CIBSE national conference
Better buildings – but for whom?
DESIGN
In order to create better buildings we have to ask ourselves ‘better for whom?’, Barry Walker, an associate at Arup, argued. During conference sessions
on sustainability and facilities management, Walker told delegates that a growing area of business is the creation of access areas in buildings to ensure that maintenance of complex technologies can be carried out. He explained: ‘We have a constant battle with architects, but in the last few years they’ve realised there is a consequence to not maintaining a building properly.’ He also stressed the importance of educating the client on how the building should operate – from the chief executive down to the cleaner. Another important factor
is testing the building in real conditions to see how it performs. ‘It’s all quite simple stuff, so the only question I’d ask is, why don’t we do it?’ Meanwhile Paul Edwards,
head of sustainability at property group Hammerson, explained how the carbon agenda is driving his company. He explained how main contractors now have to fill in a sustainability questionnaire to work with Hammerson. If they fail to meet the benchmark they will be given three years to respond. If they still fail after that period, they will be unable to work with the company. ‘It’s just about driving people
to change,’ Edwards added. The group is opening a laboratory to test the design of retail shops, such as air conditioning and different types of lighting and materials, and it is about to embark on a review of natural ventilation at all of its assets, said Hammerson. It has also now introduced
nearly 700 green leases – a formal legal agreement for increasing environmental accountability that commits both property owner and occupier to achieve greater energy, water and waste efficiency.
CIBSE must now grasp collaboration nettle
MANAGING RISK
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If cars can be routinely tested after production to test fuel
consumption for different forms of usage, why can’t buildings similarly be checked after construction, asked Rob Manning of global consultancy AECOM. In a presentation on managing
risks associated with the delivery of low-carbon buildings, Manning warned that the trend to create a contractual requirement for predicting energy usage in buildings could lead to legal disputes. More significantly, this trend
could impact upon the delivery of the industry’s environmental targets: ‘Under threat we fail to conduct the real post-occupancy
evaluation of a building, which is so essential to delivering best value [to the client].’ How might CIBSE help the industry to reduce this risk, asked Manning, who took over as president of the institution soon after the conference. He offered an answer: ‘CIBSE
[might in the future be able to] assist all parties to a contract by providing a policy statement on the intended use, the accuracy and the purpose of energy predictions.’ Arguing the case for collaborative
working across the building services supply chain to foster sustainable building, Manning said CIBSE has a role to help overcome the barriers to such cooperation: ‘CIBSE now has to grasp the nettle and get out to talk to people. It has to
Incoming CIBSE president Rob Manning.
stop complaining about what’s wrong, because it does now have the technical answers. It’s a people problem, not a technical problem.’
See the interview with Rob Manning in last month’s Journal, page 34
Speakers and delegates at the event, held at the British Museum in London, chew over the day’s presentations.
Nuclear and renewables are no quick fix
ENERGY
The idea of replacing our old coal-fired power stations with nuclear is ‘unhelpful’, asserted Simon Harrison, director of Mott MacDonald Fulcrum. During sessions discussing
energy, carbon and smart grids, Harrison told delegates that coal- fired power stations in the UK are set to close as soon as 2015. ‘It’s not all that helpful to think about building nuclear power stations to replace them because the develop- and-build time is too long to get a meaningful fleet.’ If, on the other hand, the grid was run on renewables it could mean
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CIBSE Journal June 2010
gas-fired power stations would be needed to run as a back-up to ensure that supply and demand are matched. Harrison added that rolling out renewables would still be too long a process to provide the ‘quick fix’ needed to meet the UK’s energy security problems. However, Harrison did point out
that the need to recharge electric cars would one day create a huge amount of business for the building services sector. Meanwhile Brian Mark, technical
director at Mott MacDonald Fulcrum, described the fact that industry had been waiting two years for a full definition of ‘allowable solutions’ as extraordinary: ‘We
can’t advise our clients because we don’t know. It’s basically frozen the detailed engineering development of sustainable masterplanning.’ He also accused the industry of
‘incredible arrogance’ in assuming that it could develop low carbon solutions better than its European neighbours, who have been using them for at least 30 years. Clive Earp, director of Earp
Consulting, told delegates that a smart grid is on its way: ‘Building services engineers are pretty poor at the way we commission buildings, and we won’t be allowed to carry that standard through into connecting onto the grid. We are going to have to pick up our game.’
www.cibsejournal.com
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