Executives | Marketing | Sales | Technical

NBS' 2023 Wrapped

20 December 2023 | By NBS

From industry-leading research and events to exciting new product developments to continually deliver value to our customers, we’re still helping to build a better construction industry 50 years on from the launch of the first National Building Specification in 1973.

NBS’ 50th year is coming to an end, so it’s time for us to reflect on 2023.

From industry-leading research and events to continually delivering value to our customers, we’re still helping to build a better construction industry 50 years from launching the first National Building Specification in 1973! Here’s what we got up to this year...

Celebrating 50 years

To celebrate our 50th year, we challenged NBS colleagues to complete 50 Acts of Kindness by volunteering, fundraising and supporting charities through other activities like bake sales.

Colleagues are given two volunteer days every year to spend some time giving back to worthwhile causes, and this year, the NBS team has helped out in many different ways.

We’ve volunteered at Foodbanks, we’ve run the Great North Run, and we even sponsored our own Shaun the Sheep sculpture as part of the Shaun on the Tyne Art Trail for St Oswald’s Hospice, a local charity close to our heart.

Our sculpture, ‘Purple Reign', is now a permanent feature in our office after we donated an additional £5000 to bring him home!

Explore NBS’ transformation from printed books to a digitised global platform with our interactive timeline.

Building a better future

At NBS, we’re committed to helping the construction industry work more sustainably with our products and sustainability resources, such as the Sustainable Specification Guides.

This year, we were recognised for our efforts with awards, including the 'Sustainability in Tech' award at the Dynamites, and 'Carbon Footprint ESG Performance of the Year' at the ESG Awards. Byggfakta UK was also awarded carbon-neutral status as NBS alongside, our sister companies Glenigan and CIS Ireland, which have all been certified independently for our 2022 emissions.

NBS Source enables users to easily filter products by specific environmental credentials like environmental product declarations (EPDs) and embodied carbon and recycled content. We’ve also added new sustainability content to NBS Chorus, helping specifiers make more sustainable decisions as part of the specification writing process.

The Construction Leaders’ Summit

In October, we held our biggest event in recent years - the Construction Leaders' Summit at Tottenham Hotspur Stadium in London. The event brought together inspirational figures from across the industry to discuss the key issues facing construction today: building safety, sustainability and digital transformation.

Dame Judith Hackitt delivered the keynote presentation about the Building Safety Act – focusing on progress so far and what specifiers and manufacturers need to do to comply with the new regulations, and told us that the industry must “rethink, reset and take responsibility.” You can watch Dame Judith’s presentation in full and find more highlights from the event.

For more key takeaways from the event, check out this article from NBS Innovation Director Dr Stephen Hamil.

Industry-leading research

We’ve published two research reports this year, packed with key industry trends and insights.

The 2023 Digital Construction Report delves into the industry's relationship with digital technology, including two critical challenges: safety and sustainability. Over 2,000 industry professionals have already downloaded the report, which contains insights into digital construction, BIM, and the latest technological trends shaping the industry. You can download the report here and watch our webinar covering some of the highlights here.

The ‘What Specifiers Want’ Report includes the views of hundreds of architects, designers, and specifiers about how they find products and systems to use in their projects. The report’s findings highlight how construction product manufacturers can provide specifiers the support and information they need to specify a product. You can download the report here and watch the accompanying webinar here.

New product developments

We continually develop our products to ensure they meet the needs of the industry and help our users create a safer and more sustainable built environment.

It was a big year for NBS Source, as the National BIM Library officially became part of Source. The move enables NBS Source to be the single source of product information and high-quality data for specifiers.

NBS Source’s Inspiration Area showcases innovative and inventive projects from all over the world to help specifiers discover the perfect products for their projects.