INDUSTRY COMMENT: BCIA School of Thought


Terry Sharp, president of the Building Controls Industry Associaon (BCIA), discusses the ideas behind some of the Associaon’s recent iniaves.


building controls industry. I’ve said it before and will say it again: the raw talent is out there, we just need to attract it. It could be argued the earlier we begin to do this the better, which is why it gave me great pleasure recently to launch our Schoolz Out competition, which challenges school pupils to design an energy saving product or initiative for their school which uses an element of control to save energy.


O


ne of the many challenges the BCIA is faced with is to find ways to increase the talent pool in the


Today’s school leavers have grown up with smartphones, tablets, television and music streaming services and many of the smart products currently found in our built environment use technology that will probably be familiar to many of them. Some of these youngsters could already be in a great position of knowledge when they become responsible for helping to successfully transform our sector and lead the way over the long term. The importance of smart buildings will continue to grow in a post- coronavirus world and therefore the need and opportunity for new, tech- savvy talent has never been greater. Our challenge is to encourage and engage with young people and convince them of the opportunities and rewards potentially waiting for them in the building controls sector. I believe our children’s inquisitive minds can be the key drivers in developing the innovative technologies to help create a sustainable future and shape the world they will inherit from us.


Business as usual


The BCIA has continued to do its utmost best to maintain a ‘business as usual’ approach throughout lockdown and I am both proud and


delighted to have overseen some of the projects and initiatives launched in the last few months. Our Technical Working Group has continued to work on new Technical Guides, one of which was released towards the end of May. The new Guide, entitled “The Impact of Controls on the Energy Efficiency of Buildings”, focuses on the British and European standard, BS EN 15232-1:2017, which assesses the cumulative impact of building automation and controls – commonly referred to as BACS – on the energy efficiency of buildings. We have released this Technical Guide to help manufacturers and systems integrators understand the Standard better and improve the performance of the buildings they work on.


Awards night with a difference


It was of course with great sadness that we had to cancel the BCIA Awards evening at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole. Originally scheduled to take place in April, we initially had to postpone it until Thursday 10 September as the UK entered lockdown amid the Covid- 19 outbreak. Despite encouraging signs that we are heading back


towards some form of normality, the health risks are still just too great for large gatherings at this stage and the cancellation was, inevitably, unavoidable.


We do of course appreciate the effort and attention to detail that is put into preparing entries by so many people, plus the work of the judges work in selecting the winners. The BCIA Awards evening itself is always a spectacular event and comes with an extra layer of excitement when you have been nominated for an award. I was particularly looking forward to delivering my first speech as BCIA President (I guess I’ve got a bit longer to write it now), and also welcoming the highly respected broadcaster Huw Edwards to the stage as our guest speaker. Hopefully it is not too long before we can all see each other again, and we will have a lot of catching up to do. In the meantime, we will still endeavour to mark the occasion next month by hosting an awards ceremony of sorts – online! We hope as many of those due to attend the Awards can still join us and raise a glass to the collective work of all our members in what has been, and continues to be, a very difficult year.


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BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER AUGUST 2020 9


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