We bring air to life
eQ PLUS
Zero carbon targets are unrealistic, says industry n
The majority of those working in the UK property and
construction sectors do not believe that the government’s zero carbon targets are realistic, a survey has found. About 7,000 people were questioned in the survey, produced for the British Property Federation, international law firm Taylor Wessing, and specialist research and communications consultancy Spada. While the respondents were convinced that the ‘stick’ of regulation is most likely to drive progress in future, more than three- quarters (76%) felt that plans for making all new housing zero carbon by 2016 were unrealistic. Almost as many (73%) believed
that plans to make new commercial property zero carbon by 2019 were also not realistic. These targets, formulated
previously under Labour, have been adopted by the new coalition
government. Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation, said: ‘An inconsistent approach to regulation and its implementation, or the setting of targets that are perceived as unachievable, is likely to impact negatively on the delivery of the sustainability agenda by the industry.’ The report found that 68% cited sustainability as either ‘very’ or ‘highly’ important. While 70% said they had a sustainability strategy in place, success was frequently not measured. Helen Garthwaite, UK head
of construction and engineering at law firm Taylor Wessing, said: ‘Alongside regulation, better measures to define success and value will be essential. It is possible that some voluntary benchmarks could in effect become mandatory through industry promotion and use.’
www.taylorwessing.com/ hittingthegreenwall
Atkins weathers storm
Global design and engineering group Atkins has reported an increase in group profits of 9.6% in its results for the year ended 31 March 2010. The improvement took its operating profit to £113m. However, Atkins has reduced its staff in total by about 13%, bringing the number of its employees down to 15,601. But of those, about 600 people were already under notice at the start of the year, giving an in-year reduction of 1,816 staff from around 17,400 – a decrease of 10%. Although chief executive Keith
Clarke believes that the future of the
www.cibsejournal.com
industry remains quite turbulent, with significant cuts ahead, he was keen to stress that there are still opportunities for the engineering sector. He said: ‘There’s going to be
cuts in every sector and there are going to be delays in every sector, but there’s a massive opportunity with all that. The real efficiencies for capital programmes come from better engineering.’ He described the next five years
as a fundamental time for engineers to help transform the UK into a low carbon economy.
www.atkinsglobal.com
Fläkt Woods Limited Birmingham Business Park, Unit 6240, Bishops Court, Solihull Parkway, Birmingham, B37 7YB Tel: 0121 717 4693 Fax: 0121 717 4699
email:
marketing.uk@
flaktwoods.com website:
www.flaktwoods.co.uk
July 2010 CIBSE Journal
13
Shutterstock
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68