The Employment-Environment Alliance (AEE)
Contents
Summary
The Employment-Environment Alliance (Alliance Emploi-Environnement) is an initiative of the Brussels-Capital Region Authorities. This is one of five priority areas identified in the Sustainable Urban Growth Pact. It exemplifies the attempts of regional authorities to support the supply side of passive building, in response to an exploding demand in the Brussels-Capital Region. It supports the theory that environmental challenges could bring benefits to easily-adaptable companies, as higher employment rate and economic development. To this end, the Alliance mobilizes and coordinates the activities of public, private, and non-governmental actors along a shared goal: the development of economic industries related to the environment; to bring together the stakeholders and foster a real collective and individual commitment to working together to achieve shared objectives, namely the development of economic industries relating to the environment and create quality jobs. Sustainable construction is one of the three major work axes of the Alliance, together with Water and Waste.
The Employment-Environment Alliance
The Employment-Environment Alliance (Alliance Emploi-Environnement, or AEE) is an example of how the Brussels government stimulates the market from the top, yet all the way placing a premium on bottom-up solutions. The creation of AEE embodies the decision of the regional authorities to adopt a new working method. Instead of defining priorities and imposing respective solutions from the top, the government calls on key stakeholders to propose solutions. The AEE comprises professional organizations, unions and other organizations working in the area of environmental protection. It operates on the basis of a participatory approach. The members draft open collaboration proposals while sharing information and best practices.
AEE arose as a response to the exploding demand for eco-construction in the Brussels-Capital Region. It acts on two levels: one intended to stimulate demand (in progress), the other intended to support the development of supply.
To this end, AEE mobilizes and coordinates the activities of public, private, and non-governmental actors along a shared goal: the development of economic industries related to the environment. Sustainable construction is one of the three major work axes of the Alliance. The overarching goal of AEE is to stimulate the most promising economic sectors in terms of growth and employment, and to support them in their transition towards more sustainability, thereby improving the competitiveness of companies and enhancing the employability of Brussels residents, including low-skilled workers. Quality job creation in sustainable construction, mainly for masons, chapistes, façade builders, roofers, carpenters, glaziers, heating and sanitation specialists (installation and maintenance), electricians, architects, and technical engineers, is one of the organization’s main goals. Specifically, the Alliance strives to generate 2.500 new jobs.
The work of AEE can be divided into three different stages:
- Stage 1: Analysis. At this first stage, the goal is to identify the potential total employment, on the basis of available studies, current projects and contacts with field operators.
- Stage 2: Development. During the development phase, joint public-private working groups will be established. They will focus on priority projects estimated in this sector.
- Stage 3: Implementation. During the implementation phase, planned actions will be carried through. The process includes a review by a monitoring committee.
AEE’s Action Plan for 2012 outlines the main areas of action and working methodology of the organization, as follows:
Professionalization
The first conversion propeller of the sector towards more sustainable construction is the acquisition by entrepreneurs, managers and workers alike, of a higher level of professionalization. In this area, the Employment-Environment Alliance is to take the following actions:
- Develop benchmarks of more environmentally friendly techniques, and materials for the construction sector;
- Create a “one-stop-shopping” webpage, making information on all aspects of sustainable construction available to all interested parties;
- Expand the professional development training offer, particularly for independent persons, very small enterprises, and other collaborators;
- Elaborate a training module on insulation-airtightness-ventilation, targeting sector professionals;
- Constitute a value chain of companies able to meet market demands;
- Establish and support clusters (vertical and horizontal) of companies able to meet the quality requirements of the market environment;
- Customize and make more more accessible the support services of Brussels Region Public Employment Organization (ACTIRIS) to companies, especially in matters of employment;
- Strengthen and improve regional assistance for companies already active or engaging in sustainable construction;
- Mobilize Social Economy regarding promising niches of low-qualified work in the field of sustainable construction;
- Organize the improvement of services offered by social economy enterprises.
Employee training
To move towards sustainability, companies will have to adapt and improve the skills of their employees. This is because sustainable construction by itself does not automatically lead to the creation of new professions. Rather, existing professions have to adapt to new ways of working. To speed up the conversion of the sector, and to ensure a high level of technical quality, companies will need to resort to providing professional development opportunities to their workers. Thus, the Employment-Environment Alliance commits to:
- Study and create two instruments that facilitate access to business training, namely: a sustainable construction "Catalyst Fund," and "professional development cheques";
- Create a platform to identify the professional development needs of businesses, and stimulate companies to take advantage of training opportunities;
- Adapt training benchmarks to the challenges of sustainable construction;
- Create a network of training operators active in the field of sustainable construction;
- Establish a strategy to increase the number of trainers in sustainable construction (with priority: insulation, airtightness specialists), and ensure constant training of the trainers;
- Develop an insulation-airtightness training module for professionals;
- Extend the supply of professional development opportunities to independent persons, very small enterprises, and others.
