Pm dec jan 2014 website by MWK Design

PUBLISHER: PROJECT PUBLISHERS TEL: +27 11 346 5053 EMAIL: info@projectpublishers.co.za WEBSITE: www.projectpublishers.co.za 62, 2ND AVENUE, HOUGHTON, JOHANNESBURG. P.O. BOX 92744, NORWOOD 2117 JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA. DESIGN AND LAY OUT OF THE MAGAZINE IN - HOUSE PROJECT PUBLISHERS publishes projects Magazine and several special Stand Alone Publications in different sector industries , mainly in South Africa. We aim at high standards of quality of the services we offer advertisers as well as readers. The Publisher does not accept any responsibility for the accuracy or authenticity of the contributions contained in the Magazine and advertisements. Views expressed by the contributors are not necessarily those of the Publishers

Dux Hot Water With Australians’ growing participation in the international green shift, consumers are paying more and more attention to how they might make their homes more energy efficient. Dux Hot Water has been on the leading edge of hot water systems, developing innovative means for reducing energy costs, and in turn, saving its customers money. While there have been many recent innovations in furnishing hot water directly to people’s homes, the tradition actually goes back several centuries. Ancient Roman water heaters still dot the Italian countryside, and while today they are primarily tourist attractions, at the time of their construction water was heated by fire and then piped through a series of aqueducts before ending up in someone’s bath. In contemporary developed nations, water heaters are now installed in our homes and businesses, some large, holding hundreds of litres of water, while others are small, heating the water as it passes through piping. Whatever kind or manner of heating, hot water has become a staple of the modern world. In the late 1800s, Benjamin Waddy invented a device that was able to heat water by running it through a series of hot wires. This device was named ‘The Geyser’ after the hot springs of Iceland. It was so named not because it produced hot water, but because it lacked a vent to release the pressure created by the hot steam, leading to a dangerous i n - h o m e g e y s e r. L u c k i l y a Norwegian inventor named Edwin Ruud would later remodel the original prototype, heavily influenced by Waddy’s earlier design. With a little ingenuity over the years, hot water heaters have become much safer, more reliable and they

have improved in leaps and bounds with respect to energy efficiency. Dux Hot Water is one of the many companies that have been on the vanguard of that change. Today, Dux Hot Water produces some of the most reliable and efficient water heaters on the Australian market. Dux Hot Water was founded by the Middleton family in 1915 and has been leading the charge in developing increasingly efficient technology ever since. The company began as a family business, though its name comes from the Latin word, meaning leader. Since that time, the company has invested heavily in research and development, giving it a competitive edge in the market and producing heaters that use technology years ahead of Dux’s competitors. Dux is now the oldest hot water heater manufacturer in Australia, providing water heating solutions to Australian homes for the last 98 years. Its headquarters are located an hour and a half outside of Sydney within the Southern Highlands region of New South Wales. The company is also part of the Australian owned GWA group within the Bathrooms and Kitchens division sitting alongside well known Australian brands such as Caroma, Dorf and Fowler. “Most innovation within the hot water industry has occurred over the last 20 years,” comments Peter Faase, the Business Development Manager of Dux Hot Water. Steve Linton, Service and Marketing Manager, adds that, “Early water heating devices were quite different to those we see today. For example, copper tanks or heating devices at the faucet to heat the water as it passed through, are now very rare. In the last 20 years the predominant heaters used in Australian homes have been electric or gas storage tanks.”

SX Projects SX Projects is a leading builder of commercial and luxury residential buildings and industrial, sporting and community facilities. With its main office in Sydney and another office in Brisbane, this multiaward winning construction company specialises in a huge range of high quality residential, commercial and community projects.

SX Projects’ Director is Vince Battaglia, whose career in the building industry has spanned more than thirtyfive years. Vince has been with SX Projects since 2000, and today oversees the day-to-day operations of companies SX Projects Pty Ltd and SX Projects (QLD) Pty Ltd. He has a hands-on role in the successful delivery of projects undertaken by both companies with responsibilities that include managing the project team and the overall construction process. By applying a progressive way of thinking, Vince is at the forefront of implementing innovative solutions and techniques. The company’s turnover is around $60 million and it employs some seventy-five staff members (including some labourers and estimators as well as project managers, although trades are generally subcontracted). Many of the company’s projects are design-and-construct, using external consultants, and much of its business comes from repeat clients, putting SX Projects in a relatively comfortable position even in the current ultra-competitive climate. Despite this, Vince and his team are constantly out in the marketplace to back up the effort on tendering too. The company’s Sydney office can undertake a wide variety of projects and the company is keen to grow business at its Brisbane office, where it mainly undertakes residential work – although current projects also include a roller-coaster ride! Strong and streamlined management practices keep SX Projects competitive and highly effective, and the team was able to recently complete a tricky project at the corner of King and Elizabeth Streets in Sydney. Tricky, says Business Development Manager Allyson Wolff, in part because the company had to take over the project from another builder. This mixed retail and commercial project consisted of the redevelopment of an existing fifteen storey office building, including all new services within the building as well as a new curtain wall façade; commercial fitout of each of the floors to PCA Grade A standard; a new roof terrace with office space to L14; revised entry lobby fitout; new

amenities on each floor; four new lift services; and retail work on the ground floor and the basement. When completed, the project will achieve certification for a four star rating (As-Built) under Green Star. The Loftus apartments, Darling Point (luxury residential) project involved the construction of four high end luxury whole floor apartments set over six levels, with basement car park, car lift and wet-edge pool. The site had extremely difficult access and which required extensive shoring works. This project was a winner of the 2012 Master Builders Association Excellence in Housing Awards for Best Apartments $1.0 million-plus. This $8.6 million project for Strada Development (No.1) Pty Ltd was completed in February 2012. At Bondi Waters, SX Projects undertook the design and construction of a luxury fifty-six bed aged care facility, with secure onsite parking including a six car stacker facility, landscaped courtyards and rooftop terrace at 47-51 O’Brien Street, Bondi. The facility provides mixed level care, consisting of low care, high care and dementia care. This $11 million project for Bondi View Pty Ltd was a winner at the 2011 Urban Taskforce Development Excellence Awards for Retirement Living Australia. Medium density apartments at Culworth Ave, Killara involved the construction of fifty-one luxury apartments at 42-48 Culworth Ave for Ernst & Young in two separate buildings with two and three basement levels respectively. The Bourke St, Waterloo (Commercial Building) project involved the adaptive reuse of the Valiant Office Hire Building in Waterloo. This three-storey concrete-framed commercial building was transformed into an ultra-modern mixed-use development containing ground floor retail, an Aldi Supermarket and strata commercial tenancies which incorporated a common area.

SFI The company began as a general industrial supplier, and about fifteen years ago was given the agency for Orbitalum products. Orbitalum handles specialised pipe or light fabrication, cutting and welding machines that are used for light stainless fabrication in the dairy and general food industries.

What began as Specialized Fabrication Industrial Suppliers over a decade ago has now been shortened to SFI. This business offers “Everything for joining & fabricating pipes,” a broad spectrum of services for customers. Brad Thomas, the company’s Project and Technical Sales Manager, explained to Business in Focus how the company came to be. The company has approximately sixty per cent of the pipe fabrication equipment market share in the dairy industry and has more recently expanded into the much larger industries of oil, mining and gas. “More recently we have moved into the gas, mining and power industry which has now become approximately eighty per cent of our business,” explains the Project Manager. “Our product range is dedicated to the mechanical installation in construction of pipe work and process plants for the gas and the mining industry.” For this target market, the company carries a range of specialised pipe fabrication equipment products that cover the entire fabrication process from marking out of the pipe, to supporting it, cutting it, crimping, bevelling, welding and clamping, to the final polishing and testing. “I guess you would call us a real one stop shop for pipe fabricators,” says Brad. “We have the specialist know-how to always be able to answer any questions coming our way in that industry. We are focussed on the process pipe work equipment and onsite consumable supply. We also offer a service where customers can purchase everything from safety equipment and products, to abrasives, power tools, hand tools, adhesives and all the general consumables, directly from us.” The company provides this as part of its Ezy-Store System – its onsite supply system. The Ezy-Store System is like having a store right at the jobsite. Anything that might be needed, from pipe tools and sealants to fasteners and welding equipment, is stocked onsite in shipping containers or storage cabinets. Materials are stocked on consignment and remain the property of SFI until used by the customer. Restocking and invoicing can be done daily, weekly, fortnightly or monthly depending on the needs of the clients. “We want to stay proactive and be there for them so there is no downtime whatsoever,” Brad explains. “The system allows for complete control and organisation of needed materials on site and saves time for the customer. “For example, if the contractor is supplying to a gas processing plant that is being built, there might be a container on site and have anywhere from 100 or 400 workers that we would supply all equipment and consumables to and we would just keep that topped up as required.” The system is also used for pipeline construction as those companies often require specialised equipment in remote areas. “Our services are very beneficial as we provide these onsite warehouses that are actually moveable as the project progresses. Also an instance might have a boiler at an existing processing plant that may require being shut down to be re-serviced or refurbished for an upgrade. It is roughly a three or four week process that might require 500 additional workers on that site working day and night as there is such a massive

amount of work that has to be done in such a short period of time. So they need to have as much equipment and stock onsite as possible with minimal costs to them.” SFI covers most areas right across Australia with this service. Relationships with suppliers of quality materials and goods are critical to the performance of SFI. As Brad explains, “We are the Australian agents for ITW Cutting and Welding which has Orbitalum and E.H. Wachs products, our biggest supplier. We send our technicians to the ITW factories for training. We also attend trade shows occasionally as we manufacture a lot of our own products ourselves, such as the Orbimax Pipe Stands and Australian made pipe clamps which are very well known as the best in the industry.” The specialised nature of the product means that most sales for the company come about as a result of onsite demonstrations. Brad explains that, “It is more the building of rapport and that we are getting more and more on board with larger construction companies, and that is certainly been helping us to grow the business. ” The company receives inquiries via its website for its specialised gear. “Some inquiries in turn may require visits and we would then have one of our key representatives travel to remote areas to show our products and go through the special applications and the whole process with potential customers and contractors.” SFI has just recently released a new logo. The Project manager says that the new product range name Orbimax will be more recognised in the oil and gas sectors. It also acquired the agency for the EH Wachs range of equipment. “EH Wachs has made some new machines and have offered them to our agency, so we have a representative who is dedicated to that account.” As this is somewhat of a separate arm of the business, the product range is now split into two different areas. “We’ve got our Orbimax, which is superior piping equipment for the lightweight sanitary dairy industry right through to the heavy pipe industry. SFI handles all specialist tools for the pipe and tube fabrication industries, including Orbitalum and Wachs products. Another division is called ValveMax, which handles Valve exercising equipment, hydraulic pumps, diamond wire saws, etc.” Because what the company does is so specialised, indentifying the competition is a difficult thing to quantify; staying ahead, for SFI, has largely come down to the quality of its customer service and the resulting client loyalty. “Primarily, our pricing is competitive as we have high volume for a lot of our products. Roughly sixty per cent of what we sell is imported and we have a good reputation for personal service. We are very knowledgeable about the range of specialized products. Because we are so specialised in this industry, guys will move from one job to the next and take us with them. Because of our know-how we can stay along the whole job from start to finish as we provide professional and technical advice and choice customer service.”

