CIBSE national conference
Concern over clients adopting ‘minimum compliance’
ENFORCEMENT
n
Commercial buildings have ended up with lower energy
performance ratings than they deserve because owners were not prepared for their introduction. That’s the view of John Field of consultancy Power Efficiency, who told delegates that he was aware of buildings that could have had a B-rating but instead received a D because the owners simply did not have all the required information available. Field also pointed to figures
from Landmark, the body which compiles the database of energy- performance and display-energy certificates (EPCs and DECs). The data shows that there had not been the expected upsurge in renewals of DECs since last October, the month
enforcement of DECs in public buildings by the authorities, and said that corporate and commercial property owners were showing only moderate to low levels of compliance with the EPC regime. Examples of this attitude included the use of ‘drive-by’ EPC services that provided ‘unlikely’ ratings. There was also a problem of
John Field... too little enforcement.
which marked the first anniversary of the scheme. Monthly registrations of DECs
have steadily declined – from 3,636 in October 2009 to 1,495 in April this year, according to the figures. Field criticised the lack of
office blocks receiving inadequate DEC ratings because the benchmarks do not reflect of the level occupancy density in the buildings. However, there is a ‘huge opportunity’ for the energy performance sector to engage with top management of companies about the compliance, Field added. ‘However, we also need active enforcement of the energy certificates, including fines for non-compliance.’
Give children the knowledge
BIG IDEA
CIBSE is to lobby the new government to introduce a policy chosen by CIBSE members. A number of ‘big ideas’ on
tackling Britain’s energy problems were proposed and voted on by members, and the winning policy was announced at the conference. This demands that government
‘make education for building energy efficiency and sustainability a compulsory topic for children at both primary and secondary school’. CIBSE will now take this forward.
CIBSE members chose the winning idea.
Young professionals lead debate on collaboration
The conference dinner debate, organised by the CIBSE Young Engineers’ Network, discussed
the statement: CIBSE believes that a sustainable built environment can only be achieved if the supply chain approaches all its projects in a holistic way and building services engineers work in integrated teams with other professions.
A panel of four young
professionals from different parts of the construction industry posited their views on the issue, which was then opened up to the audience for discussion. One of the four, Holly Porter,
an architect, argued that the procurement process is key to ensuring greater integration between members of project
teams. ‘This needs mutual respect by all team members.’ Paul Kalls, a quantity surveyor,
said professionals such as himself should be challenging the design put forward by building services consultancies: ‘We need to approach projects in a holistic way.’ Building services engineer
Emma Marshall, the CIBSE/ ASHRAE Graduate of the Year, stressed that ‘each member of the design team must be accommodating of the others – responsibility must be shared across the professions’. The client representative on the
panel, Richard Meier of developer Argent, agreed the collaboration is a good idea. But, he asked, what place is there for the architect or planner in such a collaborative process? ‘And the problem with collaboration is that it’s not in everyone interests,’ he said, adding that central government could give more incentives to clients to encourage them on sustainability. One audience member pointed
Panel member Richard Meier.
out that manufacturers can feel they are ‘at the bottom of the food chain’ among the various players in the industry. Meier agreed that it would be valuable to have more
Panel members, from left: Emma Marshall, Paul Kells and Holly Porter.
input from product makers. Porter said she felt it was better
to have manufacturers involved at an early stage: ‘We spend a lot of time writing specifications for products but have no role in choosing them.’ She also lamented the ‘erosion’
of the role of the architect in the building services industry in the past two decades. ‘We need to take some of the role back,’ she said. Marshall argued that: ‘Instead of
fitting services around the building works, we need to work on the early stages of the design to make the works as sustainable as possible.’ An audience member questioned
whether manufacturers offered too many solutions – why could they not provide more standardised services and prefabricated off-site solutions? Another member asserted: ‘Why is the industry still discussing collaboration. CIBSE needs to lead it. Let’s just do it!’
www.cibsejournal.com
June 2010 CIBSE Journal
19
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