Construction Skills gap
I
t is well known in our industry that buildings account for around 45% of UK carbon emissions, whilst our national goal is to achieve a reduction in emissions across the economy of 80% by 2050.
Recent governments have set out a range of strategies to achieve emission reductions, but one wonders whether they have considered the impact of their decisions and the industry’s ability to deliver against them. Clearly it will be vital to the future health of our
economy to address the reduction of carbon emissions from the built environment in the most cost-effective way, and not simply to adopt the path of least resistance. Warm Homes, Greener Homes, the government strategy for cutting carbon emissions through eco- upgrades in existing housing, sets out a plan that could potentially cost up to £200bn between now and 2050 in this sector alone. Further, the Carbon Trust, in Building the Future Today, estimates that retrofitting the non-domestic sector could require investment of £50bn between 2020 and 2050. It has been repeatedly demonstrated through
contemporary projects that reducing energy demand through energy efficient design costs little more than conventional, inefficient design; and the scale of reduction that can be achieved by these means substantially exceeds that which could be generated by expensive onsite renewables. However, we have already seen problems in
implementing Part L 2006 due to a lack of awareness of how to achieve fabric insulation and air tightness standards, both among those who build and those that are supposed to enforce the regulations. Now evidence is starting to emerge that the skills required to achieve zero carbon new buildings, or even the eco-upgrades of existing stock, are simply not prevalent in our industry as it stands. Low Carbon Housing: Lessons from Elm Tree Mews, the
study of the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s pilot project for CSH Level 4 housing (see December Journal,
www.cibsejournal.com
page 7) highlights numerous difficulties in achieving low carbon housing. These range from unjustified claims for product efficiencies by manufacturers to the failure of designers to follow through the consequences of their decisions. Similarly, in Getting Warmer, the report on the
first large-scale field trial of domestic heat pump installations, the Energy Savings Trust identifies the importance of appropriate design, good installation and commissioning, without which many systems were found to be operating at only a fraction of the expected efficiencies. The challenge of reducing fossil-fuel dependency
in the built environment is vast and will require far more effective policy and a dramatic increase in skills and awareness across the construction industry. It will also require a major rethink about supply chain relationships. We will need to see much closer collaboration
between manufacturers, consultants, installers and operators in the future to establish a chain of custody for energy efficiency. We must ensure that buildings and systems are designed and installed to allow energy consuming components to operate at their maximum efficiencies. Warm Homes, Greener Homes also estimates that
upwards of 65,000 new jobs will have to be created to provide the domestic eco-upgrades required. Clearly all these people will require a thorough training in low carbon skills. As these retrofits are new work for the industry, these jobs will be in addition to the annual recruitment of 48,000 new people that the Construction Skills Network (see its Blueprint for UK Construction Skills 2010 to 2014) estimates will be required for each of the next four years to support an industry coming out of recession. Given that during this period we will see the implementation of both the 2010 and 2013 revisions to Part L, presumably these 192,000 new workers will
Above and facing page: the key challenges for the built environment sector are to dramatically increase the skills set, and to establish much closer collaboration across the supply chain
> February 2011 CIBSE Journal 25
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