profile
Steve is a well-known figure in the merchant sector and across the UK construction industry, bringing over 25 years’ experience to the Expert Panel. He started his career in builders’ merchanting before moving into a supplier role with Polychannel as National Sales Manager. In 2000 Steve joined ACO Water Management and progressed to Commercial Director. Steve was appointed Managing Director of Alumasc Water Management Solutions (AWMS) in 2014 where he introduced and established AWMS as the first joined-up brand in rain-to-drain water management. He led an active industry campaign to change the way water is managed in the built environment at a time of accelerating climate change. Steve is now Managing Director of Polypipe Civils. In January 2020 Polypipe Civils changed its name to Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation, redefining the business around new technologies that enhance sustainable and resilient development.
Polypipe
Founded in 1980, Polypipe is one of Europe’s largest manufacturers of piping systems, water and climate management systems, delivering engineered solutions that enable a sustainable built environment.
The development of Green Urbanisation introduces a new generation of techniques that optimise urban green spaces through an extended, fully integrated, sustainable water management network. This includes the provision of hybrid water management solutions that combine green assets such as blue/green roofs, gardens and trees with smart water infrastructure within any urban environment. The benefits are multiple: greater resilience to flooding and drought, increased biodiversity, lowering of the heat island effect, more green spaces and amenities, better air quality, and improved health and wellbeing.
Polypipe Civils & Green Urbanisation is part of Polypipe Group plc and operates two UK manufacturing centres: Loughborough and Horncastle. With products focused at specific applications across all construction sectors including residential, highways, rail and power, each range has been developed around optimised use of recycled materials. The company currently transforms over 16,000 tonnes of plastic waste each year in the manufacture of its products.
Visit www.polypipe.com/civils
Twitter @PolypipeCivilGU
LinkedIn www.linkedin.com/showcase/polypipe-civils-and-infrastructure/
Launched in 2015, the award winning monthly Builders Merchant Building Index (BMBI) report is the only reliable measure of repair, maintenance & improvement (RMI) activity in the UK. Filling an important gap, it can be widely used in construction, and by economists, Government, national media, commentators and influencers outside the industry.
Polypipe Civils Comment: Q3 2021
To a large extent, the challenges faced in the previous quarter are the same in Q3 with material availability continuing to cause disruption across all sectors. In addition, we are now being subject to further commercial uncertainties as a result of significant energy price fluctuations, skills shortages and a far more mobile labour force.
Demand is high and it’s forecast to stay that way, although with the usual seasonal variations around the end of the year. Yet the ever-present threat of re-imposed COVID restrictions also hangs over us. Our industry finds itself in exceptional times.
It is said that ‘necessity is the mother of invention’. With the challenges our industry faces, there has never been a better opportunity to embrace change and to look for new solutions and new ways of working.
The need for a new approach is not just in relation to the current supply issues. It’s also true in response to climate change and our pledge to achieve Net-Zero. COP26 presented us with a stark picture of what needs to be done to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees.
The wider acceptance of recycled materials is one area where our industry could look to effect a positive change on the environment. Opening or creating new standards allows the use of breakthrough technologies which deliver wider, long-term benefits to support a true circular economy.
Staying with the theme of climate goals, we were pleased to see the Government’s Environment Act finally achieve Royal Assent on 9th November, two years after its introduction. Setting out the Government’s overarching vision for leaving nature in a better state for future generations, the Act is seen as a milestone in shaping ambitious resilience and ecological policy.
The Act’s requirements for developments to achieve a net-gain uplift in biodiversity will transform our urban landscape and deliver a wealth of multi-functional benefits for communities and the environment. Further legally binding targets to improve nature, air and water quality will be introduced next year.