INDUSTRY COMMENT Good COP. Time to shift gears?
As we settle in to 2023 BCIA President Graeme Rees takes some inspiration from the COP27 that took place in November last year.
In his welcome message the President of Egypt, Abdel Fattah El-Sisi, stated: “The world has come a long way in the fight against climate change and its negative impacts on our planet; we are now able to better understand the science behind climate change, better assess its impacts, and better develop tools to address its causes and consequences.” I fully agree with this and I take pride in knowing that BCIA members are playing their part in the last point made in developing, installing and maintaining some of these tools. One of our collective goals is to encourage the wider spread use of the technology that can make a real difference in creating a more sustainable future, and this brings me smoothly on to something else that caught my eye at the conference.
Shifting gears I
am writing this column during the first week back in January after a pleasant Christmas break when even the President of the BCIA allows himself to switch off and forget about things in the ‘real world’ for a few days! Being the environmentally conscious and responsible person I am of course, important issues such as energy efficiency and the net zero target are never far from my mind and I did manage to glance over some of the discussions that took place in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, in November. Incidentally, COP27 marked the 30th anniversary of the adoption of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, making it a similar age to the BCIA itself!
When urging relevant parties and groups to focus on reaching a successful outcome in negotiations to advance climate commitments, COP President Sameh Shoukry said that it was time to “shift gears and complement the technical discussions with more political, high-level engagement”. The “shift gears” analogy got me wondering what sort of action we can take this year to do more to effect positive change and take the building controls industry to new heights, as a sector, as organisations and as individuals. Without wanting it to sound too much like a New Year’s resolution, I do fear too many are simply standing still and are awaiting the action from others or to be directed what to do as if it is somebody else’s problem. Yet if we all took some actions, however small, in both work and personal life it would make a huge positive difference.
Success stories
Greater engagement with young engineers and attracting more school and college leavers will play a vital role in pushing the sector forward and there are two success stories in this regard from 2022 that I hope that we can build on this year. Firstly, training provider Group Horizon announced that more than 100 apprentices have now registered for the Building Energy Management Systems (BEMS) Controls Engineer Apprenticeship since it was launched in April 2021. The BCIA has long recognised that there has been a significant gap in skills and the Apprenticeship was designed to help fill that gap. To have more than 100 people enrolled on the programme already represents a fantastic success on the part of the employer group that put it together. Secondly, I am delighted at how the Young Engineers Network (YEN) has flourished since being established in April last year. At a meeting held on 7th December, members of the YEN came together to discuss the future ambitions for the group. A number of themes came forward, including how the Network can influence change and innovation in the industry, encouraging diversity and best practice in talent attraction and retention, combining site visits with learning outcomes, inspiring people on the career pathways and variety of roles that exist in the BEMS arena and scoping out regional activity to broaden engagement from young engineers across the UK. The young engineers have really benefited from meeting up and sharing their experiences and I am sure that increased engagement with younger members of the industry will deliver positive results for the sector as a whole.
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