RPF Group When Mother Nature decides to go haywire and destroy buildings, the expense of repairing the physical structure isn’t the only worry. Often, a natural disaster can leave people in dire living situations… The RPF Group branched out from a single company called RPF Building Pty Ltd, which was founded by Reg Flannery in 1999. In the beginning, the company was predominantly conducting insurance recovery works for the 1999 Sydney hail storm, followed by the Blue Mountain fires of 2002. With those two disasters recovered from, RPF Building was offered an opportunity to assist in the rebuilding efforts needed after 2006's Cyclone Larry and the company niche was discovered. During those trying times, RPF Building completed over one hundred and sixty repairs with three full teams and sixty tradies. RPF Building developed its own procedures, processes and methodology in order to be more responsive when managing large scale events. The damage can be assessed by an experienced eye and repaired with unmatched proficiency in a timely manner, so that a family can move back into their homes as quickly as possible and go back to their normal lives. Soon after its inception, the company expanded to complement the disaster recovery work with regular building business and home warranty insurance works. When disaster strikes, RPF is on the ground, no matter where the need is. The company has been doing whatever needs to be done to clean up following events such as the horrifying Black Saturday fires in Victoria in 2009, the Brisbane floods of 2011 and Cyclone Yasi in 2011 According to Reg Flannery, who is now the principal of RPF Group, this decision to expand the scope of the company, combined with its extensive recovery work following some of the worst disasters to befall the region is the reason for the company’s growth from a one man operation into a firm that now employs more than forty staff. RPF Group has offices in Cairns, Townsville, Bundaberg, Brisbane, Newcastle, Sydney, Melbourne, Geelong and Adelaide. It is currently awaiting approval for a business license in Western Australia to add to its builder’s licenses in Queensland, New South Wales, the Australian Capital Territory, Victoria and South Australia. Not only does RPF Building do insurance repairs, but the company has also done building jobs between

insurance work by completing owner build projects such as the Cumberland Grove Village senior living residences, which is the company’s biggest development to date. The facility, located in Shortland, Newcastle on 1.3 hectares of landscaped grounds, has 55 two or three bedroom villas. Currently, there are two more retirement villages in the works for RPF Building that are in the development application stage. The RPF Group has also taken on another part of the industry by adding RPF Demolition, which is an area that has great potential for growth. This addition will also help the company to become a one stop shop for insurance companies who are looking for a low hassle company to handle all of their needs, instead of making time consuming calls to a number of different companies. RPF Demolition is in the process of acquiring a class A asbestos license and audit of safety processes and systems to gain national accreditation.

When disaster affects someone’s life this drastically, it helps to have the best crew working to put it right. For this job, there is one group of companies that has been present after every major natural disaster to hit the eastern seaboard of Australia. From floods and hailstorms to earthquakes, cyclones and fires, RPF Group has been there to help.

By performing the demolition that needs to take place before the rebuild, RPF will be able to preserve or recover either items or whole areas of a site. By having access to the site earlier, strip-outs, sanitisation and dry out – along with early, selective demolition – will prevent mould from spreading to previously untouched areas. This process ensures that the homeowner gets their home back sooner, without spending more than necessary. To save time, the company has developed its own software application to run on an iPad. Estimators can quote insurance repairs, no matter where they are and regardless of whether or not they have access to an internet connection. A quote can be generated with minimal input, measurements or quantities and photos. The quote is then automatically uploaded to the main system as soon as connectivity is achieved. Once the quote is approved, the application can then be used by the site supervisor to manage the whole process from job notes, photos and purchase orders to progress and budget. The insurance assessors or the insured can also log on to the app and view the information from anywhere in the world. “It allows for example a property owner living interstate to log on and see how their repairs are going and view photos of the progress,” says Mr Flannery. The RPF group also boasts an excellent waste management system that allows the company to keep active work sites clean and tidy at all times. The company’s own crane trucks and bins allow for a site to be independent of local resources which might be overtaxed or even unavailable in a post-disaster situation. A one stop shop with such experience, RPF also has its own tippers and excavators. In addition, the company has also invested in a number of

Rawcorp Building companies looking for work in the bigger city is nothing unusual, of course, but David says, in the case of Rawcorp, it was not a question of there being no work around the Gold Coast itself. “We never actually left the Gold Coast, and we have never not had a job here, either one of ours or for someone else.” The company’s new offices at Merrimac, near Surfers Paradise, were completed in 2012.

David Walton is half of the management team at Rawcorp, the other half being Anthony Rigby. The construction company was established in January 2005 and it has definitely been tough over the intervening years, David concedes, as the construction industry has suffered the effects of wider global economic upheavals. Rawcorp, however, has been prospering. The company pointed its sights at Brisbane five years ago and concentrated on operating around the metropolitan area there in preference to more generally around the Gold Coast. “That has been the key to our success in those last five years,” says David. The company has an associate entity called Rawspace that does some development work as well and Rawspace keeps ticking over, to say the least. “We always have a job on the go. Recently we finished twenty-seven units in Brisbane, a nine-unit project there too and ten single-bedroom units in Palm Beach.” This helps to provide projects for Rawcorp too, of course. David and Anthony are both builders in their own right. David has been in the construction business since he was seventeen; Anthony, too, has a long background in the industry. David admits the job today is mainly about management, although, on the day of our conversation, he had just arrived in the office after being on site all morning, filling in for a foreman on leave and mentoring another member of staff. “Of course I enjoy it. It’s what we do and we like being at the coal face.” “We are more builders than project managers; we are not people who work on titles – so many people like to give themselves titles.” David agrees that so many people use the title of project manager now, that the meaning of the position is devalued. “If we were asked to provide project management, we can do so because we do have qualified staff in house, but we do understand the distinction and we don’t set out our stall as project managers.” Rawcorp’s work tends to be split in roughly equal parts between commercial and residential projects and encompasses a wide variety of jobs, including refurbishments and a 5,000 square metres showroom. Among its refurbishments was an award winning, $4 million project done for a Hyundai dealership at Southport. Generally, the company is happy anywhere in the space of projects from $2 million to $15 million. The market dictates, to some extent, the direction of the company, which at the moment is engaged in multi-residential projects – townhouses and apartments – in a sector which has remained defiantly strong while the commercial sector has been languishing. David agrees with several other experts in the area that there are the first faint signs of new life in the commercial sector and Rawcorp is poised to take advantage of that. “We have just tendered on a six-million dollar refurbishment of a hotel; that sort of work is just beginning to come along again.” Getting the federal election out of the way is obviously likely to help, he concedes. He remains cautious and

accepts that the fifteen-storey projects will probably have to wait a little longer, though there are signs of pent-up demand that will sooner or later start to flow through into the marketplace. Multi-storey projects have a problem with the unions and also the fact that, with pace still available, “you can build out flat for the same amount of money. It’s a lot easier – you can do 130 townhouses without a tower crane.” The 130 townhouses is a Gold Coast job for which Rawcorp was tendering. In addition to the two directors, the company employs six foremen/site managers, three contracts administrators, a university undergraduate, an accounts person and a receptionist. Almost all trades are subcontracted. “We keep it lean for survival, although we are growing and probably we will need to put more people on. We anticipate employing more staff in the near future.” David says there was something of a shortage in some sectors in recent months after the mining industry enticed some trades away from construction. “It was probably a little difficult to get a carpenter three months ago.” Rawcorp noticed a distinct lack of response to advertised tenders for work. “They all went to the mines but we can see them coming back now, slowly.” Rawcorp does not advertise itself as an innovator, but David says it does try to keep up with technological trends and, in particular, with energy-efficient systems and processes. “We also like to use innovative engineering systems as much as we can. If we can see a plus for the client, it’s a plus for us too.” At the request of the client, the company is about to start using a new prefabricated wall system to replace block wood on one project, and is happy to gain experience of the system. “We always like to be involved and consulted.” On one current project in Southport, Rawcorp counselled against using certain systems because there would be an associated risk and the client has taken the advice, adopting new tiling systems instead. The company is currently working on the Southport project at Eugaree Street for a client who plans to retain all the units and rent them out. It consists of thirty-one apartments (in two separate towers) and a medical centre with a basement car park. At the time of our chat, Rawcorp was pouring concrete for the footings in the 1,200 square metre basement in the first part of this nine-month project. At Robina, Rawcorp is undertaking the rollout of a new type of office building called CityPods, offering space for small businesses in a complex of fifteen two-storey buildings. This concrete structure, featuring epoxy floorings and lightweight brick cladding on the upper floors is quite an upmarket project, says David. At Carina Heights, Rawcorp is involved in three multiresidential projects, two of them to be held by (repeat) clients and a third involving eleven two-bedroom apartments for a new client. In another project, 64 Kates Street, Morningside, the company is building twelve one-bedroom apartments which are to sit above the ground level car park. The architect has selected internal finishes of a high standard and all units will be accessible via communal lift.

Property company pushes green-building - growth points new no.1 Silo project The trend towards green building and the concept of greening existing buildings have been slow to take off in South Africa, as these are voluntary exercises, says property investment holding company Growthpoint Properties utilities management head Essop Basha. “There is not a massive demand for green space and, generally, the perception is that, although there should be a demand for green space, it has not happened yet in South Africa,” he says. Shawn Theunissen, head of corporate social responsibility and manager of Growthpoint Properties’ enterprise development programme, Property Point, believes that many more people are considering green building and expects that this building trend will become the norm, as it will drive cost reductions. Currently, the capital needed to green a building is still high, but as greening becomes more ingrained in the South African business environment, this demand will offset costs dramatically, he says. Growthpoint has adopted a holistic ‘cradle to grave’ approach, whereby developers review every aspect of the construction process. This includes the nature of the materials sourced, how they are sourced and how they are eventually disposed of. “For green building to succeed, we need to focus on matters like localisation, which is a core element of a green economy. The main challenge we currently face is that most of the great technological advances in green lighting solutions, for example, are coming from abroad,” says Theunissen. To counter this trend, in 2008, Growthpoint initiated Property Point, a programme that mentors small businesses and links them to larger companies by promoting their services in the property sector, including green building projects. However, Basha notes that establishing a local manufacturing process on the back of such initiatives remains a challenge and it is hampering the industry, with the consequence of significant costs being added to green projects.

“Green building also has difficulty in challenging the perception that green means higher costs.” Basha acknowledges that there was concern about the quality of certain green products, owing to the use of substandard materials and technologies in the past and that, over the years, greening has earned a bad reputation. As a result, Growthpoint has invested significant resources in the research and development of solutions to ensure that the required standards with regard to safety and durability are met. Growthpoint has established working partnerships with State-owned power utility Eskom, piloting the testing of green technologies. Other partners include various local and international lighting companies. Basha highlights that Growthpoint worked with a local solar project developer in 2011 to provide and install solar panels at Lincoln on the Lake, in Umhlanga Ridge, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN). The initiative was profiled that year at the seventeenth Conference of the Parties, an international environmental and climate-change conference in Durban.

However, Growthpoint’s strategy is to lead in this area and this is demonstrated by the fact that the company is a founding member of the Green Building Council of South Africa (GBCSA), adds Basha, noting that the building industry has to find a balance between being financially prudent and using enviromentfriendly products and designs.

