Energy Engineering Conscience

I have taken on the office of CIBSE Presidency for 2013-14 with eyes wide open to the opportunities, challenges and changes ahead for our institution.

I accepted the Jewel of Office with pride on behalf of our industry, which I have tirelessly worked for now for over 35 years. During my year in office I will be continuing the President’s blog and I’d like to thank immediate Past President David Fisk for giving us such an entertaining year of posts. 

Since taking over the helm I’ve already had the pleasure of numerous events, awards, presentations and meetings. Not being a practised blogger I had no doubt on how to approach the blog; ask my daughters what to do. Suitably embarrassed I concluded that I want to open up debate on some of the key issues that affect us and our industry, and their importance to human well being. So, over the coming months I’ll be introducing these themes and invite you to give your take on the month’s topic. Each week a guest blogger will have the opportunity to respond to my introduction, giving their unique perspective, insight and expertise. With collaboration in mind, I’d like to invite input from engineers of all disciplines, facilities and operations managers, architects, academics, social commentators and the like. Getting involved is simple, so please do contact us if you’d like to be part of the blog. I’d encourage a diverse range of opinions and look forward to reading your posts.

Make sure you keep an eye on the blog so you don’t miss any posts. We’ll be sure to share the posts on social media, in particular on the CIBSE LinkedIn pages, so that way the debate can continue on a daily basis. Each time I upload a blog I’ll provide an update of social media activity from the preceding month so you can see just how much of a debate you’ve created!

And so to my first topic – energy engineering conscience.

Climate change is occurring even quicker than predicted. Sir Nicholas Stern, this year, has declared that loud and clear. So we must respond accordingly.

Huge energy efficiency improvements and adaptation of our cities offer major opportunities to change. Long-standing debates on areas such as wind power must be resolved soon.  Europe, for example, has shown it could develop renewable resources on an integrated governmental scale. Societies could develop their populations to act on climate change and ecosystems through education, social interaction and greater sharing of knowledge. Governments could increase research and development resources to get a grip of the 30% of energy wasted alone in existing buildings. Organisations can pursue a new continuously improving process for their facilities and operations. It’s a matter of making better choices based on a realistic view of the challenges and opportunities through a new energy engineering conscience.

CIBSE will stride forward to provide a voice and a conscience for excellence in Building Services Engineering, a place for knowledge and a place for voices to be heard. 

For debate: What are the opportunities presented by the challenge of climate change and can we, through behavioural change, grasp them?

CIBSE President George Adams