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THE STANDARD Edition 18 - Winter 2023 RESTORE MORE VALENTIS ADVISORY Page 5 2022 AWARDS WINNER: DISASTERCARE PLATINUM Page 11 THE BDMA EXECUTIVE VIEW Page 12 REBECCA MARSHALL FROM ZURICH INSURANCE Page 18 NIKKI SUTTON FROM QUESTGATES Page 19 BREACHES OF BDMA EXAMINATIONS Page 22 Eight Manifold Ports In Stock Now! Eight Manifold Ports In Stock Now! www.ecor-pro.com UK office T: 0191 816 2898 www.ecor-pro.com UK office T: 0191 816 2898 03 Editorial Enquiries Adrian Jolly strategicdevelopment@bdma.org.uk Advertising Sales Sophie Bennett info@bdma.org.uk Design & Production Jean Davenport jean.davenport@bdma.org.uk Lucy Thompson lucy.thompson@bdma.org.uk The Standard is published quarterly by The British Damage Management Association. The Standard is written in collaboration with our members, showcasing industry thought leaders and success stories to the wider community. We are delighted to present the opportunity for our members to broadcast their expertise to the broader insurance industry by submitting opinion pieces and case studies for inclusion in The Standard. Please feel free to submit your content for consideration. Published 1st February 2023 DISCLAIMER: The BDMA accepts no responsibility for the views expressed by contributors within The Standard. Advertisements and Advertorials are accepted at the discretion of the editor and The BDMA and do not imply any endorsement of goods or services. BDMA MEMBERSHIP Have you recently moved premises? Or have you recently moved to a different company? If so, please remember to send an update of your new details to info@bdma.org.uk Membership Update 03 Notes from the Chair 04 #RestoreMore to help fulfil your ESG commitments 05 by Ian Sutcliffe, Valentis Why aren't contents being restored as much as they could be? 06 by Matt Cooper, Harwell Restoration Restoration vs. Replacement 08 by Polygon Damage Control Technician Advisory 09 Cleaning & Restoring Rugs by Paul Pearce Restoring Commercial Contents 10 by Jack Corden, Davis French & Associates Limited BDMA Award Winners 11 Sustainable Project of the Year, Domestic Property: Disastercare Platinum Why aren't we restoring more? 12 Opinions from BDMA executive members Adam Waters, Chris Edwards and James Parsons Beyond restoration? 14 by Julia Stockdale, Fine Art Restoration Total contents restoration 16 by Chris Netherton Jnr Restore vs. Replace 18 by Rebecca Marshall, Zurich Insurance Restoration of contents in the private clients market 19 by Nikki Sutton, Questgates Sorting and drying water damaged items 20 by Malcolm Triggs, Ecor Pro Ltd BDMA Accredited Specialist Restorers 21 Breach of BDMA Examination terms and conditions 22 Learning & Development 23 BDMA Training News New BDMA Members 23 BDMA Enquiries & Correspondence The BDMA, Harborough Innovation Centre, Wellington Way, Airfield Business Park, Market Harborough LE16 7WB Phone: 01858 414278 | Email: info@bdma.org.uk Website: www.bdma.org.uk Keep up with us on social media… @TheBDMA @TheBDMA BDMA (British Damage Management Association) CONTENTS CONTACT US Newly Accredited Members this Quarter 95 Corporate Associates 12 BDMA Sponsors 93NOTES FROM THE CHAIR NOTES FROM THE CHAIR Directors John Thompson (Chair) chairman@bdma.org.uk Adrian Jolly (Head of Strategic Development) strategicdevelopment@bdma.org.uk Kathryn Rodgers kathryn.rodgers@harwellrestoration.co.uk Adam Waters: Specialists specialists@bdma.org.uk Chris Edwards: Specialists specialists@bdma.org.uk Marie Stearn: DM Practitioners (Residential) dmresidential@bdma.org.uk Executive Committee Members & Constituencies Phil McVay: Claims Technicians claimspract@bdma.org.uk James Parsons: Insurance Technicians instechs@bdma.org.uk Richard Talbot-Jones: Governance & Company Secretary governance@bdma.org.uk Jean Davenport: Learning and Development Manager jean.davenport@bdma.org.uk Support Personnel / BDMA Administration Sophie Bennett: Office Manager sophie.bennett@bdma.org.uk Anne Roche: Administrator Anne.roche@bdma.org.uk Cheryl Rowell: Membership Administrator Cheryl.rowell@bdma.org.uk Lucy Thompson: Training and Media Support Executive lucy.thompson@bdma.org.uk Sharron Smith: Administrator Sharron.smith@bdma.org.uk The BDMA Executive, Directors and Support Personnel 2022 was another very busy year for the BDMA with the main focus being on our first summer Conference at the East Midlands Conference Centre. The Conference theme, “The Roadmap to Sustainable Resilience” emphasised one of the key issues currently facing our industry. This was expertly brought to life by our keynote speaker, Simon Reeve. Our team were also busy out “on the road” attending Flood Expo 2022, Crawfords Contractor Connection, FloodEx 2022, the NCCA Open Day 2022, and a north-east regional Insurance Institute seminar: From Devastation to Restoration. It has been good to catch up with so many members and industry colleagues during 2022. A big thank you goes to the hardworking BDMA team, the members of the Executive Committee, my fellow board members, and to all our members and supporters, the reason we are here and continue to do what we do. My thoughts and best wishes go to the families of those we lost in 2022, and those who are currently struggling and suffering with illness. May the winter months disappear swiftly and Spring arrive quickly! May I send you my very best wishes for 2023. Through partnership working and involvement in industry wide initiatives, the BDMA executive is also informed by the Association’s relationship with The Association of British Insurers (ABI) and the Chartered Institute of Loss Adjusters (CILA). 