In mid-February, the company received its first sixstar GBCSA rating for the new No 1 Silo office building at Cape Town’s V&A Waterfront. This success follows Growthpoint’s completion of Lincoln on the Lake and Mayfair on the Lake, also in Umhlanga Ridge, KZN, in the last two years. Both buildings received four-star GBCSA ratings in 2012 in the As-built and By-design categories respectively. “The path to the greening of buildings can be arduous and can, at times, contain many pitfalls,” says Basha, who remains positive. “Green building allows for long-term sustainable building, which will reduce the total costs of occupancy for our tenants through the correct implementation of genuinely green technologies,” he concludes.

SAXENI FOSKER FEATURE We utilize mostly our own equipment on projects of which a couple are listed below. Our Current fleet of vehicles is in excess of 80 units and expanding as the industry demand for our work increases.

Established in 2008, SAXENI is a South African owned and operated company, based in Sundra, Mpumalanga. We function as a multi disciplinary contracting and management concern in the mining and construction industries.

WHAT WE OFFER YOU Project management Turnkey projects Construction management and installation Strategic alliances Range Of Services

Because our core personnel have been working together as a team for the past ten years, our collective ability and expertise enables us to deliver on our mission statement.

Overland conveyor systems Dome installations Heavy lifting and rigging Stacker and reclaimer installation Process plant installation and material handling design Plant civil works and Bulk Earthworks Steel fabrication Steel and mechanical piping installation HDPE Piping Electrical and C & I Eskom HV line installation

All personnel are actively involved in the in day to day activities of the Company.

Safety and Quality

Saxeni is a Black Ecomonic Empowerment Company, with Managing Member Mr Samuel Makolane holding a 26% Shareholding in the company . Our current B-BBEE Status is Level 2. We are committed to supplying good quality products and superior service to all our clients.

SAXENI management and workers are committed to safety. Our strive is â&#x20AC;&#x153;TARGET ZEROâ&#x20AC;? Even though SAXENI is not accredited with ISO 9001, we comply to all standards and procedures, and will accommodate reasonable requests from our clients, given the uniqueness and nature of the project.

Tel: +27 (0)87 944 2082 Tel: +27 (0)13 661 1773 Fax: + 27 (0)86 743 1869 Email: chane@saxeni.co.za Website: www.saxeni.co.za 72 Modderfontein Rd Plot 408 SUNDRA 2200 South Africa P.O. Box 269 SUNDRA 2200 South Africa

Saxeni is a management concern, providing both services and equipment to the mining and construction industries. Our strength lies in the diversity of our personnel, providing expertise on project management, construction management, plant installations and partnerships in strategic alliances. We pride ourselves on our multi disciplinary team able to offer advice, management services or the infrastructure needed in the complex world of mining and construction.

WHAT WE OFFER YOU Project management Turnkey projects Construction management and installation Strategic alliances Construction plant sales and hire

RANGE OF SERVICES All types of process plant installations Overland conveyor systems Dome installations Heavy lifting and rigging Stacker and reclaimer installation

TO BE THE MOST PROFESSIONAL SERVICE PROVIDER TO OUR BUSINESS PARTNERS â&#x20AC;Ś AND BE THE BEST IN EVERYTHING WE DO. 13

Proessional Project Services (PPS) Commercial construction is quite a tough market, Peter admits, and it has been for the last five years. “But we have been fortunate to maintain a repeat client base and a large proportion of new work coming through has come through word of mouth,” he explains. “As a rule, we tend not to advertise. Given the tough conditions across the industry, we are doing quite well for ourselves.”

Professional Project Services (PPS) specialises in bulk townhouse developments. Over the last six years, says PPS Commercial Construction Manager, Peter Warrell, the company has also become involved in the commercial construction sector. PPS generally avoids Open hard dollar tenders, although it is prepared to do so on the odd occasion – even this company is not ready to turn away potential business. Peter says the most challenging part is finding jobs which are not flooded with tenders from contractors, some of whom are pricing at rockbottom – and unsustainable – rates. “In those cases we don’t waste our time quoting,” he says. Peter explains that PPS prefers design and construct projects. “There are three elements to the business,” he shares. “We have PPS Special Projects, which is our design arm. This does everything from town planning issues to building and development approvals. We have an in-house architect and design manager to work with the clients, and consultants to design the project.” In the majority of cases they pass the job on to either the commercial or the domestic arm of PPS. Clients appreciate that the majority of the company’s work is performed in-house. The divisions between the residential, commercial and design arms are very flexible and these three sections of the company share staff and resources – including site managers, estimators and project managers. “Even with labourers and carpenters, we swap round and move as we need to, which gives us great flexibility,” says Peter. “This is one of the key success factors in our business – the fact that everyone can move around into whatever business arm we need to, learning new skill sets which can be advantageous.” At present there are four project managers (including Peter and the other owners of the companies), six site managers, four carpenters, fifteen labourers, one full-time estimator and four staff members on the administrative side. “As a general rule, we subcontract the trades but we are starting to use our own labourers more. Some of our labourers are also landscapers; we do all our own landscaping and transfer them across to labouring when it is quiet.” Most of the carpentry is also subcontracted. The in-house Carpenters are being trained on the way to become site managers, “so they will not just be stuck in the one trade but will be supervising and learning other trades as well – such as plumbing or plastering – learning the tricks of the trades.” PPS has its offices on the Gold Coast (Southport, to be precise), but Peter says that the company’s projects have been predominately up in Brisbane in the last six years. PPS has commenced a large project on the south side of the Queensland capital, a major townhouse development. This is being done with the design totally in-house, with PPS’ own architect and design manager. Peter points out that the overheads of PPS are considerably lower than those of an established architects’ practice.

The company does not set out to maximise its profits on the design side, but rather to price the design component as part of the overall project rather than a separate profit centre as it would be with an external architect. “It is more about making us more competitive on the overall pricing of the job. We obviously make the design pay for itself but we don’t aim to make too much money on that aspect of the job.” In any case, he adds, if you put too much margin into a price, you just don’t win the project in today’s market. Indeed, “Things have been quiet on the commercial side of the business but we have been ticking over with two or three projects on the go at any one time. The problem is that they are not big projects. On average they are only $2 million each, because the higher tier contractors – the ones in the $50 million bracket – have moved down into our market and are pricing jobs they would not have given a second thought in years gone by.” At the moment, says Peter, there are hopeful signs in the housing market with pre-sales beginning to move again over the last twelve months. There is not too much of a lag between approval of the plans and sale of enough units to satisfy the banks, although in most cases the property developers in the area are using their own financing. Peter himself has a background in tier one building companies and in large projects and agrees that PPS is in a relatively unusual position with its small footprint but its ability to handle high value jobs. “We have no desire to be doing the $100 million jobs… I would prefer to keep things under control and tight at all times.” The company limits its overheads intentionally, and, “internally we do things differently to many other companies so we don’t have people sitting around in quiet times. We have all had to learn new skills to be able to run the business in the way we do. At the moment it seems to work quite well. It also gives us a better knowledge of the job from start to completion because we have to be involved in every stage of the project.” In any case, PPS stands poised to pick up several significant new commercial projects. They will boost that sector, which has accounted for only around $5 million turnover in the last couple of years compared to nearer $35-40 million on the townhouses. But the commercial side has at least the benefit of variety – everything from Volkswagen service centres to a Greek Orthodox Church youth camp. “We are also still doing a lot of school work with repeat clients. There is not too much that we don’t build, especially now with our in-house design team. The residential market is set to hold up, Peter believes, while it appears there is new life in the commercial sector. “Unfortunately, I think change will be gradual, rather than the quick one we are all hoping for,” he shares. On the other hand, if PPS can do so well in what has been such a difficult market, heaven help the rest of the industry if this company ever starts to advertise itself!

Kagiso Mall uplifts the community This mall consists of 11 700 square metres with 9 200

Limpopo Province which boasts a 7 834mÂ˛

square metres of new-line shops that house a retail

shopping centre complex opened at the end of

mix of 50 shops. Fast food tenants face the main

October 2009 with an investment amount of

parking area so as to enable extended trading hours.

R75m. In addition, Phumlani Mall in Tembisa on

In the design there are various items that add to the

the East Rand in Gauteng was acquired for

drive to achieve sustainability within the overall

R175m. This modern shopping centre was

budget constraints. In partnership with Old Mutual

completed in July 2009 and is fully operational

and KMH architects these two have specifically

with a tenant mix of about 75% comprising

addressed the sustainable aspects of the project

national tenants.

The R123.5 million redeveloped Kagiso Mall project in Mogale City in Gauteng has added valuable contributions to sustainable community development and township upliftment.

which include utilising local skills and expertise in the development phase, re-usable building materials

Kagiso is a township located west of

which are donated to the local community if not used

Johannesburg near Krugersdorp. The mall was

in the new development, rainwater harvesting, low

originally developed in the 1980s and had

energy lighting and improved insulation

become desperately out-dated and run-down

specifications.

with low occupancy rates. After demolition of the old mall, the only anchor tenant that remained

The final design finishes propose to include

was the Shoprite Supermarket which retained 2

numerous artworks and contributions from the

600 square metres. The refurbishment began in

community to depict images relevant to the local

2008 and the project involved demolishing rather

community. Old Mutual Property are eager to

than refurbishing the mall. This project will be a

continue finding ways to contribute to social

valuable enhancement to this community's

development projects that benefit the community and

shopping and social experience.

townships and are very proud of their contribution to the development of the Kagiso area. Community involvement in the project has been considered through each stage of the project which is one of the distinguishing factors of the story of this mall. This is not the first project undertaken by Old Mutual Property to improve the community. Old Mutual acquired Phanghami Mall situated in Thohoyandou in

NC CIVILS WORKS With more than four hundred employees and a fleet of over one hundred mobile units, the company offers a suite of services most competitors could only dream of providing to customers in Papua New Guinea.

