News analysis with BESA
Health, carbon, and skills topped the bill at BESA Conference
The 2021 BESA National Conference took a deep dive into many of the practical solutions to the built environment’s most serious challenges
Optimistic George Clarke T
he two-day online event attracted almost 500 delegates, featured 67 speakers who produced 21 hours of technical and topical
content across two streams. It also coincided with the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow so there was a strong focus on how the building services industry could turn political rhetoric about net zero into actions. The opening keynote address was gived by
the TV personality and architect George Clarke (pictured) who explained how the construction and building engineering sectors could play a key role in addressing the climate crisis. He called for the scrapping of VAT on the restoration and conversion of existing buildings to help drive an ambitious programme of building upgrades that could both reduce carbon emissions and improve people’s quality of life.
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 suff ering 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 benefi t and how it can help them save money.” Clarke told the BESA Conference, which
was sponsored by Mitsubishi Electric, 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 fi re “did not go far enough” and said there needed to be more honesty about product and material test results.
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. He 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. This topic was covered in depth by Nigel Banks of ilke Homes later in the conference, and Clarke urged the industry to carry out more R&D to support other similar innovations. “I love this industry and think it has lots of really
exciting opportunities to off er future generations,” he said.
The theme of how our industry can have a positive impact on human health and well-being dominated many of the discussions and was particularly highlighted by the government adviser Professor Cath Noakes who gave a keynote address on the second day.
She said there should be much greater scrutiny of
standards in ventilation installation, commissioning, and maintenance; adding that there was “no excuse” for poorly ventilated buildings. “I never thought I would see the day when the Prime Minister and the Chief Scientifi c Offi cer were talking about ventilation,” said Noakes, who is one of two engineer members the government’s Scientifi c Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE). She told the Conference that the pandemic had
exposed systemic failings in how we design and retrofi t 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 fl uid dynamics. “This is not just about complying with regulations.
We also need to show clients that there is a benefi t 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. “Before the pandemic 5.3 million working days
were being lost every year to respiratory infections [fi gures from the Offi ce for National Statistics], but it is still not as tangible as your energy bill, so we need to push that message harder,” she told the Conference. She agreed with BESA chief executive David Frise, who chaired the Conference, that people operating at the “sharp end” had a bigger part to play in the development of practical solutions to building operating problems. 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.
Consensus
As delegates at COP26 in Glasgow battled hard to agree a consensus about how to limit global warming and “keep 1.5 alive”, those attending the BESA Conference were setting out a series of engineering solutions using existing and emerging technologies to bring that goal closer. There were detailed discussions about the use of heat networks, heat pumps, hydrogen, and other low carbon solutions. The use of digital systems, including the Internet of Things and digital twins, was also seen as key to helping the sector gather the operating information it needs to tackle the ‘performance gap’ and lack of targeted maintenance. The Conference also brought delegates up-to-speed
with the latest developments around Building Information Modelling (BIM) thanks to a presentation from former chief construction adviser Paul Morrell OBE. The role of specifi cation also came under the spotlight in a session about the government’s Construction Playbook led by Fergus Harradence deputy director for Infrastructure & Construction at BEIS. “There is a lot of agreement in government that
the focus on lowest cost has delivered bad outcomes for everybody, including government as the client,” he said, while also stressing the need to use modern methods of construction (MMC) and adopt product
12 December 2021
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