Making the running on efficiency

Concern about the environment is increasing pressure on those who run buildings to ensure they meet higher efficiency standards. But do we need a new army of ‘operational engineers’ in order to make this happen? John Osborne finds out

I

t has been suggested in the pages of the Journal in the past year that facilities managers may not always know enough about engineering to efficiently manage the new breed of buildings, and that building services

engineers are often so preoccupied with design that they cannot be expected to take on this apparently emerging role. Some in the industry feel that bridging the gap between

the two professions could be a daunting challenge, and yet it is one which must be faced if we are to overcome the problem of highly green designs performing poorly. ‘Commitments to reduce energy and carbon, effective

management of building systems and risk has continued to develop the need for highly effective operational engineering managers,’ says Geoff Prudence, chairman of CIBSE’s FM Group. Roger Smith, a partner in Hoare Lea and principal

of its engineering management group who has written about the topic in the Journal (February 2010, page 24), says his company aims to provide an operational engineering skills set to staff so that they are more able to play a key role in the effective running of buildings. ‘The mindset of a designer of new buildings is

different to that of somebody dealing with an operational building,’ says Smith. ‘Clients want an engineer who can go into a building and know what to do.’ Philip King, a director at Hilson Moran, agrees: ‘There

are lots of facilities managers, but there is a shortage of facilities managers with engineering knowledge.’ He says that as it is now necessary to keep ‘so-called

log books’, it is important to have somebody who understands how to relate that data to how a building is

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CIBSE Journal April 2010

performing. ‘We have a new generation of buildings but the building services profession lacks the skills to use the log books to take corrective action.’ Pat Coleman, technical director, AECOM, shares

Smith’s concerns but says that significant change will need to be in place before the importance of this role becomes sufficiently recognised: ‘I totally agree with the concept projected by Roger Smith,’ says Coleman, but adds: ‘Significant change will be required before the importance of this role becomes sufficiently recognised. I crossed over into facilities engineering, from being an HVAC design engineer through to function and value management. ‘Having delivered function and operational management for 18 years, I have seen considerable

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