INDUSTRY COMMENT: BCIA


Jon Belfield, president of the Building Controls Industry Association (BCIA) explores how making one small change in today’s commercial buildings can make a significant difference in saving energy


he longest or hardest challenges are best summarised by the Chinese Proverb: “A journey of a thousand miles starts with one step”. Perhaps you’ve heard of the story involving Afroz Shah, a lawyer from Mumbai, who showed that by taking the first step, you can achieve unimaginable things. When, as a boy, he grew up playing on a beautiful sandy beach where turtles nested and years later when he returned, was saddened to see it was metre deep in plastic and rubbish, and the turtles gone.


Many people looked at the endless litter and felt that there was nothing they could do to help and that any action taken by just one person would be pointless due to the sheer enormity of the problem. Determined to at least make a start, Afroz took that ‘first step’ and led a clean- up operation with the help of like-minded volunteers and after two years of hard work, the beach was transformed and the turtles returned. In the building controls world, our ‘beach’ is climate change and our priority is to save energy, while ensuring today’s sophisticated buildings are fit for purpose while meeting current and impending legislation.


Energy efficiency


Energy efficiency will remain in the spotlight as we take further steps to address it. This is why it is important to set ourselves realistic and achievable goals and on behalf of the BCIA we have an excellent opportunity to make this happen.


One small change T


It is easy to believe that one person is not capable of making a difference, but I sincerely believe that not to be the case. We need to set examples of good practice to encourage and motivate others to see that with one small change, the benefits can be huge. How can we achieve this? Simply by sharing our behaviours. Maybe you’ve adjusted time schedules in a building due to the change in seasons or amended set points or control loops to reduce energy consumption, without any impact on performance? Perhaps you’ve made it a habit to turn the light off in the meeting room when it’s not in use or repaired some faulty control device?


Some of these actions may seem incredibly minor to you but take a look at the results, are they what you desired? If your energy bills are lower or you’re finding that building occupants are responding better to your building through improved wellbeing or productivity, then why keep it to yourself? There is no better way to motivate others then to demonstrate visible and successful results.


I’m not asking you to save our planet, but given that collectively, we have so much energy under our control, let us take both the professional initiative and social responsibility to draw attention to the fact that before we know it, our buildings will have to perform better anyway. Design for Performance initiatives will become a reality sooner than some may expect and it is critical that we put ourselves in a strong position to show that we are already on board with this new level of expectation to make ongoing changes to improve energy efficiency.


BSEE Collective responsibility


Together, we have the collective opportunity to make a large number of small changes and in so doing, we can make a big impact! So, let’s start with being open and transparent. A New Year means new beginnings, there is no better time to collectively support the idea of ‘one small change’ as an industry to make a real difference over the long term.


Therefore, I’m calling on engineers, facility managers, building owners and building users to take a moment to think about “what have you done today to save energy?” Why not share it with the world to inspire others to follow in your footsteps and together we can take that ‘first step’…?


www.bcia.co.uk


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BUILDING SERVICES & ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER FEBRUARY 2019 9


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