POISED FOR GROWTH

Celebrating 65 years in Ireland, Wavin attributes its growth to innovation and sustainability

Since 1958, Wavin Ireland has been integrally woven into the fabric of the construction industry here. The business was founded by David McIlvenna and Tom McMahon, two entrepreneurs who had become aware of the production of PVC pipes and fittings in the Netherlands, following a trade mission organised by the Department of Industry & Commerce under the stewardship of Sean Lemass. With the support of the Irish government and strong backing from the IDA, they quickly established a manufacturing facility and Wavin Pipes was formed. For his part, Lemass went on to become the first Chairman of the company.

Wavin Ireland began life in a small industrial unit in Cian Park, Drumcondra, in Dublin. It enjoyed prosperous growth and in 1962 relocated to a new 26-acre purpose-built site in Balbriggan, where it remains today.

Wavin Ireland is a member of the Wavin Group – the world leader in plastic pipe systems for residential, non-residential and civil engineering projects. Systems offered include market-leading above and below ground drainage, Hep2O hot and cold plumbing and underfloor heating, as well as a wide range of Wavin drainage and stormwater management solutions for all application areas.
Wavin also offers full technical consultancy, Building Information Modelling (BIM) services, Continuous Professional Development Training (CPD) and customer support to ensure efficient, high-quality installation and project delivery. The Wavin Group is now part of Orbia, a community of companies bound together by a shared purpose – to advance life around the world. Orbia had revenues in 2022 of $9.648 billion, with Wavin accounting for 33% of this.

Business levels strong in challenging times
According to Michael O’Donohoe, Country Director at Wavin Ireland, business is currently in a state of flux. After a strong start to 2023 in Q1, which may have been more attributed to finishing projects than starting them, Q2 has started slowly with weaker consumer sentiment and uncertainty around the future all tied up with inflation, interest rates and input costs.

Material and energy costs have certainly taken their toll and resulted in significant price increases, although thankfully this has eased in recent months. The supply chain issues around the shortage of raw material are all gone, but the challenge remains around finding the right people in a buoyant economy and jobs market and recruitment is slow and difficult. The construction sector does not have the same appeal as other sectors of the economy and the talent pool is moving around, as opposed to growing from new entrants.

Focus on innovation
Wavin has always been known for innovation. In 1978, Wavin Ireland developed and launched the market-leading Wavin Access Junction or WAJ as it’s known. It has been the number one selling Wavin Access Junction for the last 40 years and one of the company’s most successful export products, a position that is still maintained today.

O’Donohoe also explains that Wavin remains focused on innovative solutions. Most recently, Wavin has launched the AS+, a wastewater system that is designed to tackle noise pollution in multi occupancy buildings like nursing homes, hotels and apartment buildings. This increases the comfort and wellbeing of the building’s occupants.

Wavin pioneered the use of recycled materials in its products. It uses what it calls Recycore Technology in its sewer pipe portfolio, which uses at least 50% recycled PVC. This initiative is part of the business’ efforts to minimise its environmental impact – ie reducing CO2 emissions through freight. “We’re also committed to reducing the environmental impact of our packaging, whilst still getting products to customers safely and securely,” said O’Donohoe.

Innovation however is not just limited to products and processes. The business launched a web shop portal in April last year, offering merchant customers a simple and effective e-business solution for ordering. Further enhancements currently being rolled out include stock availability and multiple order file formats, which will see close to 50% of all orders placed online by year-end. In parallel with this, customer service has been enhanced with a wider next-day delivery area and with a lunchtime target cut-off for important site deliveries.

Sustainability promise in action
Turning to sustainability, O’Donohoe explains that at Wavin Ireland the sustainability promise extends across products, processes and community involvement. Globally, Wavin is committed to building healthy, sustainable environments. Wavin Ireland is part of this purpose and is focused on finding innovative solutions to help create a more sustainable Ireland. As such, Wavin products and packages are designed to help engineers and contractors complete their projects in the most efficient and effective ways possible.
Wavin has recently launched environmental product declarations (EPDs) for its suite of products sold in the Irish and UK markets. Based on third-party verified life cycle assessments (LCAs), EPDs transparently map production processes to resource impacts. Providing details on the environmental impact across the entire lifecycle, EPDs enable building designers, planners, contractors and developers to choose more sustainable products and solutions.

“We work with our customers to help them build more sustainable environments by offering creative solutions that help tackle the issues we are facing right now,” said O’Donohoe. “We are increasing the number of Climate Change Adaptation Solutions – for example, indoor climate solutions such as underfloor heating and ventilation systems for either new build or renovation projects which are energy efficient and economical to run. We have also introduced water absorption products like TreeTanks, which can be easily and effectively integrated into urban areas without disrupting vital infrastructure. Delivering nutrients and water to trees, the product allows for the greening up and cooling of cityscapes, vital as our cities manage the challenge of increasing temperatures.”

Wavin also provides tools like BIM Intelligence which helps specifiers to be accurate in mapping out their drainage systems, leading to less time needed to be spent on design, ensuring they order only what’s needed, which in turn reduces waste.

