Stronger Together and CIOB team to help industry tackle modern slavery

Stronger Together and CIOB team to help industry tackle modern slavery

Feb 23, 2017 |Richard McPartland |2 Minute Read

A best practice toolkit to help the construction industry tackle modern slavery in its global supply chains has been launched by the Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB) and industry alliance Stronger Together.

It is estimated that there are over 45 million people subject to modern slavery in the world today. It is hoped that new guidance, which can be downloaded for free from www.stronger2gether.org, will help construction businesses shape their response to a problem the UK Prime Minister Theresa May has described as "the greatest human rights issue of our time".

Stronger Together toolkitThe toolkit is part of a an in-depth specialist industry programme supporting construction companies in tackling modern slavery. The programme will provide the construction sector and its clients with practical resources and training based on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights framework and help businesses comply with UK Modern Slavery Act requirements.

While no reputable business would choose to be associated with human rights abuse and exploitation, the fragmented supply chain that serves the construction industry means that instances can often remain hidden. Opaque procurement processes and high demand for migrant labour also leaves the sector vulnerable to modern slavery.

The programme is one of the tangible outputs following the publication of a CIOB report, Building a fairer system: tackling modern slavery in construction supply chains, last summer. The study explored how workers are abused in ways such as forced or bonded labour, late payment, unsanitary living conditions, unfair deductions from wages, withheld passports, loss of freedom of movement, lack of representation, violence, intimidation and physical abuse.

The UK Modern Slavery Act, which came into force in 2015, requires UK organisations with a turnover of more than £36 million to publicly report on how they are dealing with human rights issues in their supply chains.

The fragmented supply chain that serves the construction industry means that instances [of modern slavery] can often remain hidden

Both organisations are now inviting construction companies and clients to become Stronger Together construction sector project sponsors to pioneer this multi-stakeholder initiative into the sector. Project sponsors will:

  • Form the Stronger Together construction sector steering group to contribute to programme strategy and provide input to develop new materials and resources
  • Recommend to key staff, primary contractors and the wider supply chain to send delegates to the ‘Tackling Modern Slavery in Construction’ training workshop
  • Provide free online access on www.stronger2gether.org to a wide range of Stronger Together resources including toolkits, videos and other CPD for use by their business and supply chain
  • Display their logo on the Stronger Together website and printed materials and may refer to themselves as Stronger Together project sponsors; and
  • Reference their role in Stronger Together in modern slavery statements and corporate social responsibility reports – particularly that they are making available guidance to their supply chains to deter, detect and deal appropriately with forced labour and labour trafficking.

Contact info@stronger2gether.org to find out more.

Our latest news

Visqueen supports one of the first Gateway 2 approvals under the Building Safety Act

The Dyecoats development in Leeds marks a major milestone for the UK housing sector. The £100 million flagship Latimer Homes scheme being delivered by GRAHAM is one of the first high-rise new-build projects in the country to achieve Building Safety Act Gateway 2 approval, a crucial pre-construction sign-off confirming that the design meets all safety and regulatory requirements before work begins on site.

Building Safety ActSponsored

Five questions to ask when specifying insulated panels

Selecting an insulated panel system for an industrial building should start with the building and application requirements.

Design and SpecificationSponsored

NBS and BDP join forces to improve generic carbon data in construction

Today, NBS (part of Hubexo), the platform for connected construction information, announces a long-term strategic partnership with BDP, a major global multidisciplinary practice of architects, designers, engineers and urbanists. The partnership recognises BDP's integral role in the development of NBS LCA, a new life-cycle carbon assessment platform providing professionals with high-quality, reliable and easy-to-use carbon data to ensure accurate tracking as construction projects evolve. BDP's primary contribution to NBS LCA has been the development of more than 1,300 pre-calculated generic assemblies, covering the most commonly used building fabric elements alongside key concrete and steel structural elements. These assemblies provide whole-element carbon data, giving designers consistent, UK-relevant carbon benchmarks from the earliest stages of project design. Users can easily and instantly apply carbon rates to a range of pre-configured common building elements, including walls, floors, and roofs. Developed by BDP and NBS, the assemblies remove the need for designers to manually build up material layers or calculate individual components at the concept stage. This saves significant time and effort, enabling proportionate and responsible carbon evaluation early in the design process, when decisions have the greatest impact on a project's overall carbon footprint. BDP also participated in collaborative workshops that directly informed the development of NBS LCA, helping to shape a tool that is practical, accessible and aligned with real-world UK construction workflows. Dr Lee Jones, Head of Sustainability at Hubexo, said: “BDP's contribution to NBS LCA has been invaluable. Their depth of project experience and technical knowledge has directly shaped the generic assemblies at the heart of the platform. These assemblies give designers a reliable, UK-relevant starting point for carbon assessment, without the burden of building everything from scratch. This is exactly the kind of collaboration that moves the industry forward, and we're proud to be working with BDP on a long-term basis.” Julia Yao, Associate, Sustainability Consultant at BDP, said: “Carbon assessment needs to be embedded in design from day one, not bolted on at the end. Working with NBS to develop its LCA product has been a genuine opportunity to put that principle into practice. The generic assemblies we developed draw on real project data and are designed to give designers meaningful, actionable carbon information at the concept stage. We're delighted to see them at the core of a platform that will be used across the industry.” With the UK Government outlining its commitment to responsible carbon reporting through its Carbon Budget and Growth Delivery Plan, professionals need reliable, easy-to-use tools to assess and report embodied carbon. NBS LCA addresses this need by integrating carbon calculations with live design work, drawing on structured data from Circular Ecology's ICE Database and more than 12,500 verified, specification-ready construction products with Environmental Product Declarations (EPDs) from NBS Source and ECO Portal. Over the coming months, NBS and BDP will continue to develop their partnership, with a shared commitment to improving the quality and accessibility of carbon data for construction professionals across the UK. NBS LCA is available now, with flexible subscriptions designed for all professionals. For more information, visit the website here.

Product update