CIBSE Energy Assessors

Finally 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, Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) will be compulsory for all commercial buildings of more than 10,000 sq m whenever they are purchased or rented.

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 CIBSE Low Carbon Energy Assessor scheme but we are finally there and all the hard work has been worth it.

So, despite the various challenges along the way, we feel that the CIBSE Low Energy Assessor scheme 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.

Meanwhile CIBSE Flexible Learning 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.

Stephen Matthews
CIBSE Chief Executive

CIBSE President Elect John Swaffield Theme for 2008

One of CIBSE’s strengths is the diversity of its membership and this is reflected on our Board, our Consultative Council, our groups and societies and the spread of our members internationally. It is also reflected in the themes for our Presidential years.

I have recently returned from a trip to Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Dubai accompanying our President Elect John Swaffield. John’s Presidential Theme will be water and spending time with John, hearing him speak to so many of our International members was time well spent.

We all look forward to focussing on water and public health – such vital issues for building services during John’s presidential year.

Recent Presidential themes have been sustainability and the nature of the construction industry. Sustainability along with related themes such as energy efficiency has been challenging enough but with the public embracing the challenge of climate change and governments concerned with security of energy for the future we have been pushing at an open door.

The leadership of our Presidents has catalysed many publications and events and the development of the Low Carbon Consultants Scheme and the 100 days of Carbon Clean-Up campaign. More recently our current President John Armstrong has focussed on whole life costing and building operation and this has enabled CIBSE to demonstrate that we are about all buildings, not just new build. This is vital if we are to address the energy wastage caused by existing buildings.

A very challenging issue is the improvement of the construction industry which, it seems, needs to be addressed right at its core. Like many other countries the construction industry in the UK is based on historical practices and processes. We have been aware of the need to change for a long time and various attempts have been made.

CIBSE’s membership base covers the breadth of the building services industry – specialists in specific services but also manufacturers, installers, supply chain managers, project managers, facilities managers as well as consultant designers. This is another great strength which allows CIBSE to take a broad perspective and identify the areas in the whole supply chain and procurement process that are weak.

At the end of 2007 CIBSE responded to the UK Government’s Strategy for Sustainable Construction and we stressed the need to change the industry for better and for ever.

2008 heralds a number of exciting initiatives for CIBSE. Hot on the tail of achieving our UKAS accreditation for CIBSE Certification we are now expanding the Low Carbon Consultant scheme to provide the basis of accreditation for energy assessors. We have also developed a flexible learning scheme.

As part of CIBSE’s obligation to the public good we have been looking at how we can provide training to services engineers after graduation, to help build on their degree training and fill in the gaps in their practical knowledge to enable them to develop as engineers. We will provide this through on-line and other electronic forms such as ‘i-seminars’ and web casts.

We believe that flexible learning will enable busy young engineers who may not have the time to attend seminars or go back to college to keep up to date in our rapidly developing industry.

Learning in a practical work environment seems to me to be essential if CIBSE members are to provide excellence in building services. Flexible learning, with its electronic delivery is well suited to our busy global CIBSE community.

I would like to take this opportunity to wish all CIBSE members and readers of the BSJ a happy and prosperous 2008.

Stephen Matthews
Chief Executive