Incoming CIBSE president Stuart MacPherson made an appeal for net carbon standards and an ambitious programme to refurbish existing buildings in his inaugural address this week.
View the video here
Delivering his speech via video, he called for targeted investment in low carbon solutions to drive recovery from the devastation of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Citing the experience of previous economic shocks, MacPherson suggested that the natural reaction of governments, when faced with the urgent need to stimulate economies, was “to de-regulate and delay further change for fear of inhibiting investment. This is one time where this must not happen.”
“There is an opportunity to invest in structural changes, such as clean technologies and the education and training of the workforce who will implement the changes that will bring about reductions in emissions as economic growth returns.
“It is going to require a step change. We need to be designing all new buildings to net zero carbon standards and embark on a much more ambitious programme of refurbishment of existing buildings, combined with ways of de-carbonising the energy supply to those buildings.”
MacPherson went on to cite specific areas of research and development where building services engineers are leading the field. District heating and energy from waste, demand management, realistic building performance modelling and energy infrastructure resilience were some of the issues highlighted.
In his address, the new CIBSE President paid tribute to the commitment of the CIBSE community of staff and volunteers who continue to support its membership and society at large during the Covid-19 crisis.
He praised the speed at which the organisation’s central role of spreading information and learning had migrated into an online environment, and the valuable consultative role CIBSE members are providing to the Construction Industry Task Force and Royal Academy of Engineering in government advisory work.
Using CIBSE’s response to the crisis as an example, MacPherson speculated that this seismic change gives everyone, at both personal and government levels, an opportunity to re-evaluate our behaviours. The potential is there to create working environments that are better than they were before – returning to business as usual should not be the limit of our ambition.
Stuart MacPherson succeeds Professor Lynne Jack as CIBSE President and will, in turn, be succeeded by Kevin Kelly, CIBSE President-Elect. His address was delivered on 5 May 2020, via video link and is available to watch at www.cibse.org/president.
Stuart MacPherson PhD CEng FCIBSE
Stuart is a Director at Irons Foulner Consulting Engineers. He holds a BSc in physics, an MSc in building services engineering, an MBA and a PhD. He has served on the Scottish Region Committee for many years, including a time as Chair. He is a membership interviewer. He joined the CIBSE board in 2009 and served as the Treasurer and a Vice President before being elected President.
He has served on several panels as an adviser to the Scottish Government on the energy performance of buildings and carbon accounting related to buildings and he has assisted with the drafting of the Scottish Building Regulations in relation to energy and sustainability. He retains an interest in research following an earlier career in academia and is a member of the referee board of a number of academic journals.