The Malta Business Network (MBN) was established in 2011 by the then high commissioner of Malta to foster better working relationships between England and Malta. It is a growing organisation that has chapters both in Malta and England and welcomes anyone with an interest in Malta.
Through her work in the construction industry Alexandra Vella, Lead Auditor BREEAM QA, was invited to a meeting of the construction group of MBN and has been a member of the group ever since. It was through the construction group that Alexandra became aware of the Maltese Building Industry Consultative Council (BICC) and she was asked to present a piece on building services during BICCs visit to England in 2013.
Each year the BICC management come to England to visit the built environment conference EcoBuild (now known as Futurebuild) and network with other MBN members. This year Alexandra hosted a day of the BICC visit and arranged for the party to visit the BRE Innovation Park in Watford. Whilst visiting the BICC met with team members from BREEAM to find out more about the company.
On Thursday 7th March the BICC delegation from the BICC, led by Perit Charles Buhagiar Executive Chairman of BICC, and accompanied by Nadette Azzopardi, Frans Chircop and Perit Martin Debono met with Tim Bevan, director of BREEAM operations, David Leonard, BREEAM New Construction team leader, and Julian Buhagiar, BIM development lead.
After an introduction to the BRE Group, discussions were held regarding BREEAM International and how it could offer sustainable solutions to support Malta’s booming construction industry. The team then had the opportunity to look around the BRE Innovation Park and view some of the building & learn more about their innovative sustainable technologies.
BICC have since expressed an interest in returning to find out more and are exploring possibilities regarding using BREEAM in Malta.
Tim Bevan said “It was good to meet with BICC, share knowledge and experience and talk about how best to assist each other in building a better environment. BRE look forward to future collaboration.”