The New Zealand Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NZIQS) has joined a new global movement established to create international standards in construction measurement.

The International Construction Measurement Standards (ICMS) Coalition was formed earlier this year by non-profit organisations representing construction industry professionals in over 140 countries.

“We see this as a very valuable initiative in which New Zealand’s construction measurement professionals – quantity surveyors – must play an active role,” said NZIQS president, Jeremy Shearer.

Collectively, the ICMS aims to create over-arching international standards that will harmonise cost, classification and measurement definitions in order to enhance comparability, consistency, statistics, and benchmarking of capital projects.

In an industry estimated to be worth a staggering $15 trillion by 2025, inconsistency in something as fundamental as construction measurement and reporting can create huge uncertainty, misunderstanding, and risk.

“Establishing and being able to work with standardised, international guidelines will be good for the local quantity surveying profession, and for the wider New Zealand construction industry as a whole,” Mr Shearer said.

Members of the ICMS Coalition are:

·         New Zealand Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NZIQS)

·         Association for the Advancement of Cost Engineering (AACE)

·         Association of Cost Engineers (ACostE)

·         Association of South African Quantity Surveyors (ASAQS)

·         Australian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (AIQS)

·         Brazilian Institute of Cost Engineers (IBEC)

·         Building Surveyors Institute of Japan (BSIJ)

·         China Engineering Cost Association (CECA)

·         The European Council of Construction Economists (CEEC)

·         Canadian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (CIQS)

·         Chartered Institute of Building (CIOB)

·         Chartered Institution of Civil Engineering Surveyors (CICES) 

·         Federation Internationale des Geometres (FIG)

·         Ghana Institute of Surveyors (GhIS)

·         Hong Kong Institute of Surveyors (HKIS)

·         African Association of Quantity Surveyors (AAQS)

·         Indian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (IIQS)

·         Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE)

·         International Cost Engineering Council (ICEC)

·         Institute of Engineering and Technology (IET)

·         Mexican Society of Economic Engineering and Costs (SMIEC)

·         Nigerian Institute of Quantity Surveyors (NIQS)

·         Pacific Association of Quantity Surveyors (PAQS)

·         Philippine Institute of Certified Quantity Surveyors (PICQS)

·         Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA)

·         Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

·         Royal Institution of Surveyors Malaysia (RISM)

·         Singapore Institute of Surveyors (SISV)

·         Society of Chartered Surveyors Ireland (SCSI)

·         Union Nationale des Economistes de la Const`ruction (UNTEC)