Sustainable Water
Siren call
Sustainable building is also crucially about
Dubbed the Water Sirens, Lara Brook, Celia Way and
Laura Crawford said they had set out to provide “leadership
water conservation, says a group of young in water conservation in existing buildings”.
engineers who are sorting out their own
“We want to make water efficiency the norm [and
to] implement appropriate technologies and stimulate
back yard. Ewen Rose reports behavioural change through empathy, initiative and
enthusiasm,” they said in support of their winning entry
B
uilding services engineers are heavily focused for the SOPHE Young Engineers’ Award.
on energy efficiency and carbon saving issues They believe that efforts need to be centred on existing
in the battle to make our built environment buildings because around 80 per cent of the buildings that
more sustainable, but as a result another equally will still be in use in 2050 are already built. The Sirens
important area has not received the attention it deserves. also wanted to show that Buro Happold was prepared to
For many, water conservation is the critical challenge for put its own house in order to better advise clients, so they
engineers. decided to explore how the company’s head office could be
Many building services engineers do realise that this has to an “exemplar” for other buildings.
be a key component of the service they provide and that their However, by deciding to tackle an existing building they
clients are becoming increasingly concerned about patterns were highlighting a major problem: retro-fitting water
of water consumption and waste in their buildings. systems can be particularly challenging, and many possible
Above: The ‘Sirens’ have
As part of this shift in emphasis within the profession, engineering solutions are likely to be constrained.
helped to make changes
a team of three young engineers from Buro Happold has Buro Happold’s headquarters comprises two buildings:
at their employer Buro
Happold’s headquarters,
been honoured by the Society of Public Health Engineers Camden Mill and the Bayer Building. They presented
a converted mill on the
(SOPHE) for a project they developed at their offices in Bath particular problems due to the fact they were converted
Avon river at Bath to try to establish best practice in water management. into offices from their original purpose as mills and have
40 CIBSE Journal February 2009
www.cibsejournal.com
CIBSEfeb09pp40-41 water•.indd 40 5/2/09 14:19:55
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88