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ast week saw the Construction Innovation Hub’s (CIH) Value Toolkit move into its next phase. This news should be warmly welcomed by the entire construction sector as it unlocks a new future where informed value-based decision making becomes the norm.

No longer will decisions default to discussions around cheapness. Rather, the Toolkit will provide both clients and consultants with the means to explore ideas around better delivery and in doing so will ensure the built environment sector is able to meet political ambitions to build back better, or around Net Zero, for example.

This informed decision making means deeper engagement and understanding of value – across the entire supply chain – which is more financially sustainable and effectively balances social, environmental and economic benefits and consequences. This approach is increasingly important for sources of private finance that need to demonstrate the positive impact of their investments.

The Toolkit will provide both clients and consultants with the means to explore ideas around better delivery Hannah Vickers

To date the CIH has engaged more than 200 partners, including ACE in developing their client and market approach, to get to this stage. Early adopters include members Arup, Mott MacDonald, and WSP in the UK.

Registration is now open until 21 May 2021 for other companies that are interested in getting involved. Thanks to these pilot programmes, projects and portfolios over the coming months, the Value Toolkit will be fine-tuned between now and December to ensure it delivers maximum benefits for a wide range of clients.

In a previous blog, I outlined how value-based decision making also enables new approaches to reward and incentivisation. I explored how commercial strategy, procurement process/bid evaluation, and ongoing performance management must be aligned and ambitious if it is to enable a transparent client/market relationship. The Value Toolkit is integral to these discussions and has to be viewed as the starting point for any reappraisal of how we do business.

The Value Toolkit has lots going for it, but it is its quiet potential in unlocking the future of our industry which I feel is the most exciting. It is the starting point for the emergence of a new and more sustainable construction industry, one that better reflects client needs and society’s aspirations, and which is able to provide a framework to help our sector realise political ambitions on net zero, increased productivity, or levelling up. All of this while demonstrating a transparent procurement process and value for money.

With the Value Toolkit’s arrival, procuring for value is just around the corner.

Hannah Vickers is chief executive of the Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE).