Partnerships - Project Sus'd

Partnership is about "us", not "you" or "me".

Partnership is the basis of sustainable construction - you cannot do it on your own.

The various components of Project Sus’d describe techniques to bring about sustainable development on construction sites, but this module is the key for all the other activities.

Without partnerships, initiatives may still start and they will deliver some results, perhaps even good results, but they will not last.

In other words, without partnership, sustainable construction is not sustainable.

How does partnership help?

Before looking at the benefits, let's have a look at what often happens on a construction project, such as:

• materials get delivered at random times;
• teams were kept waiting;
• semi-finished fittings often move in and out of storage again and again;
• every trade argues for more “crane time”;
• bad feelings towards some individual or groups of people;
• lots of disagreements, which in some instances, end up in court (and in tears!);
• unexpected changes that disrupt work progress; and so on.

We believe that partnerships can help address the issues listed above:

 random delivery

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structured forum to discuss issue

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logical process analysis to deal with delays

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better communications

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better arrangements and generally more helpfulness on site

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resolve issues before they became explosive

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allows opportunities to address both actual and perceived concerns

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improved communications results in better understanding between teams

To summarise, we reckon partnership offers the following benefits:

Project Sus'd sees partnership as a four stage process:

• Planning - outlining what is to be achieved, what needs to be done and by whom.


• Building - putting a partnership together is like getting to a handshake, you need to discuss and agree what you are shaking hands on before you can actually do the shaking,


• Managing - how a partnership delivers benefits and keeps going. This is one aspects of partnership that a lot of people take for granted. Unfortunately, partnership is like small children, lots of attention is needed or it can all end in tears.


• Winding Up - once we got all the benefits (perhaps the project is ending), we need to close down the partnership. This can include celebrating the end of the task and the partnership successfully. as well as making a list of all the things we can do better in the next partnership. Practically, "winding up" also includes elements such as storing all the relevant records, shutting down the information channels and making sure any unpaid bills are settled!

A comprehensive guide to sustainable construction partnerships is available as a download. Click here to find out more.