This year's KPI results show continuous improvement in the construction industry's performance.
Eleven out of the fourteen indicators have bettered their 2002 results. One set, the respect for people KPIs, where the method of measurement has not changed, have also improved. These results, claims Construction Best Practice (CBP), send the clear message that anyone in the industry standing still will quickly be left behind.

As a useful gauge of improvement, the client satisfaction KPIs show significant results. Client satisfaction with the product is shown by the 2003 results to have improved from 72% to 78%, while satisfaction with the service has improved from 58% to 78%.

In the construction consultants' KPIs, improvements were found in training, productivity, and quality of service. Profitability was seen to be down on the last set of results. This was attributed to current industry fee levels.

This year also saw the launch of the new environment KPIs, developed by DTI, BRE and CIRIA. This set will include: impact on the environment, energy use, mains water use, waste, commercial vehicle movements, impact on biodiversity, area of habitat created/retained and whole life performance. The headline KPI, entitled Impact on the environment showed that in the industry at large, only 51% of construction projects rated eight out of 10 or better when assessing how the construction process impacted on the environment. This number was 28% when assessing how the completed product impacted on the environment.

The same measure among the Rethinking Construction demonstration projects showed that 76% scored eight out of 10 or better for process and 62% for product.

These measures are certain to be of great interest to the building services sector in light of the government focus on energy efficiency in buildings in its recent white paper.

CBP director Brian Moone says: "As this is the first year of publication of environment KPIs, there is obviously no comparison to be made with previous years. However, it is clear that environmental performance is a vital, emerging area and the new KPIs will provide a simple starting point for organisations striving to achieve continuous improvement."