Round Table Energy in buildings sponsored by


“Often, technology gets put in that staff do not understand or buy into. So, it’s easier to turn off that work with it” John Gilbert, Thames Water


a pat on the back to say things are improving; that’s great.


David Fisk: One of the things that bothers me about green regulations is that there is often a sort of Oliver Cromwell puritanical thing that gets in the way – that having a large admin- istrative overhead is deemed to be a plus, because it’s bad to emit carbon so it must cost a lot to deal with it. Does anyone have any suggestions as to how we might have the same effect for a smaller cost?


Andy Stanton: Most organisations of a cer- tain size should be doing energy management to a certain set standard – whether through the Carbon Trust or BS16001 – to have a rec- ognised methodology of energy management. Also, we have two internal DEC assessors which cost us a fraction of what it would cost externally.


Stuart Laidlaw: Money makes the world go round. Going forward, when we buy older stock banks will start asking about DEC rat- ings; that is going to be a driver in the next five to ten years.


And we’ll have to get our buildings up to a certain rating in order to sell them on. The finance side is becoming more and more important.


David Halford: We moved into our wonder- ful new building, which had very high envi- ronmental credentials, including a rainwater harvesting system, a high spec system, elec- tronic lights that dim when the sun comes out, and building controls that turn everything off at night. But the lights had been switched on permanently because some engineer had decided to do that. The heating and the cooling was on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. And the


38 | Sustainable Business | June 2011


Gemma Wilson: Problems exist whether FM is external or in-house. It’s just a skillset issue.


David Halford: Whoever designed the build- ing has done a fantastic job, but they are not wandering round it every day saying, ‘move that filing cabinet off that floor vent, because you’re messing up the building pressure’.


Neil Pennell: We need better people at all levels of our industry. How many top gradu- ates go into engineering, and how many go to the City?


David Fisk: Let’s end by looking at new tech- nologies of the future.


The John Lewis Partnership is currently building a green store on the Isle of Wight that uses a biomass-fuelled tri-generation unit that will feed the store – and local community


rainwater harvesting system didn’t work. We had all these fantastic credentials, but nobody had bothered to actually ask whether it was all working. We could have gone on like that for years.


John Gilbert: David, you can put in the sexiest technology out there, but it all has one thing in common: it’s got an ‘off’ switch. Often, the technology gets put in that the staff do not understand or do not buy into it, so it’s easier to turn it off than work with it.


Andy Stanton: You can either continue put- ting in complicated systems, or you can say, we need things to be simple because there isn’t the workforce to maintain them and to operate them.


David Fisk: Does anyone have any views about how the facilities management industry can play a better role?


Toby Marlow: The skillset within facilities management is determined by how much clients will pay, the KPIs you put in, and the service level agreements you set. The challenge for us is to come up with the technologies that can be maintained.


Toby Marlow: We’re building a store in East Cowes, on the Isle of Wight, which uses a biomass-fuelled tri-generation unit that ties in lovely with water-cooling. It generates the cooling and supplies the heat to the local community.


Andy Stanton: We have a fuel cell CHP in our building in Southwark. It isn’t a new tech- nology – it was developed in 1836. It holds great potential to provide heating and power, not just because it’s clean carbon but because it’s silent and there are low NOx emissions.


And with that the Round Table participants continued to share ideas and best practice over lunch.


The Government has a few cards up its sleeve, not least the Green Deal which it is hoped will stimulate investment in greening our buildings, both domestic and commercial. And making Display Energy Certificates man- datory for all privately-owned buildings is still very much on the table.


In the meantime, some fantastic technolo- gies and solutions are already available. And as the pockets of good practice highlighted around the table prove, a lot can be done to tackle energy inefficient buildings right now.


Watch the video. Edited highlights of this Round Table Debate can be seen on the homepage of SB’s website at www.sustainablebusinessonline.com


n www.sustainablebusinessonline.com


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