Opinion
Broad shoulders?
Building services engineers must offer more leadership on
sustainability without delay, argues CIBSE travel bursary
award winner Ross French
wareness and application of sustainable is frequently perceived as the weak link in the
A
design has come a long way in the UK in design team. Feedback on the profession frequently
the last fi ve to 10 years. When I graduated includes adjectives such as uncooperative, late,
in Architecture: Advanced Environmental unimaginative, infl exible. Even where practices are
& Energy Studies in 1996, employment opportunities recommended there is invariably a caveat along the
in the fi eld were very limited and I moved into building lines of, ‘make sure you get the A-team’.
services engineering, as perhaps the most closely Second, what benefits would it bring to our
related fi eld. clients? Our industry is ever more complex –
Most major design consultancies – whether look at the new roles that have emerged, such as
practising project management and cost consultancy, disability consultants, and construction design and
architecture, structural or building services management coordinators. All too often the result is
engineering (BSE) – now sell ‘sustainability’. bureaucracy and box-ticking, rather than improved
Almost two years ago a partner tasked with creating design and construction. There is a clear opportunity
a sustainability team at a large property consultancy to add value by evaluating
said to me, ‘if it still exists in three years we will technical analysis and
have failed’. In other words, sustainability is too communicating it through
If BSE practices
fundamental to be its own discipline; our best hope accessible advice and ideas.
of delivering it is through it being embedded in In other words, if BSE
want a broader
existing organisations and processes. practices want a broader
scope they ought to have
I share his sentiments but think that the timeframe scope they ought to have
is too optimistic. The sustainability knowledge gap project leaders who are
project leaders who are
is too large and, worryingly, it does not seem to be comfortable across the range
comfortable across the
closing at graduate level. of services being offered and
So in the meantime, there is a need for leadership act as an interface between
range of services
on sustainability within design teams. On some the core design team and
being offered
projects the scope may be limited to developing the specialists.
energy strategy and assessing the scheme under Last year I was awarded
BREEAM. For more enlightened clients and larger CIBSE’s Ken Dale Travel Bursary to study Water
projects, it is much broader. Management in the Levant, a subject that amply
It is often argued that BSE consultancies are demonstrates how expertise and collaboration are
best placed to champion sustainability. This is fundamental to sustainability. This leadership role
largely rooted in the persistent misapprehension is much more important than the delivery model.
that sustainability is about climate change or, more Recent consolidation has seen a trend towards
specifically, operational carbon emissions – the multidisciplinary practice but it is not the only, or
sources of which are the mechanical and electrical necessarily the best, approach.
(M&E) systems. As BSEs evolve to become perhaps creators of
WIN A TRAVEL
While this represents a good opportunity for the environment around and within buildings, it is
BURSARY
growth for many BSE practices, two key questions ever more critical to attract high-calibre people to the
Entries are now
ought to be asked. First, are we excelling as BSEs? industry and develop the right blend of specialists open for the
Most practices seem to retain separate sustainability and generalists. ●
Ken Dale Travel
and M&E teams, and all too often the result is an
Bursary 2010.
energy strategy that is unbuildable, costly or not as
Ross French is co-founder of Mesh, a sustainable built
Visit www.cibse.
environment consultancy. www.meshprojects.co.uk
org/bursaries
effi cient as predicted. Furthermore, the BS engineer
for details
22 CIBSE Journal January 2010 www.cibsejournal.com
CIBSEjan10 pp22 opinion.french.indd 22 18/12/09 12:38:20
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