A brand new custom-built web portal together with sustainability training resources for the quarrying sector has gone online.  Branded as NI Quarry Portal it delivers sustainability to the quarrying sector demonstrating leadership from a range of partners from education institutions to the industry itself. The NI Quarry Portal was funded by the Department of Employment and Learning. It was developed by the South West College (SWC) InnoTech Centre, Quarry Products Association NI (QPANI) and the extractives sector skills council Proskills.

Launched at the QPANI Members' Environment Day in October 2010, Laverne Bell informed the audience "This unique partnership project exemplifies how learning and understanding of sustainability issues specific to an industry, along with the right tools can assist local companies (large and small) to integrate social, environmental and economic considerations into their everyday operations".

The portal aims to provide a resource to support the industry in its efforts to become more sustainable. NI Quarry Portal serves as a dedicated space for all employers engaged in the extractives and quarry/building products industries in Northern Ireland to quickly access information, share insights and best practice experience in the area of sustainability. To support this development, SWC, QPANI and Proskills have developed industry led & relevant curriculum focused on the area of sustainability for the extractives and quarry products industry. The Sustainability Courses are significant templates, written in such a way that the content will be deliverable to a wide range of industries with specialisation being available for each industrial sector. Concluding at the launch Laverne Bell thanked all the project partners and funders and congratulated the project on reaching the finals at the Sustainable Ireland Awards.  

QPANI Members and Stakeholders photographed at the official launch of the NI Quarry Portal at the Environment Day held in October 2010.

NI Quarry Portal has specialised on four objectives:

Web Based Tool (www.niquarryportal.com) including specialist information and links for employer guidance.

Development of a Senior Management Sustainability Course.

Development of a Middle Managers Sustainability Course.

Inform and address the present and future skills gaps in NI with regard to impact assessment and sustainability.  

Background to the project

The need for the development of the web based tool and training resources was identified by the QPANI through consultation with its members and industry representatives. They identified the need for a Northern Ireland based internet portal through which the local quarrying and quarry products industry could obtain easy access to industry relevant information and training on sustainability issues and promotion.

In order to appreciate the existing resources, a scoping exercise was carried out by SWC. Aaron Black from the InnoTech Centre explains what they found out “Scoping of the existing information resource revealed quarrying sites specialised to the English regulatory environment and an overall lack of coherent sustainability information for the industry.  Although the information on these sites was accurate and relevant, dedicated information on the impact of the sustainability agenda and the differing legislation between NI and England meant no suitable resource existed for NI covering the sustainability issues faced by the NI quarry industry”.

To assist the development of the web portal the results from the consultation with the industry and earlier surveys was used. This highlighted difficulties in the application of sustainability into the quarrying industry and suggested a lack of knowledge, time and resources as the key problems.  Aaron Black concludes “It has been found that larger organisations have the availability of resources to implement many sustainability activities without assistance whilst smaller businesses are being left behind resulting in difficulties when tendering for new work and maintaining sufficient income through resource efficiency issues.  The NI Quarry Portal has been established to address this need”.