BALI News

National Landscape Awards gets a new look

Swiftly following the successful rebrand launch of our British Association of Landscape Industries brand back in April, we’re delighted to share details of our new National Landscape Awards identities, including a brand-new main logo and a suite of sponsor and winner’s logos to match.

Green-tree Topsoil

now sport new bolder colours We have already supplied logos to which helps to identify whether the this year’s sponsors, to use on their member is a sponsor or a winner own websites, email signatures and of a particular award and have been marketing materials. Winners will be designed to perfectly sit alongside announced in September and this previous year’s accolades. year’s Principal, Special and Grand Our National Landscape Awards winners will be announced live at a is sponsored by Accredited Supplier physical ceremony in London on the Green-tech, who have confirmed their 3rd December 2021. sponsorship until 2023 as part of a For the main logo, gone is the three-year deal. | date, replaced by a more simplified, BALI_Awards | baliawards modern and colourful design that mirrors, in part, the new brand for our Trade Association, with a striking gradient green. Four stars representing Award Winner, Principal, Special and Grand adorn the top of the hill crest and treeline. The sponsor and winner’s logos For more information visit

baliawards.co.uk

In memory of Renato Canale 1942-2021

On the 17th May 2021, Renato Canale sadly passed away at the age of 79. Renato setup Accredited Supplier EuroPlants UK in 1991, after arriving in the UK in 1962 to work at Stuart Lows, where he progressed to Sales and Marketing Director.

He had a vision to develop the specimen plants and trees market in the UK. A partnership was made with Vannucci Piante of Pistoia with EuroPlants being appointed its sole UK agent. The relationship is going strong to this day, 30 years on. In 2005 he set up Riverside Nurseries in Marlow. His nationwide contribution to the industry has been immense.

As a much valued and wellrespected colleague and friend in the industry for over 60 years, Renato will be greatly missed and will leave a huge gap both personally and professionally for all those that had the pleasure of knowing him.

Our thoughts go out to Renato’s family, daughters Valerie and Fabienne, grandson Kiaran and colleagues Oscar and Freddie. He will be sorely missed.

ROLO Supervisor and Manager courses will be launching in 2021

ROLO is equivalent to SSSTS and SMSTS courses

In the 2019 Horticulture Sector Skills Survey, for the landscaping section, landscape companies were asked to cite the most important skills that were needed in our industry going forward. Throughout the survey, positions that included managerial, technical and trades skills all saw the importance of health & safety, one of their most desired skills, currently and in the future.

ROLO courses address the specific safety and environmental challenges our industry faces. Whilst we are closely linked to the construction industry, there was and is a need to develop our own training, dealing with specific safety concerns unique to our workers.

If businesses are to survive, function and hold a good reputation with clients and employees, they must operate safely, with workforces adhering to current health & safety and environmental standards and practices.

Your Association remains committed to supporting health & safety training for the industry and does so through our Register of Land-based Operations Health, Safety and Environmental Awareness courses, all of which help employees demonstrate their competence in working safely.

For many years land-based Supervisors and Managers have had no choice but train through the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB) route to gain their health & safety training, in order to support them in gaining the appropriate Land-based Industry Skills Scheme and Construction Skills Certification Scheme (LISS/CSCS) SmartCard.

Whilst all health & safety training is beneficial, your Association saw the need to provide a more relevant route that covers subject areas and scenarios that are appropriate to our industries needs and practices.

With the full support of CSCS and Build UK, we are pleased to add to our ROLO offering, two new courses, ROLO Health, Safety and Environmental Awareness courses for Supervisors and Managers. This will be a step up from the current SSSTS and SMSTS courses, covering key areas like the environment in far more depth, as well as health & safety, through discussion and practical workshop style scenarios, allowing Managers and Supervisors to share their knowledge and experience, and support them in attaining the appropriate LISS/CSCS SmartCard.

We would encourage employers to see these courses as more than just a way of gaining LISS/CSCS SmartCards for their staff. Each of the new courses provides invaluable information and training on not just current legislation, but practically looks at each of the roles, method statements, risk assessments, as well as toolbox talks. They offer an opportunity to go through and highlight the important duties for Supervisors and Managers, helping them influence and change health & safety behaviours in their teams and places of work.

Candidates will be required to work through a pre-course e-learning element to help them prepare for the face-to-face sessions and final assessment. This will help evaluate their current knowledge and identify the gaps, so that these areas can be read up on through a series of online quizzes. Once these have successfully been completed and passed, they will then go onto a two-day course for the Supervisor’s course (or a one day for the refresher) and three-day course for Managers (two days for the refresher). In each of the courses, candidates are expected to participate in group activities, present toolbox talks, and then conclude with an online assessment, where candidates need to gain a minimum 80% pass rate.

Once Supervisor and Manager courses launch, BALI & ROLO Training Provider members will be able to offer both face-to-face and online versions of the courses, including the full course versions and refresher.

Olivia Szajna joins as our new Marketing Manager

Following the departure of Darren Taylor, after a five-year tenure in the post of Marketing and Communications Manager, we are delighted to welcome Olivia Szajna, who joined the Association on the 1st June.

