News
News in brief
BakerAECOM wins contract
Consultancy AECOM Technology Corporation in Los Angeles has announced that its engineering arm, BakerAECOM LLC, has been awarded a contract worth up to $600m to provide production and technical services for the US Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) risk mapping, assessment and planning (Risk MAP) programme, by the US Department of Homeland Security.
Winners to bridge gap
Powell-Williams Architects and multidisciplinary engineering consultancy Buro Happold have won a European design competition for a new pedestrian bridge that will kickstart a four-year development project in the city of Aveiro, Portugal. The eventual development will include a new ‘sustainability park’ to help transform the city.
Engineers’ key role
HRH The Princess Royal has stressed the global importance of the engineer in rebuilding the lives of those affected by natural disasters. She spoke at the ‘Engineering a Better World’ conference, organised by the Institution of Civil Engineers and the Commonwealth Engineers’ Council, which aims to increase co-ordination between all the bodies involved in humanitarian aid.
RPS opens Down Under
Multidisciplinary consultancy RPS has opened a new office in Gladstone, Queensland, Australia. Its new team will work closely with the local development, civil and resources sectors to provide a variety of services, including planning, surveying and environment services. Currently, more than A$40bn worth of future projects are planned in the area.
Championing waterways
Arup’s Brisbane office in Australia is appealing for water ‘champions’ to come forward and be recognised, by entering the Healthy Waterways Awards in South East Queensland.
www.healthywaterways.org
New academy aims to plug green skills gap
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A new academy for the UK’s ‘green’ building services
industry will help to plug the skills gap in the sector, according to an industry leader. The planned National Skills Academy for environmental technologies will coordinate skills in design, installation, maintenance solar panel technology, heat and power, and wind and micro- generation, The programme, to be set up
with £3m of government funding, is being overseen by SummitSkills, the skills body for building services engineering sector. SummitSkills chief executive Keith
Marshall told the Journal that the aim was for different sets of training providers to each concentrate on one area of green-building technology. He said he hoped the academy would help to address some of
Keith Marshall... Need more skills.
the skills shortages that are seen as existing among suppliers and fitters of environmental technologies, sometimes resulting in less appropriate solutions being provided. ‘I don’t want to overstate the
problem, but certainly we don’t want a provider saying to customers “here’s a ground source heat pump” simply because this is all that they do,’ he said. Separately, the government also
announced that it would co-fund the delivery of up to 1,000 new apprenticeships a year in the nuclear sector, depending on demand from employers. In addition, the UK Commission
for Employment and Skills, in its first National Strategic Skills Audit, highlighted the critical role that the building services engineering sector will play in the installation of the UK’s low carbon infrastructure. The report said the sector needs
to change and improve its skills to meet this challenge. Marshall said of the report:
‘Future jobs and employment in the sector depend on the ability of businesses and employers to develop the skills to deal with the task of fitting the environmental technologies which will be commonplace as the UK meets its commitments to the low carbon agenda.’
CRC a financial ‘opportunity’ for business
The approach businesses take towards the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme could drastically affect their bottom line, a study has found. A business with an annual energy
bill of £1m could see a net cost of £280,000 a year if it only complies with the basic CRC requirement,
says the report. However, those taking action to optimise CRC performance could receive a net income of £130,000 – leaving them £410,000 better off than those adopting the basic approach. The analysis of the CRC’s potential impact was conducted by consultancy huntleypalmerflatt,
based on information from its clients of the past two years. ‘Those [clients] that see the CRC
as an opportunity will benefit,’ said hurleypalmerflatt’s Stuart Bowman. ‘The CRC is not a tax – companies that understand it and approach it well can end up adding to their bottom line.’
Industry achievers line up for National Training Awards 2010
Young building services engineer Gemma Scott (centre left) lines up with other winners in the National Training Awards 2010 ceremony in London. The awards, whose sponsors include CIBSE, celebrate high-achieving newcomers across the industry sectors. Scott, who works for Smith Group UK, won two gongs – Technician of the Year and a new judges’ discretionary Environmental Excellence Award. www.summitskills.org.uk/awards/460
12
CIBSE Journal April 2010
www.cibsejournal.com
SummitSkills
SummitSkills
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