NEWS In Brief
QUEEN’S BIRTHDAY HONOURS Industry fi gures who are honoured include: Tony Baldry MP (Knighthood); Francesca Berriman of Chartererd Institute of Architectural Technologies (MBE); Peter Bonfi eld of BRE (OBE); Prof Julia King (DBE); Milica Kitson of Constructing Excellence, Wales (OBE); Lori McElroy, former chairman of CIBSE in Scotland (MBE); Hugh Ogus of the Institute of Lighting Professionals (MBE); Sir John Parker of the Royal Academy of Engineering (GBE); and Simon Wright and Jerome Frost of the Olympic Delivery Authority (OBEs).
JONATHAN SPEIRS, 1958-2012 A memorial service was held recently for Jonathan Speirs, who died last month after a long battle with cancer. An Honorary Fellow of the Society of Light and Lighting, he trained as an architect and developed a passion for working with light, founding a number of lighting design agencies, most recently Speirs + Major. Tributes have been posted at www.
speirsandmajor.com/blog
M&S CARBON NEUTRAL ‘FIRST’ Marks & Spencer claims to be the fi rst major retailer to become carbon neutral after fi ve years of rolling out its ‘Plan A’ sustainability programme. M&S reported that it had become 28% more energy effi cient per square foot since the start of Plan A and all of the energy it buys directly is now from a ‘green’ tariff, including 15% from small-scale generators. It said that 138 of its 180 commitments under the plan have been achieved and a further 30 are ‘on plan’. It now recycles 100% of its waste with nothing going to landfi ll, the company said.
www.plana.
marksandspencer.com
All the latest news from around the building industry
EU ‘waters down’ targets for energy efficiency
Member states will be able to set own targets rather than applying single one
Green campaigners have claimed that the proposed European Energy Effi ciency Directive has been watered down following political negotiations. According to news agencies, the EU’s 27 member states are expected to ratify a new effi ciency target of a 15% to 17% improvement, down from the original proposal of 20% approved in 2007. At one stage during negotiations, it looked as if a maximum 15% target would have to be accepted. The new fi gures arise from changes to the proposals enabling individual member states to set their own targets rather than complying with a mandatory EU-wide target. However, the draft policy obliges each member state to draw up a roadmap to make all of its buildings more energy effi cient by 2050. There are also ‘binding fi nancial instruments’ for energy effi ciency and ‘better consumer information,’ including the wider use of smart meters.
The UK reportedly led a campaign to reduce
the fi nancial burden on energy companies, which originally had been told to cut their annual energy sales to consumers and industry by 1.5% – a target that has now been eased back to 1%.
The EU has proposed energy effi ciency targets
Claude Turmes, the Green MEP from Luxembourg who led negotiations on behalf of the European Parliament, said the compromise would ‘give a boost to Europe’s economy and help achieve our energy security and climate goals’. ‘Unfortunately, EU governments were not willing to agree to more ambitious measures, which would have fully delivered the 20% target,’ he added. Green activists have been left outraged by the compromises, with one, Agathe Ernoult from the NGO the European Environmental Bureau (EEB), accusing European leaders of ‘spectacularly failing to seize the opportunity’ to ‘help lift Europe out of the crisis by creating jobs, cutting harmful emissions and increasing energy security’.
Centres of excellence to eliminate eco-bling
Centres of Excellence in integrated sustainable building design could create more than £1bn of savings by 2030 and cut carbon emissions by 3.5 million tonnes a year, according to a report from the Royal Academy of Engineering (RAE).
The proposed centres would also act as a hub to educate future sustainable construction experts and share knowledge between construction companies, academics and policy makers, it said. The RAE said £30m would be required over fi ve years to establish four centres. ‘By 2050 the cumulative savings could have risen to more than £6bn net
6 CIBSE Journal July 2012
present value and a reduction in emissions of nearly 11m tonnes of CO2 per annum,’ said an RAE statement. The report, The case for centres
of excellence in sustainable building design, was partly funded by CIBSE. It claimed that engineering graduates, who attended one of the proposed centres, would be ‘equipped with skills to deliver the most cost-effective carbon abatement, informed by an integrated education bringing engineering physics, engineering, architectural and systems design together’.
The report was a response to claims that low carbon buildings are often more expensive than
anticipated, but still fail to deliver the expected carbon savings. ‘The construction industry lacks a replicable approach to delivering affordable and reliable low carbon buildings, yet it has the lowest investment in training, research and development of any sector in the UK economy,’ said the RAE.
The centres would help the industry ‘achieve dramatic carbon reductions through energy conservation, without relying on expensive technological eco- bling,’ according to the report’s author Doug King, the RAE’s visiting professor in Building Engineering Physics at the University of Bath.
www.cibsejournal.com
Shutterstock /Hadrian
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