News analysis with BESA
London to include IAQ in planning law
Indoor Air Quality will be enshrined in London’s new planning requirements, according to the city’s deputy mayor Health
Environmental Strategy. Ms Rodrigues delivered the opening keynote for
S
the full-day event at the Park Plaza Riverbank Hotel, which covered a wide range of political, technical and business issues including the need to “reboot a broken process” in the wake of the Grenfell Tower disaster and the promotion of a “productivity led change agenda” by industry guru Mark Farmer. The event concluded with a gala dinner hosting
the presentation of more than 20 BESA Awards for Excellence including the national apprentice of the year accolade going to Lewis Buchanan of Hargreaves Ductwork. Ms Rodrigues urged BESA members to respond to the current consultation process on changes to the London Plan and to share their expertise with policy makers. “IAQ is a relatively new area for us to understand and we want to talk to your industry about the right steps to take,” she said. “We also need to make sure that people are provided with better evidence about the risks posed by poor IAQ.
peaking at last month’s BESA National Conference, Shirley Rodrigues said IAQ was also a key part of the city’s new
“We are aware that air brought into buildings through their ventilation systems can contribute to health problems and we will use the planning system to make sure this is taken into account by everyone involved in building projects, including architects,” she told the conference. She said it was important to address IAQ and
improve the information available to the public while the Mayor’s office tried to address the “wider systemic issues of pollution in general”. The Mayor Sadiq Khan recently produced data showing that every borough in London exceeded World Health Organisation limits for PM2.5 – the toxic air particles linked to lung damage and elevated risks of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases as well as cancer. He has pledged to spend £875 million on air quality measures over the next five years. Ms Rodrigues’ announcement was welcomed during a packed seminar hosted by the Association’s IAQ Group that immediately followed her talk. Issues around serious threats to human health from airborne particulates and how
buildings are being turned into ‘safe havens’ were then outlined by a range of expert speakers. Learning the lessons of Grenfell was the subject of another discussion led by BESA’s head of sustainability David Frise. He said the specific causes of the fire were still not clear, but that everyone “recognised the culture and the systemic failings that made it possible”. He cautioned that the enquiry and independent
review should not focus exclusively on fire safety as regulators would then miss the wider opportunity to improve a construction process that delivers “broken buildings and broken people”. The conference also featured technical streams
covering district heating and refrigeration, air conditioning and heat pumps. BESA’s legal and commercial director Rob Driscoll
introduced Mark Farmer, the author of last year’s seminal ‘Modernise or Die’ report for the construction industry, by making the point that, unless the industry embraced digital methods, it would continue to suffer from poor productivity. Mr Farmer warned that construction was facing a
combination of challenges it had never seen before, namely: an ageing workforce; poor productivity;
VENTILATION HYGIENE ELITE SCHEME LAUNCHED T
he Building Engineering Services Association (BESA) has launched a scheme to help ventilation hygiene specialists demonstrate
their competence, quality and standards. With building owners and operators becoming
more aware of the fire risks posed by poorly cleaned and maintained systems, there has been growing demand for a robust process to verify the quality of cleaning – particularly of grease extract systems used by commercial kitchens. This growing awareness has created a booming
market, which has attracted some non-specialist hygiene providers who don’t necessarily understand their responsibilities; or the importance of delivering clean systems, good advice and proper post-clean reporting to clients. This has led to increased scrutiny by insurance companies alarmed by the high number of claims following building fires. BESA, therefore, launched the ‘Ventilation Hygiene
Elite’ scheme at its recent national conference in London. The scheme, which is approved and administered by the Association’s independent certification arm BESCA, is based on BESA’s long- established best practice standard TR19. BESCA will audit firms’ work to ensure standards
are maintained and manage a database of post- clean reports, which can be used as an auditable trail by the member firm, their clients and insurers. BESCA will also carry out ongoing surveillance of each registrant to confirm continuing compliance. The amount of surveillance may reduce year-on- year if the company continues to display a high standard of work. A BESCA certificate for all notified cleans that meet the requirements will be automatically generated for issue to the end client. Since it was first developed in 1998 by BESA’s specialist ventilation hygiene group, TR19 has been
widely accepted by the building engineering services sector and British insurers as the standard to which ventilation systems should be cleaned. The guiding principle of TR19 is that a defined, measurable level of cleanliness should be achieved to improve safety and comfort in buildings. The ‘Elite’ scheme is now open to all who operate in the sector, not just BESA members, who can provide proof of competence and professionalism. Eligible BESA members, who meet the scheme’s criteria, will be allowed to join for free, but all firms will be subject to the ongoing audit process. “The scheme will help build up an auditable trail
for the ventilation hygiene provider,” said BESA membership director Wayne Terry. “It is also a good way of recording your employees’ work and ensuring they are maintaining high standards. It also reduces insurance risk and should, therefore, have a positive impact on premiums.”
14 November 2017
www.heatingandventilating.net
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