In four short years, NC Civil Works has used its strong, service based philosophy to grow into Papua New Guinea’s contractor of choice for large and small scale construction projects and civil works throughout the region. NC Civil Works’ comprehensive fleet of major earth moving and roading machinery is one of the most complete in the region. The company maintains a fully staffed workshop, including many satellite work spaces to facilitate the demands of working on site in any terrain. This ensures the company the ability to routinely maintain equipment, have increased control of operations, reduce risk and maintain competitive pricing and the availability of equipment, regardless of the task. Through experience, the company has developed valuable skills across various industries, completing some major civil projects, working with the PNGLNG project and building platforms for land based oil rigs for Sessol, Oil Search and Exxon. The team has built an impressive portfolio of completed works and has earned a solid reputation for quality and service. The company holds one of the leading market positions in the construction and management of civil infrastructure, as well as commercial and industrial development. One of the company’s greatest strengths is its diversity in terms of employee skill sets and experience. This asset allows NC Civil Works to complete projects with confidence, professionalism and proficiency in a number of areas including project management, civil design, infrastructure development, land development, quarry services, community management, transportation and plant hire. Managing director, Nicholas Constantinou is proud of what the company has achieved since inception four years ago and sees an exciting future on the horizon, with emerging opportunities and continued growth in Papua New Guinea. With twelve years of oil and gas works experience, Nicholas has been able to secure and maintain relationships in these fields, opening valuable opportunities for NC Civil Works and proving

the company to be one of the most adaptable and able contractors in Papua New Guinea. Nicholas used his invaluable history in business management and the construction industry to build a network of clients who became some of NC Civil Works first customers. “Within one month of starting, we received a number of contracts. From that early success, each year we have grown massively,” with continued growth expected this year, he says. NC Civil Works’ Managing Director attributes the business’ ongoing growth to its satisfied customers who appreciate its high level of personalised service. “We’re driven by our customers,” he says. “We are quite ambitious within our management and aggressive in the marketplace, but our biggest factor is our customers. They are the biggest focus and the core of our business.” Nicholas describes construction as being service oriented, and he works to develop relationships with clients while working to exceed their expectations. “We try to be very clean and crisp with the guys that we deal with and they appreciate that. There is no time wasting.” Though building authentic diverse relationships within the business is important for Nicholas, NC Civil Works also works with local communities to build high level employable skills for members of Indigenous communities in Papua New Guinea, including by providing an in-house employment and mentoring program for young nationals. Ninety-eight per cent of NC Civil Works’ employees are Papua New Guinean nationals. These values are expressed everyday in the work that the company produces in Papua New Guinea. The principles of premium service, quality and safety are core to the company’s philosophy. Using its extensive history in the business, NC Civil Works provides valuable counsel to clients that may know what they want, but not fully understand what it takes to get there. “We provide experience and knowledge for our clients. The best tool that we have is

our knowledge.” In this way, the company operates as a one stop shop for customers’ engineering and construction needs by understanding what clients need, and working diligently to create the perfect solution. Nicholas’ experience in the country has also been a valuable resource for larger, international corporations that may not understand the particular challenges when working a region with more than eight hundred languages and extreme terrains. The company completed its first work constructing oil platforms for Sessol and Oil Search, which has since opened the door to a great deal more work in the sector as the company’s proficiency and reputation for professionalism spreads. One of its largest gas related projects was contracted by Oil Search some time ago which lasted around ten months at the Ping Yang site. The project included massive construction elements, including clearing mountain tops to facilitate drill rig construction, as well as base camp areas for workers. “The beauty of it is the original crew that we have grew with me from working on other tapped platforms, and they built skills on top of their developed skill set, and we outperformed the other contractors on site… “We go from strength to strength and everything complements each other, with our core skills overlapping,” says Nicholas. “We take advantage of that and use it to build opportunity.” NC Civil Works has since been able to secure further contracts in oil and gas based in one facet of business alone upon the company’s performance on that project and is working towards becoming Papua New Guinea’s preferred contractor. Other major works include NC Civil Works’ contract with Jacksons Airport, Papua New Guinea’s largest airport, for ongoing maintenance and rehabilitation. The company had previously been competing with other contractors to complete minor works projects at the airport, situated at Port Moresby, but has since come to perform the majority of maintenance work and has focused and specialised its expertise in this regard looking into other regions. These regular contracts represent a valuable ongoing project for the company. A major project that the company will undertake in future is the redevelopment of the Bougainville

roads. Once situated on the world’s largest cut mine, the site has been inactive for some time but is in the process of redevelopment. NC Civil Works will work to re-establish roads around Bougainville and build infrastructure in the region to facilitate its redevelopment, including rebuilding communities that were destroyed during the war. NC Civil Works has been one of the few contractors who have commenced work in the region. The development of Buka Ring road and targeting other facilities such as first aid posts, police posts and community buildings are expected, in addition to more than one thousand kilometres of road networks to be addressed for the Autonomous Region of Bougainville. “We have supported the communities through sports and health and hope to have more opportunity to support further the people where ever we can,” Nicholas says. With such incredible growth in only four years of existence and the development of valuable skill sets to serve customers across a diverse range of industries, NC Civil Works is poised to continue to grow into Papua New Guinea’s preferred contractor for major construction and civil works projects. “I think the future for us is being at the top of the list of preferred contractors and being one of the largest companies around here,” suggests Nicholas. “We will be as competitive as others, if not better in terms of service and quality.” And Nicholas has what it takes to navigate the competitive industry successfully, being one of the few directors of business in Papua New Guinea, or elsewhere, who keeps his boots to the ground six days a week and more. He makes it his focus to be on site to work with our team and clients, building the lasting relationships that have benefited the company so greatly. Though Nicholas employs project managers for each contract, he still makes it a point to be visible and available for customers. “I wear my hard hat everyday and still wear steel toed boots,” he says, discussing the importance of being available to clients as much as possible. “If my customers don’t see me for a couple of days, I get a call asking where I’ve been.” It is this hands-on management style that helps to build confidence in the company and ensures customers feel that their needs are being heard.

Standard Bank Building wins award for exceptional Design and quality of Fabrication. As the Main Steelwork Contractor on the Project , Tass Engineering ( Pty ) Ltd is proud to be associated with the Project and the prestige that it has gained in the Rosebank precinct with this award.

The new Standard Bank building on the corner of

facing facades of the office towers have narrower

Baker and Oxford Roads in Rosebank has been

atria, stretching from podiums at first-floor level all the

awarded the coveted Tubular Category Award at the recent thirty second annual Steel Awards hosted by the Southern African Institute of Steel Construction in

way up to their roof levels, bringing in substantial natural light to the inner-office floor spaces.

Johannesburg. The desire from the Façade/Structural Engineers was One of the judges representing the Association of Steel Tube and Pipe Manufacturers of South Africa said “ the project used tubes in an aesthetically pleasing and effective manner both from an architectural and engineering point of view , while the quality of fabrication also impressed “.

to utilise very large panes of glass in the end walls of the atria so that the external envelope gridding was large in proportion , thereby reflecting the large space that was the atrium itself. Because of steels superior stiffness and strength over aluminium it was possible to utilize nearly a full standard stock sheet of glass in the gridding of the facades. This gridding is also

The architectural vision was for an “ institutional building “ with a transparent exterior that reflected

successfully reflected in the eastern and western atria.

Standard Banks desire for transparency with its client base. To this end steel and glass played an instrumental role in ensuring that this vision was achieved.

The north south atrium is fantastically transparent when viewed from faraway suburbs as well as from within and achieves the transparency that the architect was seeking. In addition the northern atrium

The stunning development consists of two office towers of nine and eleven stories each atop a multilevel underground car park. The towers are

“hangs” from a giant one storey deep steel truss elegantly cross braced and bridging the divide between the eastern and western blocks of the building. This hanging steelwork grid then supports

joined by a 36m-wide, nine-story high, north-south

the end wall glazing of the atrium and allows elegantly

running atrium enclosing multilevel escalators and

crafted and glazed steel entrance canopies and

link bridges at the southern end. The east- and west-

covered regions to float beneath the northern façade.

The major challenge, from an engineering and fabrication point of view, was the need to achieve structurally sound connections throughout the exposed tubular members with clean smooth lines and no exposed connection bolts. This had particular relevance in the two main support girders on the northern façade and step-down roof, due to the extremely high forces that are carried by these girders. The end result was only achieved through excellent communication between the design engineers and the steelwork contractors. In addition to its exceptional design and build quality , the building has also achieved a Five Star Design rating with the Green Building Council of South Africa and is on track to achieving a similar rating for its “as built” operation. The building generates its own power with a tri-generation plant and has many innovative features too numerous to mention. The external envelope façade is cutting edge technology with the use of a triple glazed façade with active blinds in the cavity between the triple glazing making for a modern highly energy efficient and transparent external envelope to the building.

Melbourne Body Corporate Management Across Australia, many worthwhile organisations are created out of need, and Melbourne Body Corporate Management is no exception. As the first franchisee, General Manager Elly Foster has seen MBCM grow over the years into a leader assisting builders, developers, property owners and clients across Victoria. Focused on providing superior levels of service, MBCM remains the industry-leading Owners Corporation Management group, and is committed to not only supporting property owners and clients, but building and fostering relationships. “When I began, the Yellow Pages hardly had any entries for owners corporations; today, there are pages and pages,” says Ms Foster. “It is seen as an industry that is excellent. It offers a lot of people a good earning capacity, and it offers a very secure business.” Signing up as the first franchisee in 1992, Ms Foster – with years of experience in administrative and operations management roles in the travel and insurance industries – felt working in the field of owners corporations would strike an ideal balance between her family and career. Complete Range of Services Committed to providing superior service to assist members of Owners Corporations (OCs) meet their statutory obligations, MBCM works with a diverse range of highly experienced professionals to assist others with a range of services, including insurance, accounting, maintenance, arranging meetings, secretarial and more. With an established and extensive resource of local trades, specialist contractors, property consultants and allied professionals, MBCM’s dozens of owner / managers operate from strategically located offices, all of them in close proximity to properties under management. Passionate about the industry, managers like Greg Honeyman take great pride in working with others. “I’ve developed expertise helping developers set up their Owners Corporations,” says Mr Honeyman, who established the latest MBCM franchise in May of this year. Working at the University of Melbourne’s Law School as Manager of Marketing, Communications and Recruitment – and having held positions as Manager of Marketing and Public Affairs at the State Library in Victoria and the Australian Bureau of Statistics – Mr Honeyman was working as a marketing consultant when MBCM became a client. Together, they spent several months working on branding the organisation and developing a marketing plan. Mentioning that he and his wife were interested in moving to Ballarat, the fastest-growing regional city in Victoria, the decision was made to establish a MBCM franchise in the city. “A big part of what I’m doing is helping developers set up their Owners Corporations, and get them done properly,” says Mr Honeyman. “Fourteen per cent of Ballarat-area developments are Owners Corporations.” With accelerated local development, Mr Honeyman is working with developers and others in the nation’s building and construction industry, and recently penned an informative document, 10 Top Tips to Help Developers Avoid Problems with their

Owners Corporation. What is an Owners Corporation? In his 10 Top Tips, Mr Honeyman outlines the necessity of Owners Corporations. Although every state in Australia may refer to them by different names, such as Strata, Strata title, community units, and bodies corporate, the Victorian Owners Corporation Act was passed in 2006. According to Mr Honeyman, an Owners Corporation is automatically created when a Plan of Subdivision containing Common Property is registered at Land Victoria; in short, wherever there is common property, an Owners Corporation exists, which must also be set up or activated. Since they are legal entities, Owners Corporations can be sued, and great care and diligence must be taken when rules regarding Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S), Australian Business Numbers, tax file numbers, and other issues are set. Requiring sound documentation such as records and correspondence, lot entitlement, lot liability, insurance, budgets and fees and more, Owners Corporations require the specialists at MBCM to take care of any and all issues. Owners Corporations are also held responsible for managing any common property, and this includes the legal responsibility for appropriate Public Liability insurance. Typically, a number of common property issues will regularly arise, and rules and laws must be respected and obeyed. These include seemingly simple issues, such as a tenant who wishes to mount a hanging plant on the wall outside his or her unit, which requires permission from the Owners Corporation. Other areas where both owners and tenants must follow rules include parking, excessive noise, and pets. Whilst there is the standard set of model rules, special rules can also be prepared and lodged, which might relate to heritage or other important issues, which for instance, may stipulate that outdoor painting must be done in heritage colours, dictate the location of central air conditioning units, and other considerations that impact the visual appeal of a structure.

When he founded MBCM in 1989, Andrew Burford saw the need for professional body corporate management in Victoria. Bringing considerable experience in insurance valuations and real estate to the organisation, Mr Burford realised after a few years that the need for his services was so great that he either had to centralise and employ staff, or decentralise and franchise. “Melbourne Body Corporate Management was the first company in the industry ever to be franchised,” says Ms Foster of the organisation, which has since grown to over 40 successful franchises.

In some cases, more than one Owners Corporation exists for mixed use buildings, with one responsible for restaurants or shops downstairs in a complex, another OC handling apartments upstairs, and yet another OC governing residents only having access to gym and pool areas. “It can be quite complex,” says Mr Honeyman, who handles the Ballarat MBCM franchise with his wife. “I went through comprehensive training, and even people who have been in this industry for 20 years say that they learn something new every day.” How MBCM Helps “We’ve grown organically, simply through the provision of good service,” says Ms Foster, “and MBCM has a good reputation for service delivery at the optimum level. The importance is on creating and maintaining good relationships with our clients, and we’ve successfully been able to do that, so that certainly has been a major part of our amazing growth over the years.”

Beyond green – socio-economic factors added to green building ratings “In the same way that Green Star SA tools have inspired transformation towards 'greener' practices in the property industry, we hope that this Socio-Economic Category will encourage a mindset change around the socio-economic upliftment potential of building projects,” says GBCSA CEO Brian Wilkinson.

Cape Town, October 2013: In a pioneering move, the Green Building Council SA (GBCSA), with sponsorship from Old Mutual Property, is set to launch a new PILOT Socio-Economic Category (SEC) for Green Star SA rating tools, which aims to recognise the socio-economic achievements of green building projects.

the launch of this venture and believe social imperatives in property development and management are extremely important, as are the environmental issues,” says Old Mutual Property CEO Peter Levett. “This aligns with Old Mutual's dedication to being leaders in environmental, social and governance matters in all its investment activities.”

The new PILOT SEC will be launched at the GBCSA's annual convention in Cape Town on 17th October 2013. Registered green buildings will be invited to test it in PILOT phase for at least 12 months, after which it will be updated and launched as a Version 1 Category. Projects that achieve a rating for the SEC PILOT will get additional recognition for this, alongside their Green Star SA rating.

A diverse Technical Working Group of 18 people spanning public and private sectors worked alongside the appointed consultants, Aurecon, to help develop benchmark metrics and assessment measures for the new Socio-Economic credits. A 10-person peer review committee also contributed their expert views.

Moving beyond the traditional 'green' assessment criteria for buildings, the GBCSA views the inclusion of social and economic factors as important to address broader sustainability issues, which are particularly relevant for South Africa and other developing countries. Societal challenges such as poverty, unemployment, lack of education and skills, and poor health can all be addressed, to some degree, through the process of designing and constructing green buildings. South Africa's SEC will have seven possible credits under Green Star SA. These focus on: employment creation; economic opportunity; skills development and training; community benefit; empowerment; safety & health; and mixed income housing. “As an organisation committed to responsible business practice, we are proud to be associated with

Development of this category has taken place in an international context, as the need to introduce socioeconomic factors into green building rating systems has been recognized globally. On behalf of the World Green Building Council, the GBCSA has also led the creation of an 'International Framework', which can be adapted for local use in other developing countries. This resource document was informed by a 15-strong multi-country advisory panel, including views from the international green building community, and was also funded by Old Mutual Property. “These credits address some of the burning issues facing developing countries worldwide. They have typically not been dealt with by existing rating tools, but are an important part of the broader concept of sustainability. Much interest has been expressed and we're hoping that the market will respond favourably,” says Bruce Kerswill, GBCSA Non-Executive Chair, and initiator of this project.

Landini Associates Right up front, Mark Landini states categorically that he is a commercial artist, meaning that commercial imperatives precede art in importance. This is not an architect’s practice. “We work in brand, and in corporate identity, but most people know us as designers,” he explains. These are people in the know, too – some of the biggest and best known names in retailing including Selfridge’s (the unique London department store for which the company is about to redesign the famed Food Hall), Loblaws (Canada’s dominant supermarket force), Amore Pacific’s (upmarket boutiques in Seoul) and Jones the Grocer (internationally) as well as domestic stalwarts such as Coles and Westpac and global brands including Volvo and Hilton. Mark hails from the UK and holds impeccable credentials – Conran Design Group, where he was Creative Director, and Fitch. He joined the latter when it had fifteen staff and left when it was at 600 and the only publicly listed design agency in the world. Arriving in Australia as Europe was hit by recession, his intention was to start a business with a partner. First, he visited a bottle shop for some wine and took an instant dislike to the ambience, writing a letter of complaint to the company’s Managing Director. A week later, the company – a major chain – engaged him to redesign the whole set of shops and the first to be refitted was Mark’s ‘local’; the extremely successful design he came up with remains the basis for the stores some twenty years later. “It was an incredible piece of luck,” says Mark, of the design firm’s origins. Today, it helps that the clients tend to know each other – for example, Selfridge’s is owned by a major shareholder in Loblaws. Generally, it’s word of mouth, rather than letters of complaint, that get Mark and his team the business. “In many cases people come to us because they have seen the work we have done for someone else, somewhere else in the world, and liked it,” Mark says. It was simply unknown at the beginning for a design company to touch every part of the business. “Normally, it would be the advertising company that does the graphics, or the merchandising or whatever, but we did everything.” In Australia it remains unusual to offer the full palette of design expertise in a single agency, although, says Mark, it is the norm in Europe. “It’s not really in their blood – their DNA. But since leaving college, I had never worked for a company that did not integrate every design skill. For me it is just the way designers work, but in Australia I have yet to find anyone with such a comprehensive range as ours.” Nevertheless, he finds it easier to work in Australia than on his trips back to the UK, where there is more of a corporate game and brinkmanship and you have to watch what you say and to whom. “In Australia they take you at face value – as they do in Canada, which I tend to regard as a ‘cold-climate Australia’ – culturally they are just so similar.” Being a commercial artist means that Mark and his team of twenty designers need to continually

prioritise the practical aspects of the projects they work on – the structural and budgetary aspects, not just the pretty looks. As proof of the effectiveness of the work, he cites one recent revamp of a food retail chain where the makeover increased turnover through the shops from $1 million per week to $1.4 million. “That’s why people pay us. Don’t forget I also used to be a retailer – when I worked at Conran, which was owned by the group that had Habitat and Mothercare and other chains.” He was Creative Director of the design group which had responsibility for designing the stores themselves as well as the product that went into the shops, the catalogues that were sent to consumers to entice them into the shops, the advertising and even the buildings themselves. In that context the all-in approach is immediately understandable. “You quickly learn not to do things that are superficial and frivolous.” Landini Associates does a lot of work for Hilton, much of it directly for building owners (most of the hotel group’s properties are locally managed). “So very often our fees are being paid by the developer, and they push us very strongly,” Mark explains. “We have a reputation for being able to punch above our weight when it comes to cost and they love us for it. We manage to do things on really tight budgets – sometimes perhaps a quarter of what their competitors are spending on a like-for-like basis.” Once – just once, says Mark with a tinge of regret – has a client complained that he was not spending enough money on a project. That was a client in France who had just come from LVMH and purchased Lanvin and required a money-is-noobject approach.

Mark Landini is founder and Creative Director of Sydney-based Landini Associates, a leading design house. The company does projects around the world, producing practical – as well as aesthetically pleasing – work for clients in customer facing businesses such as retail, the hospitality industry and related fields such as property development and service industries.

In general, you may be assured that the company favours function above form: it needs to work first, and then look good. “I am a modernist, not a postmodernist. We are all in search of something that is as simple as possible but which will last. First, it has to work.” In this context, Mark and his team are able to frequently overturn the conventional wisdom of the store refit every three to five years; many of Landini’s refits and designs (Coles supermarkets, for example) that are still in place are well beyond a decade – some nearing two decades – old, with only minor tweaks to keep them fresh. It is vital to start with a design that is hard-wearing and long-lasting, not fragile and trendy. Style should be classic. “If you do it sensibly, and do something that is not of the moment, then it should last. Good design lasts forever. I sit on chairs that were designed fifty years ago that don’t need redesigning.” It’s about getting it right first time. Sometimes the client can be its own worst enemy, redrafting strategy constantly and forking out for a new identity to go with it (Mark cites the financial sector as particularly bad in this respect). Despite their relative lack of familiarity with the ‘all-in’ approach to design, Australian companies are better placed than clients elsewhere to take advantage of the talents of Landini Associates, says Mark, not least because, “they are so much more openminded, more responsive to new things than people from a lot of countries that are more steeped in history. It is much easier to do modern work here than in Europe, for example.”

Instant Waste Management Instant Waste Management doesn’t just manage waste – the company maximises recycling and resource regeneration opportunities. “We are leaders in the environmental space in regards to recycling waste rather than landfilling it,” says State Resource Development Manager Jake Hickey. The company is at the leading edge of providing sustainable solutions for recycling construction waste and is involved in numerous non-profits and associations that promote responsible waste management. The team even advises the government on recycling solutions.

Instant Waste Management is the largest privately owned waste management and recycling company in Western Australia. The family run business is predominately focused on the construction and demolition industries and delivers a wide range of services, from waste collections and recycling all the way through to fully integrated waste collection contracts for both the private and public sectors. The company serves Perth and the surrounding north west and south west regions of Western Australia with an extensive fleet of vehicles, a comprehensive range of bins, and a brand new, state of the art Material Recovery Facility. Focused on Recycling These efforts are particularly important because Western Australia’s recycling rates lag behind the rest of the country quite dramatically. “We are the worst mainland state for recycling and we produce the most waste per capita,” Mr Hickey reports. “So we are really behind the eight ball in that.” In fact, “as a state, Western Australia only recycles approximately 30 per cent of its construction demolition waste.” The team wants to see its state achieve the same level of responsible waste management that other regions of Australia have reached. “We really want to bring WA closer to the Eastern States’ recycling targets,” Mr Hickey explains. Part of the problem, he believes, is the fact that Western Australia does not have the same level of taxation on landfill materials as most other states do. The landfill levy is “$12.00 to $25.00 approximately per ton in WA, whereas in the eastern states it well exceeds $100 a ton. We can see the government using that tax to encourage the industry to recycle more by increasing that levy in the short term.” Indeed, Mr Hickey says that the landfill levy is likely to soon be raised in Western Australia. “We are expecting there to be increases in the near future on the cost of landfill in WA in order to drive people toward recycling. Industry is doing its best but government is looking to step in.” And, when government steps in, Instant Waste Management will be able to provide substantial cost savings to the construction and demolition industry. Material Recovery Facility Instant Waste Management has recently opened a leading edge Material Recovery Facility to better serve its customers. “It is the first fully integrated, state of the art construction and demolition material recovery facility in WA,” Mr Hickey reports. The company has invested around $15 million into the project over the last two years and is now reaping the benefits. Perhaps best of all, the total recovery facility can recycle between 80 to 90 per cent of construction demolition waste in a single skip bin system. “That is really a very critical factor,” Mr Hickey points out. “There is no need to source separate anymore.” Until now, it was best practice to sort waste onsite, but this solution never worked very well. “The subcontractors and the builders just didn’t do it,” Mr Hickey admits. “Nobody would. Behaviour change was difficult to implement and it was costly as well.” The Material Recovery Facility can treat and process

over 200,000 tons of mixed C&D waste each year. It boasts half a kilometre worth of conveyor line and the latest in recycling technology, including a rotating electromagnet, a floatation tank, a sand oscillation screen, and one of the largest shredders that has ever been imported into the Western Australian recycling industry. These machines are able to extract a remarkable variety of materials from the construction and demolition waste including sand, wood, metals, brick, light materials, and concrete. Furthermore, many of these recovered materials will eventually be returned to the Western Australian construction industry. For instance, the metal that the electromagnet removes will be shipped away for further processing, then used as reinforcement inside the state’s concrete structures. The sand that the facility recovers is put to a particularly good use, since this building material is remarkably scarce in Western Australia. “We live on the edge of the desert, but it is quite ironic that we are actually five million tons short every year of sand that we need to build in WA,” Mr Hickey reports. Sand recovered by Instant Waste Management will go on to be used as a fill material underneath housing slabs. The Material Recovery Facility’s complex processes and high level of waste recovery are new to Western Australia. “We are following European trends,” Mr Hickey explains. “We are leading the way.” In fact, much of the facility’s design is a closely guarded secret – but the team still wants to educate the industry and the public about its forward leaning facility and what it can achieve. In fact, Instant Waste Management gives tours of its Material Recovery Facility and employs Green Smart professionals to provide educational presentations. “We’ve had over 700 key industry stakeholders go through our viewing balcony,” Mr Hickey reports, including two different Ministers for the Environment. “We are basically teaching people that when you put it in the bin it doesn’t just disappear off into a landfill,” Mr Hickey explains. “It comes to this state of the art facility.” The company is also hosting 140 university students this month. The students are learning about sustainable home design and a visit to the facility is an ideal teaching tool because future designers need to be keenly aware of minimising waste. “Poor design in the industry has actually contributed to substantial waste being produced. It is always better to try and design out excess waste in the beginning, rather than producing too much.” Instant Waste Management also has an online video of the facility in action so everyone can get a firsthand look at how waste recovery works. The team placed a camera in a giant Styrofoam cube to create the footage. “We just let it go through the conveyor lines,” Mr Hickey says, likening the experience to a “rubbish roller coaster.” By shooting video on the conveyor belt, the company is able to educate the public while still protecting its intellectual property. “A lot of people were asking if they could take pictures,” Mr Hickey recalls, but this posed an obvious risk to trade secrets. “By putting the camera on the conveyor lines and then using stop motion speeded up footage, [viewers] can’t tell the angles and the speeds of the conveyors and they don’t get to see any of the sensitive parts of our facility.”

Successful businesses need to embrace the “sustainability revolution” People, Planet, Profit

Convention, Nedbank has long recognised the

It is accepted that we can only sustain our livelihoods

importance of sustainability and is at the forefront of

with new thinking, new behaviours, and new focuses.

the 'green' revolution,” says Frank Berkeley,

Doing good is no longer a nice to have, but a must do

Managing Executive Nedbank Corporate Property

and social and environmental issues are more

Finance. As a group, the bank has a highly integrated

important than ever. Enter the triple bottom line

approach that includes social, environmental,

concept of “People, Planet, Profit” – which is about

cultural and economic sustainability. We not only are

moving the issues of sustainability from the fringes to

significantly involved in financing and occupying a

the heart of business. It demands that business

number of developments that speak to this

leaders rethink fundamental strategic questions and

interconnected mindset, but are constantly driving

consider new values and criteria for measuring

this approach to facilitate products and services such

organizational success by considering three factors:

as the Green Savings Bond, Renewable Energy

economic, ecological, and social. For businesses,

Independent Power Programme (REIPP)- that is

they represent opportunity, operational improvement

aimed at reducing South Africa's reliance on coal-

and competitive advantage.

based power and energy generation, while lowering

A self-confessed environmental capitalist

collaborations,' adds Berkeley.

the national carbon footprint - and a number of

We live in a time of unparalleled change and for businesses this means facing challenges that are more significant and complex than ever –a vulnerable economy and global warming, poverty and scarcity of natural resources, a population explosion and a lack of confidence and trust in businesses, with consumers perceiving them to be greedy and irresponsible.

“Globally boardrooms are being held to account for their sustainability, ethics and social contribution,”

Customers are setting the pace

says Jason Drew, an entrepreneur, passionate

Customers are becoming increasingly aware and

environmentalist and visionary who advocates for

demanding sustainable business partners and

the sustainability revolution. Drew, a self-confessed

products1; and with skills shortages being an

'environmental capitalist', who will be one of the

ongoing challenge to business success, talent

keynotes at the imminent Green Building Council

attraction needs to also be a priority. Research done

South Africa Convention, happening at the CTICC

by PriceWaterHouseCoopers2

from 16 – 18 October,argues that sustainability has

sustainability is a key concern when candidates are

shows that

to have an economic impact and moreover, an

deciding where they want to work, and that it's also

economic reward, if it is to strike a chord with a global

one of the issues employees consider when deciding

audience. He believes that whilst capitalism may

whether to remain with a company or move

have caused many of the issues we face - it may be

on.“Focusing on sustainability will be a major

the only tool we have that is strong enough to fix the

differentiator for a business's success in the future.

problems.“As we move out of the era of the industrial

Ultimately, it will contribute to the long-term survival

revolution and into the sustainability revolution,

of an organization and serve to reshape the way we

capitalists and environmentalists will become natural

do business,” says Brian Wilkinson, CEO of the

bedfellows, not the adversaries they once were,”

Green Building Council South Africa. There is more

advises Drew.

to creating a sustainable business than recycling,

The green revolution

ecological charity.

turning off a light switch or donating money to an Wilkinson advises that

“We are shifting from one period to another and those

responsible businesses need to see what impact

who get it, get it,” says Drew.

“For example,

their organisation has on the environment and what

Nedbank in South Africa, which now calls itself the

they can do to lessen the negative impacts and to

Green Bank, and the Cooperative Society in the UK

better manage the consequences.

have emerged as ethical, green-focused banking institutions.” “As the primary sponsors of the Green Building

Ford & Doonan Air Conditioning Systems Ford & Doonan was one of the first air conditioning companies in Western Australia to achieve such success with three company stores and, beginning about twelve years ago, the start of its franchise stores.

Who doesn’t love to step inside an air conditioned space during a hot Australian summer? Over the years, climate control has become a part of our lives as to be comfortable is well worth the expense. Air conditioning units keep every modern building, plane, train and automobile comfortable, and Ford & Doonan has been designing and installing air conditioning systems for the past twenty-eight years. Ford & Doonan was founded by Andrew Ford and Kyle Doonan, who had worked previously as a two man contracting team. At the time they decided to form the company, air conditioning wasn’t as common as it has since become and the designs not nearly as sophisticated. The two recognised the need for a retail outlet offering air conditioning products and installation – and business quickly boomed. “They started with one store in West Perth and slowly expanded, winning several business awards along the way,” explains Cameron Yates, Director and owner of the Mandurah branch of the company. “That first franchise store was my store down here in Mandurah, Australia. It was run for two years by its previous owner, and then I bought it ten years ago,” says Cameron. “Since then, several other franchise stores have been opened in other locations; there are now eight stores.” Cameron Yates decided to buy his branch because he was intrigued by the excellent business model, and all of the systems were in place for an optimal operation. “I saw a lot of potential for growth,” he says. “The company was very well established and marketed.” When compared to other companies in the same sector of the market, the parent company profile is much larger, making for instant brand awareness among clients. Ford & Doonan handles predominantly residential contracts, delivering air conditioning system design, service, installation and maintenance. The company also does a lot of commercial work and, despite the tough economical times that have been affecting the construction sector, is looking to do more in the coming months. Recently, in its new commercial division, the company started taking on projects for schools and other commercial fitouts. “We can handle anything from a single room right through to a large scale commercial project,” explains Cameron. “After we install a system, we can handle people’s preventative and breakdown maintenance.” Before any system is turned on, it is always inspected to ensure that everything has been done as well as it can be. Most homeowners in Western Australia are now installing central (ducted) air conditioning. Consumers are also becoming more discerning about what control options are installed in their homes. Some prefer to have a unit operate as efficient as possible while others want controls with timers that can turn the system off while occupants are at work and back on ten minutes before they enter the door. Still others prefer a control unit that allows them to operate the system via a smartphone application. In years past,

controls had the ability to turn off the air flow to areas of the house not being used, but with modern Wi-Fi technology, the sky is the limit. “Today’s Facebook generation wants to be able to control everything from their smartphones,” says Cameron. “We like to allow them to do that.” Whatever the customer wants installed to control their system, Ford & Doonan can definitely provide. For installation work, the company uses a mixture of experienced tradesmen; some are directly employed by the company and others are subcontractors. All have had criminal record checks and all have to comply with the company’s quality assurance procedures both during and after an installation. This also makes certain that all installations are standardised simplifying future maintenance work. “We generally have no problem with paying better wages or paying for more training so that we can have better customer service. This is one of the ways that we can guarantee better service.” Customer service is one aspect that the company prides itself on. Unlike companies that mainly focus on installation, Ford & Doonan has strong after-hours service and scheduled maintenance packages. This is how the team can ensure that no customer will be inconvenienced. If there is a problem, all a customer should have to do is pick up the phone and call the same company that installed the system. Most people can’t live comfortably without their air conditioning units, especially with the rising temperatures being felt across the country. When something goes wrong, especially on a day where it seems like the siding is going to melt off of the house, a repair team can be dispatched at a moment’s notice to make sure that a unit isn’t down for long. Because each branch of Ford & Doonan is independently owned, any one customer could very well deal directly with the owner of the franchise. “We are owner operated; that’s what really makes us better,” says Cameron. It is the best of both worlds, really; the brand and buying power of WA’s largest air conditioning company, and the owner / operator service and care levels. At Cameron’s branch, most of the employees in the customer service department are former tradies with many years of experience. The company prides itself that even customers who know little about air conditioning can get exactly what they need and that every system can be customized to suit the customer’s specific needs. The system can be planned via a home appointment or at the company’s fully operational showroom. “We’re not just a warehouse,” says Cameron. “We have fully working machines on display; my showroom has glass ceilings installed in the front showroom so that people can come in and take a look at the full runnings of the system so that they aren’t just speculating on what’s going to go on their roof.”

Controlworks Controlworks uses the Niagara platform from software company Tridium. By operating on the Niagara framework, it has become one of Australia’s largest Certified Systems Integrators (SIs). Niagara can be managed and controlled over a standard internet connection and integrates different systems and devices onto one platform.

