unknowable Knowing the
A clear vision of the future will help the industry to grow in the right direction, says Ewen Rose
U 10 CIBSE Journal November 2012
S Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was roundly pilloried for mangling the English language – most notably when he pronounced
on the subject of intelligence. ‘Reports that say that something hasn’t happened are always interesting to me, because as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know,’ he said back in 2002. ‘We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns – the ones we don’t know we don’t know.’ As a spokesperson for the English Plain Speaking campaign added, memorably: ‘We think we know what he means, but we don’t know if we really know.’ However, behind the gobbledegook, there
is some wisdom there – and it sums up a challenge for CIBSE and the industry as a whole. We know there are some big things coming
down the tracks towards us; we don’t know what we don’t know, but we can speculate; and how we prepare for the future shocks is the key to a sustainable and prosperous industry. With this in mind, the CIBSE Board gathered
to consider what were likely to be the main factors to shape the profession in coming years. They also looked at the challenges these would create; how they would affect the role and business opportunities of building services engineers; and what we needed to do to be ready.
Dramatic times The convergence of climate change, global fi nancial meltdown and energy insecurity has created a rapidly shifting political landscape that threatens to sweep away traditional approaches to building services. There has rarely been a more dramatic period in our collective history. As a result, the industry has to look closely
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