Briefing: A practical initiative for the construction industry

This briefing paper presents a client-led programme to save cost and reduce the level of carbon dioxide emissions by encouraging the innovation of working practices and processes within the construction industry. The need to improve performance and be sustainable in the construction industry is well understood. Recent calls that everyone has to lead improvement and other calls to innovate are being answered by a programme called Best East, which is funded by the European Regional Development Fund, which is managed by the East of England Development Agency. Components of the programme include: clients working collaboratively to encourage change in the industry; support organisations working in partnership to provide more comprehensive change programmes; supply chains being procured to make time to innovate while reducing the overall schedule and cost; organisations in the supply chain given help to put all the basics of good business in place; provision of knowledge on performance improvement, low carbon, sustainability; and long-term network support to enhance the initial learning including connection to higher and further education. The programme uses capital projects to demonstrate the successes gained from capturing improvements from every organisation in the supply chain.