Many people working in offices often have no idea who or what controls the climate, turns the lights on and off or controls who gets to enter the building. That’s the job of companies like Controlworks. Since 2003, Controlworks has been a leader in building automation and energy management solutions for clients. The company provides services to customers throughout Australia and New Zealand. From its headquarters in Sydney, the company provides building automation services for a number of sectors including education, research, healthcare, industry, retail, and for buildings from offices, hotels and apartments to leisure facilities. Project and Sales Director Greg Rouse spoke on Controlwork’s success. “We are focused on keeping good relationships with our clients,” Mr Rouse said, adding, “We are able to quickly bring a solution to our customers. ‘No’ is not an answer.” Specialising in systems integration, Controlworks is responsible for the design, commissioning and installation of products that control the HVAC, lighting, access control, energy management and other building systems. The company provides training for building management and control systems projects and operates multiple systems on one network from a single software platform. Data from those systems is assimilated and converted into information that that enhances efficiency, comfort and wellbeing for building occupants and owners. One service Controlworks specialises in is energy management. The company provides tools for building managers and owners to collect data from multiple sources so they can create reports and profiles and see what trends are occurring in a building’s performance. Controlworks creates a central repository to collate, validate and store data from a number of systems. To support the building and energy management functions, Controlworks performs scheduled preventive maintenance activities for clients as well as on-call service for new and existing installations to sustain the performance of a building and reduce the incidence and costs of equipment failure and repairs. The company also offers a range of virtual monitoring, technical maintenance, energy efficiency and operational support services including: - Training - Upgrade notification and installation for hardware and software - Database backups - Software configuration - Routine re-calibration - Energy audits, remote energy monitoring and performance contracting - Recommissioning and retrofits on existing systems - Emergency repairs - Environmental management systems for car parks Controlworks is dedicated to designing solutions and

developing projects from concept to completion while adhering to all safety, quality and environmental standards. “We are heavily customer-oriented to meeting their expectations,” Mr Rouse explains. “We’re not a massive company compared to competitors, but that gives us the ability to tailor custom-developed solutions for our clients.” The Niagara platform gives the company the ability to integrate, centralise, manage and control different business systems such as temperature, humidity, ventilation, security and energy in any size building and environment. By adapting the software platform through Controlworks, customers can reduce development time and costs while using less energy and lowering operating expenses in their facilities. Another vendor Controlworks works with is Aircuity. Aircuity is a leading airside efficiency company providing building owners with sustained energy savings by optimising ventilation rates through its intelligent measurement solutions and ensuring building performance through Aircuity Advisor Services. By combining real-time sensing and continuous analysis of indoor environments, the company has helped commercial, institutional and lab building owners lower operating costs, improve safety and become more energy efficient. The company also operates with KNX open protocol systems for building control and automation applications across commercial and industrial market segments. The system is used for different applications such as lighting control, façade automation (for blinds and windows), HVAC controls, energy metering, security and monitoring, audiovisual control and interfacing, as well as IP connectivity and remote access. Controlworks provides these quality energy and facility management services to educational and research institutions, data centres, healthcare facilities, industrial facilities, office buildings, shopping centres, hotels, sporting arenas, and cultural facilities. Some upcoming projects the team is working on include data centre expansions in Sydney and Melbourne. “We have recently started contracts with data centres for companies such as Metronode,” says Mr Rouse. Another customer is Fujitsu, which operates data centres throughout Australia, (consisting of 15,000 square meters of total floor space) with its locations in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. Fujitsu’s data centre service includes uninterrupted facility management, infrastructure support with redundant and failover systems, internal and external cable pathways, continuous security controls, and a support hotline staffed day and night by site operators. Controlworks also monitors the HVAC equipment for Fujitsu as well as fire trip alarms, switchboard multi-function meters, main switchboard fault and condition statuses and monitoring of units. All BMCS data is backed up on dual redundant servers utilising high fault tolerance and high-availability software ensuring operating equipment runs twentyfour hours a day, all year.

Cadwell Construction & Interiors Since its inception in 2003, Cadwell Construction & Interiors has been steadily building a broad portfolio, specialising in education, healthcare, industrial, office and hospital fit-out and refurbishment projects. In this way, Cadwell Construction & Interiors are true experts in the healthcare space. Through the company’s hard-won experience within the industry, it is effectively able to eliminate risk on every project, leading to exceptional quality outcomes for its clients delivered consistently within pre-established time frames and budgets. “Our level of quality and our level of service sets us apart within the industry,” shares Soren Jensen, Managing Director for Cadwell, in a recent interview with us. “We work very closely with our clients to achieve positive outcomes for them and for stakeholders. We focus on quality, certainly on time, and on working through to very tight deadlines within budget.” As a financially stable company, Mr Jensen says that Cadwell has been able to offer its clients a certain “peace of mind’ – which has also gone a long way in building long term industry relationships. Furthermore, the company does not require any ‘up front’ fees or hidden charges and always takes the time to sit together with clients prior to the commencement of each project to ensure that payment terms are agreed upon. Throughout the process of each project, Cadwell provides periodic progress updates, which demonstrate, in a high level of detail, the percentage completeness in all areas of work. Through this process, clients are able to see that they are only ever paying for actual work that has been completed and not just pie-in-the-sky promises. “And in our experience, by the time the actual payment is due, these levels of quality have been well and truly exceeded,” adds Mr Jensen. The company pays particular attention to the way in which its representatives work together with clients to exceed expectations. “We have a very proactive approach to solving any site or design issues,” explains Mr Jensen. “We notify clients of any changes to the original plan and we obviously work to an overall construction program. We also break that down so that we can communicate with our clients every week and every day to let them know what will take place each day and what type of interruptions could be expected, to ensure that that fits with their business requirements for that day, and if it doesn’t, we will reshuffle or reschedule to carry out noisy or shut-down work to fit in with their business requirements.” By working this closely with clients, the Cadwell team is able to immediately flag any design issues, which are then addressed with appropriate and efficient alternatives. “Rather than throw our hands in the air to say that it will cost more and take longer, we generally will find a cost-neutral solution to ensure that we can move forward to not impact the budget or

the program.” On every project, a Cadwell foreman is available onsite – to ensure timeline adherence, quality of workmanship, sub-contractor management, and to answer any questions or concerns raised by the client – for the duration of the project. “Our foreman on site policy is in stark contrast to industry norms where foremen flit from job to job making it very difficult to get hold of them in case of issues,” explains Mr Jensen. “And yes, this does add to our costs, but it aligns to our absolute commitment to quality and a job well done.” The company also works closely with a very select roster of subcontractors to ensure a comprehensive experience for its clients on even the most complex projects. Sub-contractors, explains Mr Jensen, are the key factor in the success – or failure – of a project, which is why he says the company only uses subcontractors with whom it has developed long standing relationships and who are known to meet quality standards and who deliver on time and budget. New sub-contractors are put through a rigorous selection and quality evaluation process whereby their previous work, financial records and accreditations are assessed in depth by the Cadwell team.

In particular, though the company caters to a broad range of industries, Cadwell has completed over six hundred commercial fit-out and construction projects worth over $60 million – a significant portion of which came from within the healthcare industry, ranging from Hospital and Operating Theatres to Office Complexes, Blood Bank Laboratories and Professional Sound Testing rooms.

“Effective communication between builder, architect and clients is vital to the successful completion of a project,” asserts Mr Jensen. “Every job will have issues – it’s the nature of the beast – but it’s how you handle these issues that make all the difference to stress levels for all concerned! As such, our clients constantly positively comment on our level of proactive communication. If we come across an issue (potential or real), we take immediate steps to communicate to the relevant parties be they the architects or client’s project managers.” In general, the company is always looking to improve upon its systems to ensure that they assist in delivering exceptional quality – especially with regards to improvements where safety and environmental concerns are addressed – two areas of particular importance within the healthcare industry. “We are always looking at ways of minimising dust in the air and noise, specifically within healthcare environments where we are always using the latest technologies or innovations to come up with smarter ways of doing things – not necessarily conventional or faster ways, but ways which will facilitate a better project for the client with less interruption or inconvenience.” Cadwell is a member of the Green Building Council of Australia, ensuring that sustainable practices are at the forefront of each and every project. Cadwell is also an active member of Master Builders Australia, and, as many of its projects are completed in sensitive areas such as health and education, the company is also a member of the Infection Control Association of NSW. The company is ISO accredited to AS9001, AS4801, and AS14001 standards for its quality integrated management systems.

Australian Vinyls Corporation Australian Vinyls Corporation, Australia’s leading manufacturer and supplier of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin and wood-plastic composites, is embarking on an educational program to try to put across the virtues of PVC— particularly in such applications as building and infrastructure. Essentially, the company produces PVC resin, which is then used by manufacturers across the country to make electric cable insulation, packaging, floor coverings and automotive components, as well as piping for liquids and gas. Pipe is not well-suited to import because of its relative bulk, so local production is relatively healthy.

It is unusual for a manufacturer of raw materials to campaign to consumers. But when the situation is so unclear and the equation so complex, action is called for. In this case we are talking about the pros and cons of various materials for construction – notably piping and window frames. However, competition between materials is fierce and a lot of people underestimate the difference in performance between PVC and polyethylene (PE). The former’s reputation took a heavy blow, especially in Europe, when Greenpeace decided to argue for the abolition of chlorine, a gas which occurs naturally. Chlorine, or chloride (its ionized state) is the ‘c’ in PVC. According to Australian Vinyls’ Market Development Manager Nigel Jones, “PVC uses up around 40 per cent of the world’s chlorine, as chloride, and if it didn’t, we would have to think up an alternative way of dealing with it.” The company’s customers were not active enough themselves in trying to get the market to understand the difference between materials, which is why the Australian Vinyls team decided to weigh in itself. Pipe producers have in any case had a lean time in recent years – following the trends in their main industry: construction. “What might have been a lifeline was the evolution of the coal seam gas market, but most of that piping has been done in PE,” explains Mr Jones. “The major plastic pipe producers manufacture both PVC and PE pipe, so have been able to focus on PE for coal seam gas. We thought we could take the initiative and try to get something done about growing the PVC market by launching our ‘Think Pipes. Think PVC’ campaign.” Pipe accounts for around 75 per cent of all PVC resin used in Australia. Some education has also been required to point out the performance differences between PVC and PE in, for example, piping applications. A homeowner is likely to simply request “plastic,” and a plumber may just use whatever is at hand. In commercial and infrastructure applications, of course, there is greater awareness. Mr Jones travels the country lecturing on the advantages of PVC – not least of which is that it is user-friendly. “At the end of the day, if everything is taken into account, it is also usually the most cost effective,” he adds. In non-pipe applications PVC also has distinct performance advantages. Mr Jones describes the benefits in cabling (insulation). He also cites window frames – in particular, double glazing – as an example. While careful not to call installers unscrupulous, he believes many window suppliers fail to give their customers the optimum product for their home. Aluminium frames may be cheap but their thermal performance is far inferior to that of plastics. PVC comes at a price premium, but only compared to aluminium with a narrow gap between the panes. If you want an efficient thermal break aluminium frame, you will need a plastic insert between two sections of extruded metal. Even then, aluminium will not match the thermal performance of PVC. Mr Jones explains that, “PVC has distinct energysaving propensity by comparison with metal, not only in terms of reducing consumption in the home. Aluminium requires seven times as much energy to produce. The carbon footprint is way higher; when it comes to the environmental side, PVC has many

advantages. Aluminium is also produced using government subsidies.” Australian Vinyls is working with the Vinyl Council of Australia on establishing an industry Code of Practice and proper local standards for PVC window profiles. Key to the company’s education initiative was the emergence of PVC as being good from an environmental point of view, with the Green Star award for best practice by the Green Building Council of Australia (see sidebar for more). Mr Jones sees this credential as crucial to the future of the industry. While Australian Vinyls does not produce pipe, only the resins for others to manufacture, it does have its own brand of flooring – ModWood. This is a wood composite that looks and feels like natural timber, but requires none of the maintenance of traditional woods. ModWood is manufactured mainly from recycled products, including plastics (PE sourced mainly from used milk containers) and wood flour (from used building timber, such as offcuts), making it environmentally friendly. The precise details of the mix are a trade secret, but the product is roughly a 50-50 mix of wood and plastic, of which more than 80 per cent of the latter and all of the former are recycled. At this kind of proportion, the case for ModWood’s environmental credentials is even stronger than the product itself, given the concern over forest sustainability both at home and abroad. Many of the world’s woodchips and a lot of timber come from places such as Indonesia, where logging is done with minimal supervision and in many cases illegally. What better way to offset this worry than to use almost entirely recycled product? ModWood uses home-grown technology based on the latest advances in additives for the wood-plastic industry from all over the world. These additives are thoroughly tested in Australian Vinyls’ laboratory to ensure the result is a safe, environmentally friendly, world-class product. The material is suitable for hightraffic areas where wear can be a problem with conventional timbers, and for in- or outdoors. For the builder, there are numerous advantages – no warping, knots or bowed lengths. Unlike timber, ModWood actually comes with a warranty (10 years in residential, seven years in commercial applications). For an architect, ModWood offers “long-life contemporary colourways and profiles that retain their designer’s intent for years, with virtually no maintenance.” Mr Jones says, “homeowners will appreciate the simple fact that it needs almost no maintenance beyond sweeping the leaves off with a broom each autumn – no staining, no sanding. There is a small colour fade in the first six months – accounted for by the natural process of the timber element in the product – but after that time there is no further change in coloration. It is virtually impervious to termites too.” The latest news is that the ModWood range now has a version that can be used in areas prone to bushfires. Flame Shield is a specially formulated board with a fire retardant additive included. Until now, decking board options for bushfire-prone areas were limited. Now Flame Shield can be used in BAL-12.5, BAL-19, BAL29 and BAL-40 areas to give a traditional timber decking look and feel.

