EDA brings together the main representatives of the European demolition industry in Helsinki
30/06/2015
The European Demolition Association, EDA, gathered contractors, manufacturers and associations of demolition industry from all around Europe in its Annual Convention, which was held on June 11th to 13th, 2015, in Helsinki, Finland.
EDA is an active part on this global movement of our industry, and its main goal now is to work towards international standards on the training of workers and the accreditation of companies.
In view of these aims, the Annual Convention 2015, included activities to present, debate and define a roadmap for these international standards, as a conferences, presentations about new developments, case stories or round tables discussion.
Thursday, June 11th
The first activity of the EDA Annual Convention 2015 was a meeting of the Finnish Demolition Industry, where more than 15 professionals from the home country attended in order to check the situation of the demolition industry in Finland.
After that, the workshop “Selective demolition: current practices and innovation”, presented and moderated by members of the European project HISER, took place with the presence of almost 30 registered professionals.
The professional program of the Thursday included a visit to a demolition waste management facility.
After the visit, and just before the Welcome cocktail, the EDA General Assembly was held with the objective of creating an overview of the demolition situation in each country, between others topics.
The welcome cocktail was the last activity on Thursday, where all the attendants had the opportunity to salute their colleagues.
The President of EDA, Ms. Pilar de la Cruz, and Mr. Janne Salonen, president of the Finnish Demolition Association, FDA, and the delegate of the sponsor company DELETE OY, welcomed the people assembled in a nice terrace with a really good weather.
Friday, June 12th
On Friday, at the same time of the professional program, there was a leisure program which launch as a unique opportunity to discover the amazing city of Helsinki,
The professional program was moderated at the beginning to the end by Ms. Riikka Kinnunen, secretary of the Finnish Demolition Association and advisor of the Finnish Environmental Industry (YTP).
The conference started with a institutional welcome by Ms. Sirpa Pietikäinen, member of the Economic and Monetary Affairs Committee and substitute member of the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee as well as of the Women’s Right and Gender Equality Committee of the European Parliament.
Ms. Pietikäinen spoke from her position in the European Parliament about the importance of the Circular Economy in Europe and the necessity of a good manage in the Construction & Demolition Waste.
After her, the president of EDA, Ms. Pilar de la Cruz, welcomed the almost 120 attendants in the Conference room thanking their presence and the support of the sponsors: RITCHIE BROS, DELETE, LIEBHERR, ARDEN EQUIPMENT, SMH, RAMMER, NPK, MANTOVANIBENNE, ROBI, and DEMAREC.
Conference session 1
The first presentation was made by Mr. John Woodrow, from the company SAFEDEM, about the necessity of update the “Guidance for Deconstruction of Tower Blocks floor by floor/piecemeal”, a guide launched by the National Federation of Demolition Contractors, NFDC.
The second speaker was Ms. Holly Price, Director of KELTBRAY Ltd and Chairman of the NFDC London and Southern Counties Region, with a presentation where she showed different methodologies about the pre-weaking of steel structures to enable demolition.
Before the first coffee break, the technical director of JEAN HARZHEIM GMBH & CO KG, Mr. Johannes Harzheim, presented a case story of a tower block demolition in the context of the German Demolition Market.
Conference session 2
Mr. Edwin Zoontjes, Manager of the Dutch Association of demolition and asbestos removal companies, VERAS, opened the second session to explain some important issues in the demolition industry in The Netherlands.
The Circular economy was a very important topic during the Conference and Mr. Vincent Basuyau, Policy Officer – Sustainable Construction at DG GROW Unit C.1 Clean Technology and Products, explained the approach of the European Commission about this issue.
Before lunch and networking’s time, Mr. Janne Salonen, as a delegate of DELETE OY, presented a case story about the demolition of Koverhar steel mill in Finland.
Conference session 3
The Secretary General of the French Demolition Association, SNED, Mr. Mathieu Hiblot, approached to the attendants the French model in tracking demolition waste.
After Statistics Working Group of EDA launched the Demolition Market Survey some months ago, the German Demolition Association, DA, Mr. Andreas Pocha, was the person in charge to explain all the interesting collected data for each country.
To finish this session, Ms. Vedrana Lovincic, from the company EURCO, explained the Croatian practices in demolition and use of recycled C&D Waste.
Conference session 4
The last part of the Conference program was started by the General Manager of the Swedish Demolition Association, RIV, Mr. Lars Sandström, and Ms. Gunilla Bernevi, architect from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm.
They spoke about the training of workers for hazardous waste decontamination.
Mr. Johan Fisnteen, president of the European Federation of Explosive Engineers, EFEE, explained the guidelines to work with explosives in demolition.
Finally, the Secretary General of the European Demolition Association, Mr. Jose Blanco, made a presentation about the necessity of creating the European Professional Card for Demolition works, one of the goals for this industry in the future.
Gala dinner
At night, the participants enjoyed a Gala Dinner in the majestic Katajanokan Kasino, one of the most sophisticated places in the capital city of Finland, which provided a relaxed atmosphere to the professionals at the Annual Convention.
The president of EDA, Ms. Pilar de la Cruz, made a speech and especially thanked the Gala Dinner sponsor, RITCHIE BROS and its delegate, Mr. Nicola Nicelli, who also wanted to say some words of gratitude to all the attendants.
Saturday 13th
On Saturday, more than 30 people enjoyed a leisure program that consisted in a guided tour on bus (with translation to several languages), lunch and a guided tour on boat, where the weather was really excellent.
The next edition of the EDA Annual Convention will be held on June 9th to 11th 2016 in Glasgow, Scotland.
Video
Links
