Construction Fixings

Here Barbara Sorgato, secretary general of the European Consortium of Anchor Producers (ECAP), reports on the association’s recent General Assembly, which took place in Zurich, Switzerland, from 14^th to 15^th June.

ECAP members gathered to discuss together the strategy for the present and the future of their products, based on circular economy initiatives. Held in Zurich, the welcome from the Swiss members immediately swept away any clichés of cows, chocolates, and banks, that the non-Swiss consortium members may have inadvertently been thinking. Instead replacing them with those of an ancient democracy tailored on the micro-realities of this nation, and an effervescent cultural melting pot.

This was underlined  by demonstrations of the women’s strike across Switzerland, which took place on the first day of the meeting, with women of all ages – and men too – taking to the streets to fight against the devaluation of women’s work, both financially and socially, and in particular against wage inequality –
which in Switzerland, as with many countries in the European Union, is unfortunately a rule of the market.

Through the demonstration, ECAP members were able to get to the heart of one of the aspects of the circular economy – gender equality and inclusiveness – without even needing to be in the room. In fact, gender equality is something ECAP is aware of, as the association’s office is entirely managed by female employees, therefore lacking a male presence. Not having this male inclusiveness is a weakness of ECAP’s office and something that we will be working on. 

Sustainability and the circular economy

Once the meeting began, members were handed a postcard with a QR code giving a link to ECAP activities. Along the lines of hotel rooms, which invite us to reuse towels, and restaurants that deprive us of their precious menus on satin paper, ECAP has applied sustainability through a digital approach – leaving members halfway between being aware of the right thing to do and regretting the wrong but more comfortable, alternative.

The Green Deal, digitalisation and the circular economy have been on ECAP’s agenda since 2019. However, talking about these topics in general is one thing; defining them for our products is another thing. As an association, we have extrapolated the part of the circular economy that allows us to address the issue at an association level, i.e at a common level – such as sustainability – whilst leaving the definition of the other aspects of the circular economy to the initiatives of individual companies. In fact, we must not forget that we operate in the paradox of having to deal with the circular economy while remaining completely within the mechanisms of the linear capitalist economy in which we find ourselves. Seen from this point of view, sustainability needs to be sold, even before being applied, and this is a marketing objective that a company hardly wants to share with competitors, even at an association level. If ECAP was to succeed in a common approach on sustainable fasteners, we could almost say that we have incorporated the circular economy into our DNA.

Sustainability of fasteners, as I have written in other articles in this magazine, is a transversal theme for all activities, at all levels. It cannot be closed in a folder or a drawer, because so many things we face today in ECAP are affected by sustainability. Consequently, not only the ECAP agenda but also our way of working requires a change and an adaptation to this new approach. It is difficult for us to talk about sustainability using the usual images of shoots, leaves and earth. Sustainability is not a marketing concept to better sell organic products, it is a revolution in our way of working, which takes us out of the comfort zone we have reached in recent years. It is a violent, uncomfortable change, if put in place at the speed we are doing it. For this reason, we represented it to the members with a quote from Charles Darwin: ‘It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one that is most adaptable to change.’

Discussions on CPR revision

During the General Assembly we were honoured to host Evangelia Tsiala, from Small Business Standards, as well as Oscar Nieto from the European Commission. They both answered the many questions posed by ECAP members on the present and the future of post-installed fasteners and wood connectors, under the actual Construction Products Regulation (CPR), as well as under its revision, as proposed so far. 

Members tackled several topics related to the standardisation blockage and the so called CPR acquis, as well as practical aspects such as the legal provisions of the ETA transfer; the implementation of a Unique Identification Code in the new CPR; the legal status of Eurocodes and EOTA Technical Reports in European Member States; the consequences of having ETAs outside of the harmonised zone in the new CPR; the format of the future digitalised Declaration of Performance and Declaration of Conformity for fasteners with EADs and with CE Marking based on CEN standards; and the responsibility of the manufacturer in the new Declarations of Conformity.

Timber connectors is the sector that faces most of the challenges mentioned above. It is in fact here that we face the rewriting of the new Standardisation Requests, which bring within them the issues of sustainability and the legal implementation of the new CPR. It is the test bed where the technicians of the ECAP Working Group face not only the technical challenges but those related to sustainability and the legal basis of the standards on connectors. It is also the sector where dialogue with other associations develops on several levels – because the upheaval taking place in the world of construction products makes us disoriented and in need of sharing views and information.

Staying sustainable

At the end of the first day, and to stay on the subject of sustainability, the members had dinner at the Hiltl restaurant – a vegetarian restaurant that has not been opened on a cultural whim, or the wave of sustainability fashion, but is a historic and traditional restaurant that was founded in 1898 by Ambrosius Hiltl, making it the world’s first vegetarian restaurant in Europe.

ECAP board reconfirmed

At the end of the second day of the General Assembly, members voted for the board for 2023 to 2026, with all members reconfirmed for another three years – rewarding the work done in support of the association and its European composition. 

The board is made up of Lars Mortensen of Kyocera-Senco, Urs Joos of Jcons GmbH, Andrea Taddei of Bossong SpA, Nick Beardon of JCP Construction Products, Johannes Heye of pgb Group, Santiago Reig of Index and Gianluca Bertamino of Tecfi SpA. 

The board in turn elected ECAP’s chairman for 2023 to 2026, with Mr Gianluca Bertamino, one of the founding members of ECAP, becoming the association’s chairman for the first time.