04 BY JOHN THOMPSON NOTES FROM THE CHAIR05 Insurers anticipate that 85% of their Scope 3 emissions (indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain) sit within their supply chain. This incorporates goods and services purchased, vehicle emissions, repairs, and use of non-sustainable products. Over the past 12-18 months, insurers have been working hard to measure and improve their carbon footprint within their own organisations for Scope 1 & 2 emissions. These are derived from owned or directly controlled sources including the generation of purchased energy consumed by the reporting organisation. As insurers begin to understand and tackle their Scope 3 emissions, they will look to organisations in supply chains to measure and report on their own carbon footprint along with an understanding of wider environmental and social initiatives under the guise of ESG (Environmental Social Governance). At the 2022 United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP27), governments from around the world promise to maintain the commitments they had previously made to tackle climate change. The UK government’s commitments have been passed down to the public sector, PLCs and other large organisations who must now show what they plan to do to reduce their own organisation’s impact on the planet. Insurance companies sit firmly in this space. Large insurers are now openly stating that in the future they will no longer work with organisations who do not meet strict requirements for reducing environmental impact, improving social inclusion, and strengthening risk control and governance across their businesses. Large UK national suppliers will be expected to conform to more stringent requirements sooner, with smaller suppliers expected to have plans particularly around carbon reduction, use of sustainable materials in repair, and demonstrable waste reduction from site. It can also be expected that some insurers will apply a procurement weighting of up to 20% through their tender processes, which illustrates the value they place on ESG. Over the coming months, you will begin to hear the term Restore and Repair More. Creating a plan to restore and repair more damaged items and properties, will have to become a fundamental element of an ESG plan if companies are working in the insurance claims sector. The challenge for the damage management sector is the conflict between insurer clients asking to restore more, and their customer, the policyholders, demanding replacement as they have come to expect over the past 20 years. Success will only be achieved by collaborative working together between loss adjusters and insurers and to manage customer expectations together with explaining the benefit of reducing our impact on the environment through sustainable repairs. Creating and implementing an ESG plan should not be taken lightly, and if implemented correctly, this will create value within your business by reducing your impact on the planet, better motivating and supporting your people, improving engagement with local communities, driving stronger governance, and delivering more efficient and profitable outcomes. The first question of course is; where do we start? There is, however, no consensus in this respect from the insurance sector. Best advice is to understand your own Scope 1 & 2 emissions through a carbon footprint assessment. From there, begin to create a step-by-step carbon reduction plan by identifying the actions you have already taken, initiatives under development such as lighting and heating on timers or schedules, any move to hybrid or electric fleets, recycling, and waste reduction programmes and/or plans to restore more. The list, of course, is endless but identifying three to five metrics with targets for improvement for each of the Environmental, Social and Governance pillars will help you build an effective and compliant plan for your business and your clients. Valentis is an advisory business specialising in helping organisations in the insurance supply chain fulfill their ESG commitments from planning through to implementation and independent certification. Contact us now at info@valentisadvisory.com #RESTOREMORE TO HELP FULFIL YOUR ESG COMMITMENTS BY IAN SUTCLIFFE, VALENTIS GUEST FEATURE GUEST FEATURE06 MATTHEW COOPER, ACCOUNT DIRECTOR OF HARWELL RESTORATION, SHARES HIS THOUGHTS ON WHY THE NUMBER OF CONTENTS ITEMS BEING RESTORED IS NOT GREATER, AND WHY THIS IS SO IMPORTANT FOR A SUSTAINABLE CLAIMS STRATEGY. Working with disaster management contractors for over 40 years, Harwell have seen claims involving all manner of perils. This includes fires, floods, and mould in numerous different settings from stately homes and national museums to all manner of domestic and commercial properties. Many of our recent conversations with Insurers and Loss Adjusters have been around the belief that whilst the skills exist, the opportunity to restore contents is not being utilised as often as it could be. The contents that Harwell restore are often referred to as ‘specialist items’ - all sorts of weird and wonderful artefacts that require the approach of a specialist to meet the restoration or preservation needs. Examples include books and documents, porcelain, watches and clocks, fine art, photographs, and tapestries. An example of where a specialist approach was needed was at a London University library that suffered water damage to 250 crates of books, academic research, film, and artwork. The incident was initially thought to be a total loss and a reserve of over £400,000 was allowed against the claim. Pursuing a specialist approach to restoration cost a total of £60,000, reducing the initial predicted claim value significantly. It is worth acknowledging that the impact of restoration in the above case was not just financial. Restoration enabled the continued use of valuable research materials that would otherwise have been lost. In Private Client and Heritage Claims there is often a more compelling case for restoration being carried out where the affected contents are of financial and cultural significance. In these cases, restoration is invariably the most cost-effective and preferred route for the customer. In domestic claims, Harwell are handling personal belongings on behalf of damage management Technicians, often where advice is required. Photographs exemplify the sentimental and irreplaceable nature of personal effects. As can be seen in figure 1, so much can be done to restore and if required digitalise images to save even the most badly affected items. WHY AREN’T CONTENTS BEING RESTORED AS MUCH AS THEY COULD BE? GUEST FEATURE BY MATT COOPER, HARWELL RESTORATION GUEST FEATURE07 After suffering damage, stabilising contents is the key in getting control over the eventual outcome of a claim. Where contents have suffered water damage, freezing contents as soon as possible helps to mitigate secondary damage and provides time to make informed decisions about the best restorative course of action. So much can be achieved, but all too often specialist restoration is overlooked. We can all remember pictures of contents sitting outside properties during the recovery phases of major flooding events while awaiting validation and item disposal. Simply put, why aren’t we restoring more items in “business as usual” as well as in surge situations? In conversations with Loss Adjusters there are numerous reasons that restoration is not considered, carried out, or is never even an option. All stakeholders need to understand what can be achieved. Often this isn’t the case and good intentions can come to nothing. This is one of the reasons that Harwell offers training to companies throughout the supply chain to increase understanding and identify more opportunities. Why should we be doing more? The ABI updated its Climate Change Roadmap in June 2022 reflecting a need for enhanced focus. As an industry, we must take this seriously and the beneficial environmental impact of restoring rather than replacing is an opportunity to do things better. Through collaboration, conversation, and training we can all ensure that restoration rather than replacement is a key part of a sustainable claim solution. We can all play our part in addressing sustainability in the Damage Management industry. What are you going to do today for tomorrow? GUEST FEATURE GUEST FEATURE Figure 1, before and after restoration \ RIGHT NOW, CLIMATE CHANGE AND SUSTAINABILITY ARE ON EVERYONE’S AGENDA - FROM POLICY HOLDERS TO INSURERS – HOWEVER, WHEN IT COMES TO RESTORATION VERSUS REPLACEMENT, WHAT ARE THE TRUE COSTS, WHERE ARE THE COMFORT ZONES, AND IS EVERYONE ON THE SAME PAGE? We need to ask: What actions should be taken? How do we implement the strategies devised? How should we measure? How do we prove that the actions have reduced carbon emissions? The Damage Management industry is a sector which should by definition reduce emissions, simply by championing restoration over replacement in each and every instance. Polygon has worked on reducing emissions for many years. At a global level Polygon carries out studies and sponsors research into emission levels created by handling water damage losses using different methods. At a local UK level, Polygon have introduced real-time driver assistance feedback systems for every company vehicle, both cars and vans. The system encourages drivers to act in a way that reduces CO2 outputs. Some of the negativity around the acceptance of restoration over replacement relates to timescales, costs, and policyholder acceptance. It should therefore be time to challenge the insurance industry over the issue of warranties and guarantees following restoration of damaged household contents, and to reiterate that acting in a responsible fashion can reduce both landfill and emissions. As an example, we recently reviewed the costs of restoration v replacement within our Electrical Restoration Service. 