tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4256470933968219721.post-19574557675707402882008-03-31T10:52:00.003+01:002008-04-10T10:09:11.640+01:00Finally the month the industry has been building up to – April 2008, the month when the EPBD legislation comes into force which means that new buildings, major refurbishments and large public buildings throughout England and Wales must have an energy certificate to rate the energy performance of the building. As you will all know by now, from 6th April, <a href="http://www.cibsecertification.co.uk/clients/energy-certificates-the-law">Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) </a>will be compulsory for all commercial buildings of more than 10,000 sq m whenever they are purchased or rented.<br /><br />The build up to this implementation has been impossible to escape from and for much of last year and the beginning of this year, CIBSE and the industry in general have been frantically laying the foundations for the schemes which will make these certificates a reality. The people behind the certificates are the ones who will bring the legislation to life, without accredited energy assessors there would be no EPCs. It hasn’t been an easy road to setting up and gaining approval for the <a href="http://www.cibsecertification.co.uk/">CIBSE Low Carbon Energy Assessor scheme </a>but we are finally there and all the hard work has been worth it.<br /><br />So, despite the various challenges along the way, we feel that the <a href="http://www.cibsecertification.co.uk/">CIBSE Low Energy Assessor scheme </a>has made a positive start and will respond well to the growing demand for assessors that will build during the coming months. There will be a lot of questions directed at CLG and the accredited training schemes, and there will always be those who criticize and bring up the flaws of other initiatives such as Home Information Packs but the point is that CIBSE, and the industry, are rising to the challenge and will do everything possible to meet the expectations of the government, of clients and of the general public.<br /><br />Meanwhile <a href="http://www.cibse.org/index.cfm?go=news.view&amp;item=28">CIBSE Flexible Learning </a>has been launched; aimed at the corporate training requirement, at least to begin with. The teaching material is broadly based upon our own publications and subject matter experts, we anticipate delivering at least twelve modules on applications such as ducts, cables, drains, low energy design – on-demand web based training to the highest standard with the intention of creating best practice, a reference library and case studies. We held two briefing sessions one to the academic community and one to industry and are looking to have early adopters who will help guide and inform this learning. Already we have four companies committed to the scheme with another twelve very interested. If you would like to know more about the opportunities and benefits of getting involved with the programme, please do feel free to contact me. In the longer term I believe we shall create a “knowledge network” on line, hopefully, for all. We start in September and we are all very excited about it.<br /><br />Stephen Matthews<br />CIBSE Chief ExecutiveCIBSE Informationnoreply@blogger.com