Ten of NI's leading construction companies are taking part - along with a further 10 subcontractors from each of their respective supply chains - in a new training programme, which aims to improve business sustainability in Northern Ireland's construction sector.

This training programme is the result of a partnership between, CITB-Construction Skills Northern Ireland, NRC and ARUP working together for the good of the industry in the current challenging economic environment.

The Responsible Sourcing of Materials (RSM) training programme, enables firms to meet the growing number of RSM requirements set by corporate clients and Government Procurement bodies and participants include the Patton Group, McLaughlin & Harvey, Grahams, H & J Martin, Farrans, Felix O'Hare, O'Hare & McGovern, Heron Bros., Tracey Bros and MSM Contracts.

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Funded by the Department of Employment and Learning's Innovation fund, the programme will help these companies to improve Responsible Sourcing of Materials within their organisations, thereby enabling their clients to demonstrate better their Corporate Social Responsibility. A key objective of the programme is to benchmark each company against BES 6001 (the BRE Environmental and Sustainability Standard, for Responsible Sourcing of Construction Products) and establish Action Plans by which each may improve their performance in this area.

Barry Neilson, Chief Executive CITB - Construction Skills Northern Ireland, said: "The training programme is extremely valuable to construction companies as RSM is becoming a more central part of the industry and there is increased demand by clients for sustainable materials.

"By improving their knowledge of RSM and increasing their use of sustainable construction products, companies will be in a better position to secure contracts," he said.

The Responsible Sourcing training programme has been devised and developed by Architect, Michael Tennyson and Quantity Surveyor, Declan Heggarty and they are co-ordinating its implementation on behalf of Northern Regional College.

The programme has been funded by the Department of Employment and Learning's Innovation fund as part of its Carbon Zero NI initiative.

The Carbon Zero NI initiative provides training to Northern Ireland's construction leaders, in the area of responsible sourcing of materials and the training programme begins in January and will run until March 2011.

(CD)