ltd) Chairman NI Region Concrete Society 2022 and Miss Rachel McKeag (DesignID) Chair of the Newly Formed Young Members Committee.

of the talk was ‘Use of Structural Concrete in a Zero Carbon Future’ and was presented by Paul Astle of Ramboll UK. Paul provided an excellent overview of the use of concrete today, steps to take to get to zero carbon and what we should all do now.

It certainly provided some thoughtprovoking discussions and we were delighted to have over one hundred and eighty people in attendance. We all appreciate the huge task ahead us, particularly within the concrete sector, but with challenges comes opportunities and we are better placed than most within Northern Ireland to exploit these, especially given our strong local precast industry. Our starting point this year is to educate as many within industry as possible with similar talks on the current state of play and what we need to do prior to giving local companies the opportunity to present to wider industry on what steps they are taking to achieve net zero. This year we have also established a Young Members Committee of the NI Region of the Concrete Society which is chaired by Rachel McKeag from DesignID. Rachel, and her colleagues, have already made a huge impact in such a short space of time. They have organised a site visit to a local concrete products manufacturer to appreciate the processes involved and how the company is addressing net zero. Various talks are planned on subjects that they want to learn more about and social events such as pub quizzes and bowling events are also upcoming. It is fantastic to see such enthusiasm since the Young Members Committee has been launched.

We would strongly encourage readers to nominate young personnel within their companies to join the Young Members Committee as we are currently underrepresented from those outside of traditional consulting and contracting. We also continue to support our local universities. The Concrete Society provide awards at the annual dinner to students from both universities, for excellence in civil engineering, building and architecture. Our annual dinner in November is well supported by the greater industry, were we hold the construction awards for projects, process innovation and people. We are delighted to once again hold this year’s event in person were we will have the opportunity to meet each other again following the deferment of the awards dinner for the past two years due to COVID. Membership of the Concrete Society is open to anyone with a construction interest and free to students. We would be happy to hear from anyone wishing to find out more information or wishing to join. www.concrete.org.uk The NI Region of The Concrete Society looks forward to continuing our close partnership with the MPANI, for the benefit of all our members and as importantly, the wider construction industry in Northern Ireland.