Last year (2022), Guaranteed Irish sought the support of Wavin and other members of the organisation in establishing the Guaranteed Irish Forest, an initiative that aims to encourage climate action engagement and increase biodiversity. Guaranteed Irish aligns its values with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (UN SDGs), which are the overarching goals that guide us all to a sustainable future. Wavin aligns its business sustainability strategy with these same goals.

“The Guaranteed Irish Forest initiative underlines its commitment to these goals and is a legacy project that we are proud to support and to play our part in its creation,” said Michael O’Donohoe. The first trees will be planted this autumn.
He added: “Allied to our continual product innovation, which delivers solutions to combat the challenges of climate change and allows nature to thrive within the built environment, these initiatives provide for healthier and more sustainable environments.”

Reducing its carbon footprint
Reducing its carbon footprint is another target for Wavin. Its introduction of recycled materials talked about earlier is one example. Another example is its range of AquaCell geocellular attenuation/infiltration stormwater management units, a key component of effective surface water attenuation, which are manufactured from 100% recycled material. As a business, Wavin is committed to reaching carbon net zero status by 2050. “Our goal is to lead the industry in sustainability by 2025 and we are committed to help reduce emissions in the built environment.”

A good example of this is the move to a fully electric car fleet for the commercial team, with just one vehicle left to transition early next year.

Local community support
As well as a commitment to improving the cities and towns that we live in through better building performance and working with architects and engineers to find solutions in their everyday challenges, Wavin Ireland remains committed to the local community of Balbriggan.

The Wavin lake, for example, is approximately 26 acres set in a wildlife sanctuary. The lake was man-made in the early nineteenth century (1826) to provide water for the cotton mills in the Balbriggan area. It was acquired by Wavin in 1974 to augment the Balbriggan water supply to the factory to ensure a constant level of water for the plant’s cooling process.

Twenty years later, after improvements to the water supply system in the area, Wavin no longer needed the lake as a commercial natural resource and effectively gave it back to the community in 1993 by entering into a 99 year lease with Gormanstown Anglers, which is home to Dublin’s largest all year rainbow trout fishery. The angling club has transformed the lake into what is now a rich community resource, full of beautiful wildlife and fauna. Support for community activity has continued since the 60s. In 2022, Wavin further extended this support programme through a collaboration with the Irish Institute of Music and Song (IIMS) development in Balbriggan. Sustainability is at the heart of the IIMS development and Wavin AquaCell units have been supplied to facilitate stormwater management within the site. A key element of this is a sustainable drainage system to minimise the impact of excess rainwater into the area’s local drainage network. The area in which the tank is situated will be used as an outdoor mini amphitheatre, surrounded by tiered grass areas creating a natural outdoor performance space.
Wavin Ireland’s contribution is a key element of the development, through its technical expertise, advice and the products themselves. As a result, the IIMS plans to name this outdoor area ‘The Wavin Amphitheatre’.

Another local project which Wavin currently supports is Bí Urban, a social enterprise in Dublin’s North-West inner city. Bi Urban’s Rain Garden project harvests rainwater to create little oases in the urban landscape. Wavin is providing the pipes to allow these rain gardens to function by allowing roof top rainwater run-off to create mini gardens as a nature-based solution to address multiple urban issues, which are being monitored by UCD’s civil engineering faculty.

A bright future
Turning to the future, O’Donohoe says: “Challenges aside, I am really optimistic for the future. I think the construction industry looks very bright over the next five to seven years across all sectors, but particularly residential as we strive to increase completions up to 35,000 units and beyond. As the economy and population continue to grow, the non-residential sector will also grow with demand for more schools, nursing homes, hotels etc, whilst not forgetting about the wonderful job that the IDA continues to do attracting inward foreign direct investment. In line with this general trend, I believe that Wavin Ireland will continue to grow its business and further invest in its operations and organisation to meet this demand. Our support for TU Dublin’s Design + Construct Centre at the Broombridge site in Dublin reflects our confidence in the future.

“In addition to supporting new innovative design, systems and products, we believe that more people need to be attracted to the construction industry. This includes building materials manufacturing, builders’ merchants, construction firms, tradespeople and the professional bodies.

“At heart, we are a solution driven business and the challenges for all of us around sustainability and creating more sustainable, climate resilient cities is top of mind. Innovative engineering, architectural and manufacturing solutions will have a huge role to play here. Wavin wants to be at the forefront of this.

“For example, our tree tanks are designed to allow green spaces to thrive in urban settings – we know we need these spaces for our cities to survive and it’s this kind of thinking that is going to be so important for the future. Rain and stormwater run-off has been particularly top of mind this year and we see the damage it causes. What was once a one in 100 years flood event is now occurring every couple of years. We have products designed to tackle this and the technical knowledge around them that we want to share.

“We’ll continue to reduce our carbon footprint, both through the products we manufacture and the materials used and through the supply chain, our packaging and the way we do business at our site in Balbriggan and further afield.”

www.wavin.ie

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Michael McDonnell Managing Editor of Irish Construction Industry Magazine & Plan Magazine

Email: michael@irishconstruction.com      WWW.MCDMEDIA.IE