Sales
The challenge for a company that already decided to engage in sustainable construction is to carry out its first project, which helps evaluate its mastery of the processes and techniques of implementation, establishes a network of suppliers, and identifies real risks and real sources of additional costs related to sustainable construction. Governments can support companies in their sales in several ways, for instance by introducing specific clauses in public procurement. The Employment-Environment Alliance commits to:
- Promote the Ecobuild Cluster among individuals;
- Constitute a value chain of companies able to meet market demands in Brussels;
- Establish and support clusters (vertical and horizontal) of companies able to meet the quality requirements of the market;
- Mobilize Social Economy regarding promising niches of low-qualified work in the field of sustainable construction;
- Create an "information packet" on all regional aids for sustainable construction;
- Analyze the implementation of systems for declaration of environmental performance of building materials (EPD);
- Have a tool to use environmental information, in line with the “life cycle” approach;
- Reinforce the “lead by example” approach of the regional authorities in introducing verifiable environmental performance requirements in public procurement;
- Introduce environmental clauses in the Contract documents for construction and renovation;
- Develop guidance tools (checklists, standard specifications and datasheets) for construction works most frequent among individuals (insulation, replacement boilers and chassis).
Honouring of Commitments
Once the sale is completed, the company will honor its commitments, which means ensuring a comfortable and fast access to the materials and instructions for implementation, as well as uncovering new techniques and new materials, with the efforts of research and innovation these actions imply. This, the Employment-Environment Alliance aims to:
- Stimulate innovation;
- Provide a platform for research in sustainable construction;
- Promote research and innovation in the renovation of existing buildings;
- Promote research and innovation in the field of materials for sustainable construction;
- Define and mobilize tools for research and innovation for small projects;
- Constitute a value chain of companies able to meet market demands in Brussels;
- Establish and support clusters (vertical and horizontal) of companies able to meet the quality requirements of the market;
- Mobilize Social Economy regarding promising niches of low-qualified work in the field of sustainable construction.
Gaining market recognition
Companies that have capitalized on their first experiments, and can be regarded as competent in the field of sustainable construction, must be recognized as such on the market. Here, the contribution of the Alliance is to set up a visible and recognized set of labels. The Employment-Environment Alliance will:
- Label the actors (companies and professions);
- Reinforce the “lead by example” approach of the regional authorities in introducing verifiable environmental performance requirements in public procurement.
Company growth
A company that has successfully moved towards sustainable construction should logically grow, given the increasing demand for sustainable goods and services. Managing growth is not easy, as many companies have encountered too many unexpected costs that grow too fast. The Employment-Environment Alliance will:
- Help companies manage their growth and transformation through promotion of existing support tools;
- Strengthen and improve regional assistance for companies already active or engaging in sustainable construction;
- Expedite a study of space access (installation, storage, etc.) for companies in sustainable construction
Investment
Companies must be able to finance their growth, and to access funding mechanisms and information. The Employment-Environment Alliance will:
- Create a permanent credit information mechanism for sustainable construction companies;
- Create an "information packet" of all regional aids for sustainable construction;
- Facilitate access to credit for businesses that initiate and or are active in sustainable construction;
- Foster the creation of social economy enterprises active in sustainable construction through financial incentives on startup
Recruitment
Through the training of job seekers but also of youth in secondary education system, companies must make sure that their future employees meet the new requirements of the construction sector. In this area, the Employment-Environment Alliance will:
- Organize pilot projects in education institutions in Brussels;
- Create a "week of sustainable construction professions";
- Organize a "launching the schools and sustainable construction initiative" roundtable;
- Deploy a strategy for teacher training;
- Organize visits of construction sites and businesses for students;
- Raise awareness of sustainable construction in schools and training centers;
- Adapt training benchmarks to sustainable construction;
- Establish a mapping of education stakeholders;
- Create a Joint Working Group, to discuss content material in educational institutions;
- Develop an insulation-airtightness training module for job-seekers;
- Establish a strategy to increase the number of trainers in sustainable construction;
- Improve the matching between supply and demand of the labor market in the area of sustainable construction.
In addition, the Employment-Environment Alliances engages in the following overarching activities:
- Establish an annual scoreboard of the construction sector (state of the market, employment, training, education, government financial aid) for actors involved in the development of sustainable construction;
- Constitute a technical committee to facilitate technical and pedagogical transfer of know-how;
- Build a common glossary for Brussels-Wallonia-Flanders.
More information:
Alliance emploi-environnement – Axe construction durable
More information:
