Opinion Deliver on the promise
Don’t get hung up on climate change science – as engineers we must make low carbon solutions a daily practical reality, says David Frise
M
ike Hulme, Professor of Climate Change at the University of East Anglia, delivered the latest CIBSE Annual Lecture and, effectively, told us to stop obsessing about
the mass of learned documents being produced on his subject. There is no magic bullet, no defi nitive answer to the ‘mother of all issues’, he said. It is highly significant that it is one of the world’s leading climate change scientists urging our industry to look beyond the science for answers. He is right: we need to focus on what we have been promising our clients for years and, largely, failing to deliver. On average, more than 9,000 scientifi c papers a year
and a book a day are produced on the subject of climate change. This enormous volume of material has stoked controversy and created confusion without bringing us any closer to an answer. Endless debate about errors and the manipulation of science has simply delayed our response to society’s greatest challenge. People can be easily swayed by scientifi c arguments and accept there is a major problem caused by climate change, but that does not mean they will actually do anything about it. Take the recent ‘cold snap’. People may well have a ‘green’ outlook, but when the temperature plummets they are fully focused on keeping warm, getting to work and looking after their families. Any thoughts about energy efficiency and reducing emissions go out the window. We must make behavioural change as easy as possible, and that means creating systems that bring it about automatically. We must deliver easy to use, self- adjusting systems that will adapt to changes around them – temperature, occupancy, patterns of use, etc – without the need for an intelligent user. In fact, the end-user becomes greener without any signifi cant effort or inconvenience.
That technology already exists in the shape of smart
phone applications – web-enabled measuring and monitoring and remote diagnostics that allow us to give and take control where necessary. It is, clearly, a huge opportunity for our industry. ‘Smart’ technologies are relatively easy and cheap to apply. The engineering challenge is working out how best to apply them and then persuading clients of the long-term benefi ts.
20 CIBSE Journal February 2011 As Professor Hulme said, people will always fi nd ways
of making the science fi t their own pre-conceived ideas. Some people consider it to be a fi nancial problem: the ‘greatest market failure’ that requires a reshaping of fi nancial markets to be more closely linked to the cost of carbon. Others see it as a technology issue: we have misused and abused our technology and now we need new ones to get us out of the mess. But whatever your own particular interest or theory, the
key is delivering the promise of improved performance and reduced emissions. Clients are no longer buying products, they are buying performance – if they can find suppliers who can actually deliver it. This is the big prize for building services contractors and consultants. The systems being designed
Clients are no longer buying
and installed today must deliver what they promise without expecting end-users to take a degree in building services to be able to understand them. Funding for sustainable refurbishment will be loans secured against future savings from energy and building operating costs – the UK’s Green Deal being the obvious example. If we don’t deliver, the whole edifi ce collapses, taking all the potential carbon savings with it. That is why it is vital for consultants and contractors to communicate regularly and openly. They must say: ‘if we can’t install what you design, we will not deliver on the promise.’
So, in response to Professor Hulme, we can put the
science to bed and get on with our part of delivering some of the technological responses. The fact there is no one big solution to climate change should not encourage despair – the chaos around climate change science is far more desperate. Rather, we must distance ourselves from the prejudice and vested interests to focus on what can be done simply, cheaply and quickly because, put simply, whatever we do must work. ●
David Frise is head of sustainability at the Heating and Ventilating Contractors Association.
www.hvca.org.uk
products, they are buying performance – if they can fi nd suppliers who can actually deliver it
CONFERENCE ROLE David Frise will be speaking at the CIBSE national conference in April. See pages 16-17 of this issue. Full details of the event can be found at
www.cibsetraining.co.uk/ conferences
www.cibsejournal.com
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