BSEE-DEC21-PG06 News & Quote.qxp_Layout 1 19/11/2021 10:37 Page 6


BSEE


No excuse for poorly ventilated buildings


buildings including professional accreditation for contractors. Professor Cath Noakes told the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) National Conference that the pandemic had increased understanding of how disease is transmitted around indoor spaces and raised public awareness of the importance of mechanical ventilation.


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“I never thought I would see the day when the Prime Minister and the Chief Scientific Officer were talking about ventilation,” said Noakes, who is one of two engineer members the Government’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE).


She told the Conference that the pandemic had exposed systemic failings in how we design and retrofit buildings and said we should pay far more attention to the impact of poor ventilation on human health and productivity. “Many of our buildings are under-ventilated and there is no excuse for it,” said Noakes, who is Professor of Environmental Engineering for Buildings at the University of Leeds and an expert in fluid dynamics.


“This is not just about complying with regulations. We also need to show clients that there is a benefit to them through the health and wellbeing of people. We know buildings improve health and that poor indoor air quality reduces productivity by up to 9% – that’s half a day a week.


Tangible


“Before the pandemic 5.3 million working days were being lost every year to respiratory infections [figures from the Office for National


ne of the Government’s top scientific advisors has called for a concerted programme of ventilation improvements in


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NEWS & QUOTES Quote, unquote


Richard Smith, partner at Sandstone Law had the following to say about the budget in the wake of COP26 summit…


“No-one really expected Rishi Sunak to deliver a green budget that prioritised the fight against climate change. That was disappointing in itself. But the extent to which the climate emergency was absent from the early leaks and the formal budget statement was shocking, especially on the eve of the UK’s supposed leading role in the COP26 climate summit. I am not surprised. Having watched the evolution of environmental protection laws in the UK for over 30 years, consecutive governments have typically made big statements and issued long policy documents, but then sat back and waited for the free market to slowly adapt to the demands of society. But now is different. Now there is a climate emergency, but still we see very little regulation to force the changes we need to establish the so- called ‘green economy’ and make sure it is a genuine change and not just some convenient populist political rhetoric. As David Attenborough keeps saying; “Listen to the science”. The next 10 years are crucial. Most environmental protection law introduced in the UK over the last 30 years emanated from European Union initiatives. There is a long list. The UK didn’t add much of its own. It remains to be seen whether and when Boris Johnson’s government will bring forward the new UK legislation needed to replace the EU environmental law framework that Brexit has eradicated.”


Statistics], but it is still not as tangible as your energy bill, so we need to push that message harder,” she told the Conference. Professor Noakes said it was important that ventilation contractors were included in wider discussions because they understand what works in the real world and what clients can be persuaded to pay for.


“We also need to look at professional accreditation [for the ventilation sector] because we are not applying the same standards to the ventilation industry as we do to gas and electricity, for example,” she added. She also called for better evaluation of systems in use to assess whether the ventilation was delivering what occupants need, had been correctly installed and commissioned, and was being adequately maintained.


’ ‘ George Clarke calls for scrapping of VAT on refurbs


V personality and architect George Clarke has urged the Government to help power “a global retrofit revolution” by abolishing VAT on the restoration and conversion of existing buildings.


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During his keynote address that launched the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) National Conference 2021, he said the construction and building engineering sectors could play a key role in addressing the climate crisis but financial incentives would be needed to encourage investment and new approaches from building owners.


He described current government measures to address the carbon impact of housing as “a drop in the ocean” and said the fact that 10% of all UK households were suffering from fuel poverty was a “national scandal”. “We wasted six years when the Government dropped its Zero Carbon Homes plan and the Green Home Grants scheme only lasted six months…we need to think much, much bigger… and show everyone why improving their homes is to their benefit and how it can help them save money.”


Clarke told the Conference that the construction industry would also need to improve its performance and said the Grenfell Tower disaster exposed “just what a mess the building sector is in”. He said the Hackitt Review that followed the fire “did not go far enough” and said there needed to be more honesty about product and material test results.


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However, he said there were plenty of reasons to be optimistic and urged the industry to reinvent itself by inspiring young people to work with the wide range of new technologies being used to build greener and more sustainable structures.


Clarke said there was a big future for “factory- built housing”, which could be prefabricated off-site to the highest standards and rigorously checked in a clean and safe environment. He also urged the industry to carry out more R&D to support other similar innovations.


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John Hartley, chief executive of Levidian had this to say about how to make concrete more sustainable to make a significant reduction in global emissions…


“While concrete certainly doesn’t grow on trees, we do have the power to make it more sustainable.


“Concrete is currently responsible for up to 8% of global CO2 emissions – but with the addition of sustainably produced graphene, we could reduce this by up to 50%, which by itself would cut 4% of global emissions. This would be a huge step forward in the global drive to bring down emissions, which should be at the forefront of all minds in the construction sector.”


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Simon Lewis, construction partner law Womble Bond Dickinson, comments on the announcements in the budget on support for unsafe cladding removal…


"The £5 billion grant which will be set aside to pay to remove unsafe cladding from the highest-risk buildings in the country was of course welcome in the Budget Announcement, but as always, the devil is in the detail. Given the significant number of buildings that have been found to be unsafe, limiting this just to "higher risk buildings" and only for cladding is overlooking all of the other unsafe buildings that fall outside these parameters. The sum is of course significant but it probably won't be enough to deal with all higher risk buildings with poor cladding and certainly won't be enough to deal with all unsafe buildings. The Government expects the Residential Property Developer Tax (RPDT) to raise £2bn, but where is the rest of the funding coming from? It would be useful to know more about how the Government intends to support the industry to meet these costs.”


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Also commenting on the Budget, Association for Consultancy and Engineering (ACE) director of policy Matthew Farrow said: “The four Net Zero policy documents just published represent the largest amount of Net Zero policy ever published in a single day by the Government and they contain a level of ambition that would have been unthinkable just three years ago. It is fair to say that both government and business activity on Net Zero is picking up speed, and the Government’s approach of backing a range of technologies while seeking to bring down technology costs is broadly sensible. Likewise the attempt to balance maintaining public support while delivering regulatory clarity is clumsy but politically understandable.


The next few years really are make or break however and the hard work is only just beginning. The challenge is to convert to the broad outlines we now have for technology choices and rollouts into actual physical deployment across millions of households and thousands of communities. Furthermore this must be done in a joined up way. The engineering and consultancy sector will be crucial in delivering this. Only we have the combination of engineering and design expertise, systems thinking, data insights and cross sectoral experience to make a Net Zero society a reality.


’ 6 BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER DECEMBER 2021 Read the latest at: www.bsee.co.uk


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