North West Construction Knowledge Hub (NWCKH)  

On 10 November the University of Salfords Vice-Chancellor, Professor Martin Hall, launched The Northwest Construction Knowledge Hub - a £6m initiative to provide free advice to small and medium sized construction companies about reducing their carbon emissions, creating jobs and reducing waste. 

The Northwest Construction Knowledge Hub is led by the Universities' Centre for Construction Innovation and is based in CUBE on Portland Street; it will be delivered by CCI, BRE, University of Central Lancashire, University of Liverpool and Urban Vision; it is funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Northwest Regional Development Agency (NWDA) and the five partners.

The government agency Business Link is a central point of contact for the Construction Hub.  When a company contacts them they can arrange for the appropriate agency to provide advice such as how to build walls which conserve heat better, use less concrete within a building, waste fewer resources and use materials made from other recycled products.

Professor Martin Hall said: "This knowledge will help small businesses beat the recession, as well as provide longer term benefits to the industry. There is a real need for this type of initiative at the moment, but it will form part of a longer term strategy that will enable companies to succeed not just this year, but well into the future."

The built environment is responsible for 45% of UK carbon emissions, with a significant proportion from the construction phase, making the project all the more relevant. How a building is constructed influences the occupiers carbon footprint - for example whether gas, electric or solar heating is installed.

Professor Hall added: "Often companies can not afford to invest in high quality advice that will see them through the years to come, because the industry is so competitive that they can only concentrate on the short term. This project means they can take advantage of university-level knowledge that they would otherwise have had to spend a lot of money on. It will allow them to keep an eye on the future, even though times are hard."

For more information  about the programme you can contact the Programme manager Tony Baldwinson at nwckh@ccinw.com