Barlow Industries Barlow Industries Ltd works to ensure customer satisfaction by supplying high quality, world-class ASNZ standard steel products – providing excellent solutions for customers across a range of industry sectors in Papua New Guinea. Barlow provides merchant steel and rolled steel products to the construction industry in Papua New Guinea, supplying the best steel products available including products to support roofing, gutters, building frames, as well as reinforcing steel and mesh – right down to chain mesh and security fencing. The company endeavours to provide a diverse range of products to suit the needs of builders from the ground up, quite literally. Papua New Guinea, home to Barlow Industries, is incredibly culturally diverse, especially for a region of its size. It is made up of less than seven million people, who between them speak more than 800 distinct languages. Much of the nation is sparsely inhabited, including vast expanses of jungle and mountainous regions which steward many small, traditional rural communities. These areas are home to thousands of unidentified plant and animal species. In fact, fewer than twenty per cent of the people of Papua New Guinea reside in the country’s largest urban centres, Port Moresby being the capital. With such a strong culture of tradition, many Papua New Guineans practice subsistence farming and have little access to academic opportunities. The diversity of Papua New Guinea is one of its great strengths, but also one of the impediments to commercial and industrial development, as many areas lack the infrastructure to support industry and settlement, or are themselves virtually inaccessible. Of course, this absence presents opportunities, and many infrastructure and other developments are presently in the works by numerous conscientious operators throughout the country. For its part, Barlow Industries provides meaningful employment for more than one hundred citizens of Papua New Guinea, encouraging the development of valuable trade skills. Papua New Guinea has become one of the fastest growing economies in the world, ranking as the sixth fastest growing, and opportunities in mining, forestry, construction, and other sectors have created the perfect environment for major growth and social and economic development. The country has varied regions, such as the New Guinea Highlands, which runs the length of the island, while the lowlands are dominated by dense forests and wetland areas. Due to the challenging terrain of the nation, many areas are only accessible by air transport. Papua New Guinea is a land rich in natural resources, with minerals, forest products, tuna, and coffee making up the bulk of the nation’s export. That said, the rugged and varied environment has tended to slow further potential growth. Despite the challenges that Papua New Guinea faces, since 2008 the nation has continued to grow economically, at a rate as high as nine per cent annually, weathering the global financial crisis of that time better than many other nations. This economic growth is largely attributed to the continued strength of commodity prices in not only the mining sector, but to a lesser degree in agriculture. Most of the largest centres in Papua New Guinea are situated on the eastern half of the Island of New Guinea, where Port Moresby and Lae, the country’s second largest city, are located. This makes the area one of the nation’s most important centres of trade and commerce.

We spoke recently with Mr John Uthmann, CEO of PICSA, during a time of transition in which Barlow Industries’ Manager of the last three years, Jim Jenkins, is moving on to new opportunities. It is clear that Mr Uthmann is excited about the quality of the products that the company offers and what its success means for its employees and the company as a whole. “Quality, service, and customer support are our strengths,” says Mr Uthmann. “If there’s a high rise being built, we can provide the reinforcing steel in the initial stages of the earthworks with providing, bending, and processing the steel right up until we put a roof and gutter on top of that building,” he explains. Mr Uthmann goes on to say that the company strives to meet the needs of the contractor from the very beginning, and right through to the completion of the building process. Speaking of the building industry in Papua New Guinea more broadly, Mr Uthmann recognises a recent boom in the industry due to the liquefied natural gas (LNG) pipeline project in the nation, which has ignited a wave of housing, accommodations, and factory building projects. He says, “We’re going through the biggest boom that PNG’s ever seen in construction, which is reaching its plateau.” Barlow currently has a series of large ongoing construction projects in the region, and is taking advantage of the opportunities Papua New Guinea has to offer.

Barlow is part of the Comcraft Group, a multinational company represented in Australia, Singapore, Africa, Papua New Guinea, and beyond. For more than three decades this company has been involved in the manufacture, trading and distribution of quality steel goods, offering plumbers, builders and other trades access to top quality across many continents

Indeed, the company can ensure its customers of high quality products that will stand the test of time: “We only stock ASNZ standard steel to provide a surety to the building industry that we conform with anything that they have in place, from architects to Australian standards in place for the building industry,” shares Mr Uthmann – which is important, as industry in Papua New Guinea begins to move away from cheaper, lower quality imported steel and toward the best, world-class products available. “We want to bring PNG to Australian index standards so that they conform with the rest of the world. We’re moving away from the cheaper import steel and we’re making sure that we have good solid recording and backup in the quality of our products.” Mr Uthmann attributes much of this success not only to the high quality of products the company provides, but also to the lasting relationships it has been able to forge. Being situated on an island, Barlow Industries wisely makes sure to hold a great deal of stock to be able to meet the demands of customers. The company also prides itself on the timely, meaningful support it can provide customers. “We offer very good technical support and technical advice in grades and types of steel required for certain projects, which customers come to expect from us.” To accommodate demand for its products, Barlow Industries has invested in a great deal of new machinery and workspace, building a new factory at the Barlow complex and new equipment to accommodate work in the roll-forming sector, such as panel rib and corrugated iron. “The expansion and development done by Jim Jenkins to lift the company in three years to be the major supplier in these areas is a credit to the incredible work he has done,” says Mr Uthmann. “The factory and its facilities are now world class.” Barlow Industries expects continued growth in the future, with a focus on quality products, excellent service, and lasting relationships in the growing construction industry in Papua New Guinea.

Data Centre Facilities Uptime Institute, whose mandate is to increase global IT productivity and uptime by, ‘identifying practical, immediate data centre design and operations improvements that yield significant energy savings without capital expenditure, and offering strategies for breaking down the organisational barriers that undermine progress,’ has recently published the findings of its third annual Uptime Institute Data Centre Industry Survey. The survey asked approximately 1,000 facilities managers, IT managers and industry executives from around the globe questions on a range of data centreand IT-related topics.

As Australia pushes forward with its massive National Broadband Network (NBN) rollout, the potential of enhanced communications capabilities for individual Australians and businesses alike continues to advance. The need for intelligent foresight in data centre development likewise becomes crucial… To assist in making the most of these capabilities, Australia’s Department of Finance and Deregulation (DFD) has recently introduced its latest iteration of the Australian Public Services Information and Communications Technology (ICT) Strategy – 2012-2015. The ICT Review – as it is more commonly referred to – is a comprehensive document which offers a practical framework for improving the development and productivity of new and existing data centres within Australia in an effort to, ‘maintain and enhance the Australian Government as a world leader in the use of ICT’. In his Secretary’s Forward to the recently published 2013 ICT Strategy, DFD Secretary David Tune stated that, ‘ICT plays a critical role in delivering and transforming the operations of government… The Strategy outlines how APS agencies will continue to use ICT to drive better service delivery, improve government operations, drive productivity, and to engage with people, the community and business. It supports better, more accessible government services for people when, where and how it suits them, so they can be more productive.’ In the ICT Review Executive Summary, it is stated that opportunities are created for Australia’s participation in new economies through the global connectedness that arises from the technology. This allows Australia to be a, ‘leader in exploiting technology for national growth through the NBN and to be a preferred destination for new enterprises’. ‘The Strategy identifies actions to be taken between 2012 and 2015 to continue the release of government data for wider use, to share information and knowledge resources and unlock further economic and social value.’ From the Review, three areas were identified as ‘priority areas’: the delivery of better services, including increased capabilities in delivering more efficient, effective and improved services; the improvement of the efficiency of government operations by encouraging more innovative and strategic use of ICT and optimal investment; and a focus on more open engagement so as to encourage active involvement of all stakeholders by creating knowledge and collaborating effectively. In response to growing concerns over excessive waste resulting from data centre operations, others have become vocal with their recommendations for the development of data centres – many of which are in keeping with the

ICT Review’s three priority areas. In a recent run-down of the top five latest data centre trends, journalist Charles Babcock stated that, ‘As the evidence builds for global warming, the unbridled growth of computing in many forms is coming under attack as a wasteful contributor to global warming.’ His recommendations included the use of prefabricated modular data centres, which can effectively reduce the Power Usage Effectiveness (PUE) down to 1.1 (with an ideal PUE at 1.0, meaning all power brought into the data centre is used strictly for computing needs and not additional energies for lighting, cooling, etc.); alternative energy sources; and careful selection of environmental locations for data centres so factors contributing to PUE such as cooling can be reduced naturally. At the organisation’s symposium 2013 in May, Director of Content Matt Stansberry presented preliminary results, adding in several observations and recommendations. ‘IT organisations that will benefit most are those that take a systematic approach,’ he declared, ‘starting at the application and data layers: consolidating applications and servers, de-duplicating data, removing comatose but power-draining servers, building redundancy into the applications and IT architecture rather than physical systems, improving server utilisation. These initiatives will result in the most significant efficiency gains and drive the next wave of energy-efficiency innovation.’ The ultimate message coming out of these results was an overall push toward cloud computing and Data Centre Infrastructure Management (DCIM) systems, which will help drive down those inefficiencies and improve collaboration – as prioritised by the ICT Review. In fact, since 2008 when the government first embarked on its ICT Reform Program, it has – through a focussed ‘whole-of-government approach’ – successfully avoided what was estimated at $1 billion in inefficiencies which could have arisen from ‘agency ICT business-as-usual operations’. Indeed, the ICT Review seems not only timely, but also incredibly optimistic about the positive impact that increased data centre connectivity – including cloud computing, which effectively offers a comprehensive and ‘convenient’ storage network of all available information across all networks – will have not only on the future of Australia as a nation, but more so on the incredible ways in which it will help individual citizens and businesses thrive. It is perhaps interesting to note that 2008 – the year in which government made its ICT reform a priority – was also the year in which construction was originally slated for completion of the Defence Department’s newest data centre – a state-of-the-art, secret data storage facility to support the operations of Australia’s signals intelligence agency, the top-secret Defence Signals Directorate (DSD), located just outside of Canberra a the HMAS Harman communications base.