32,000 items were restored from just over 800 jobs. The cost to insurers was just over £400K compared to a replacement value of £1 million. As a company Polygon generated 2,500 tonnes of claims waste in 2021. Extrapolating this across the industry, the top 4 Damage Management companies could generate 10,000 tonnes of claims waste in ONE YEAR alone! Most of this waste will be recycled - we know this because we measure it. However, recycling also comes with an emission footprint. As an industry what can we do to prevent and reduce this level of waste? There is no easy fix for achieving the Net-Zero targets set out in the 2022 ABI Climate Change Roadmap on sustainability. We must work together to achieve the required levels and attempt to mitigate the effects of global warming. Acting in isolation will, of course, make a difference, but if we want to leave a legacy that our children and grandchildren can be proud of, we must remove any competitive advantage we think we can gain, and collaboratively devise plans that make real-world impacts to climate change. Do you have the confidence to go back to your organisations and challenge what your leaders are doing to reduce the environmental impact of claims management and general business activities? If you would like to know more about how Polygon UK & Ireland is tackling Restoration v Replacement and supporting our customers in their sustainability plans, email uk_sales@polygongroup.com RESTORATION VS REPLACEMENT BY POLYGON DAMAGE CONTROL GUEST FEATURE 08 GUEST FEATUREWhether it is wine, coffee, urine, paint or something else, the first step is to remove as much of it as you can from the rug. Paper towels work well. Keep blotting until you have got as much out as possible. After blotting, many spills will require diluting. This is the sort of information a consumer will find online in proven advice to remove a spill from a carpet. Effectively removing these spills or even the complete cleaning of a precious rug is another matter altogether. In fact, if a rug is involved in a flooding situation, whether it be from a washing machine, a burst water tank or water ingress from outside, it is often deemed not salvageable and therefore written off. This shouldn’t be the case in this day and age. We should be looking at restoration every time rather than replacement. With the array of professional rug cleaning businesses around the country today, it has to be the way forward. If you have a water contaminated rug that has been affected and contaminated by grey or black water, it can be washed, reflooded, and cleaned removing all contaminants and then dried safely. This will ensure that the rug can serve its owner yet again. Obviously, getting the rug to a professional rug cleaning business immediately may be an issue. A rug can stay wet for several days before it is harmed. Even though the water and the rug are dirty, the priority is to get the rug dry. You can have it washed, cleaned, and fully restored later. Professional rug cleaners will understand the fibres, the construction, where the rug was manufactured, and the dyes to ensure that the item appropriately and satisfactorily restored. Technicians will have the water extraction equipment that will be required after washing along with the drying equipment that ensures the rug is ready to be placed back in the home. Rugs are subject to wear due to their use just like anything else and in many cases this can enhance the beauty of the item. So, when collecting a rug which is part of an insurance claim, this must be taken into consideration as we can clean & restore but not generally restore pre-existing damage. CLEANING & RESTORING RUGS BY PAUL PEARCE, NATIONAL CARPET CLEANERS ASSOCIATION 09 TECHNICIAN ADVISORY TECHNICIAN ADVISORY If possible, get the affected rug to a flat surface outside such as a wooden deck or a concrete patio. If you have appropriate equipment, like a wand, or even a long-handled squeegee, use either of them to move out the water, pushing in the direction of the pile. Get as much water out of the rug as possible. If you cannot get the rug to a flat, outdoor surface, you may have an extraction machine or wet vacuum available. Extracting as much water out as you can from the rug will increase the chance of successful restoration. After extracting as much water as possible, you may now roll the rug without folding it and stand it on its end, letting it stand until water is no longer dripping from it. At this point, the rug will still be damp but no longer sopping wet. The drying process can be completed in a few ways. If you have good weather, you can dry it outdoors in the sun. If you have to dry it indoors, place it in a warm room, elevating it, if possible, to let air circulate around it. A fan directed on the rug will help. A rug can on occasion end up with dye bleed, which is often the reason why replacement is recommended. Dye bleed can, however, sometimes be corrected. A professional rug cleaner will understand how to do this and have the necessary skill set to deal with it. 1 2 3 4 5Next >