Olivia brings a wealth of knowledge and experience gained over fifteen years in a variety of sectors including sport, retail and local government.

Olivia joins us most recently from British Eventing, a membership organisation and National Governing Body for an Olympic equestrian sport. She headed up the marketing, communications and commercial function at British Eventing and successfully grew membership, participation, and commercial partnerships.

Commenting on her appointment, Olivia said, “I am delighted to have joined at such a pivotal time and to share my experience that I have gained over 10 years at a membership organisation. As a Trade Association, collaboration and communication are key and I am very much looking forward to learning more about the needs of our members and aiding in increasing the success and profile of the Association.”

Olivia will work alongside Marketing and Communications Officer Emily Magdij to support members and promote the Association.

Members pass Special Resolutions at EGM

We held an Extraordinary General Meeting at 10:30am on Wednesday 26th May, via the GoToMeeting online platform. Eligible voting members were sent a copy of the Notice of the Meeting in the post on the 28th April, which also included a proxy form. 13 eligible voting members were in attendance Chief Executive Wayne Grills led the meeting, supported by National Chairman Richard Kay, Operations Manager Kirsty Wood, then Marketing and Communications Manager Darren Taylor and PA to Chief Executive Nicky McMurdo.

Members were asked to vote on two Special Resolutions, namely: 1) That with effect from the conclusion of the meeting the Articles of

Association of the Company be amended by replacing all references in Article 3.3 as follows: • Replace ‘Registered’ with ‘Accredited’ • Replace ‘Affiliate’ with ‘Supplier’.

Thereby deleting Article 3.3 and replacing it with the new clause 3.3 which was attached as Appendix 1 in the Notice.

2) That with effect from the conclusion of the meeting, authority is granted to any director and, in the case of any document requiring execution as a deed, any two directors or any director in the presence of a witness who attests their signature to execute any other document required to be executed by the Company in connection with Resolution 1 above.

It was also noted during the meeting that under Resolution 1, the Company is proposing to amend its Articles of Association to formally adopt the changes made in the recent rebranding which in turn reflects the feedback and preferences of members consulted throughout the research phases of the rebrand consultation.

45 votes were cast in total, with Resolution 1 securing 44 Votes For and 1 Abstention. Of those 45 votes, 31 were by proxy. Resolution 2 secured 45 Votes For, a unanimous result, with 31 via proxy.

It was reported that in the current version of the Articles of Association there had been a typographical error whereby the Registered Group membership category had the word ‘Registered’ omitted.

Wayne explained during the last review of the Articles of Association, the solicitors removed the word ‘Registered’ from the group category in error. This will be rectified during the forthcoming reprint of the Articles of Association and the category will be known as ‘Accredited Group’.

Members of GRO install play structures at Kew

Members of the Green Roof Organisation (GRO) have worked together to install green roofs on 20 play structures at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew, encouraging people, after a year spent largely indoors, to reconnect with the incredible nature that surrounds them.

This summer, the leading plant institute and UNESCO World Heritage site is delighted to invite visitors on a journey to uncover the Secret World of Plants, supported by Starling Bank.

At the heart of the festival are six ‘plantscapes’ – large-scale, immersive biomes representing contrasting landscapes found across the UK, but rarely experienced in such vivid detail. Each landscape - sand dune; moorland; marsh and meadow; hedgerow; woodland; and urban - is inspired by the UK’s priority habitats in the Biodiversity Action Plan: an internationally recognised programme addressing threatened species and habitats. Visitors are invited to literally place themselves within these monumental landscapes via playful headholes, and get a new, unique glimpse into these incredible, biodiverse and threatened UK landscapes designed by Seattle-based artist Vaughn Bell.

The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is passionate about increasing public understanding of plants and the important role they play in human life. With over 350 scientists and work spanning over 100 countries, RBG Kew is leading the way in discovering and describing new plant species, researching their uses, assessing their risk of extinction, and conserving them for future generations. Plants are our life support - they provide us with food, materials, medicine, and more - and RBG Kew has one of the largest and most important collections in the world.

Contributing to the ‘plantscapes’, the 20 colourful structures include several pitched, sedum and wildflower, biodiverse, edible and turf roofs that enable children to discover that rooftops of any size can be living and encourage more greening in urban environments.

Members involved include Accredited Supplier Harrowden Turf, Accredited Contractors Bridgman & Bridgman, Eco Green Roofs and Pritchard & Pritchard.

Announcing Resin Bound Deep Dives with Addagrip

We have teamed up with Accredited Supplier Addagrip Terraco to host four exclusive deep-dive training webinars on resin bound surfacing.

The first event took place on the 26th May and introduced members to the technicalities around installing resin bound surfaces in a variety of situations and explaining the differences to resin bonded. Attendees, including garden designers and landscapers, were left impressed with the level of detail provided during the 60-minute presentation, with plenty of questions being asked by those watching remotely.

The next three events are scheduled for this summer, How to Specify Resin Bound 23rd June, Eco Resin Bound 28th July and Innovations in Resin Bound 25th August. All three events will be held online via GoToWebinar. Bookings are open now and places are free and exclusively available for members of the Association.

Visit bali.org.uk/events for more details and to book your place.