Delivering lower carbon emissions
The new president of the Heating & Ventilating Contractors’ Association, Graham Manly, would like to look forward to a competent industry delivering lower carbon emissions — backed by regulations that are made to stick.
The HVCA commends Government on its long-term target of 80% carbon reduction by 2050. This, however, is 40 years away, and significant reductions in the shorter term are essential — both for environmental reasons and to ensure security of energy supply.
Although the major reductions will come from cleaner forms of central electricity generation, our industry can have a significant influence on net energy demand within buildings.
The association has been active, in collaboration with other industry bodies, in consulting with Government on a wide variety of issues surrounding the development of legislation and its subsequent implementation.
We have worked with SummitSkills on the development of a qualifications framework for renewable technologies to enable the upskilling of the existing workforce and to embed these technologies into the standard training for all new entrants into the sector.
We have continued to produce standards and guides to good practice, many of which are accepted as ‘bibles of the industry; the latest of these now cover many of the renewable technologies. In collaboration with the Electrical Contractors’ Association, we have launched a range of short courses on the design, installation and operation of various individual technologies.
Finally, we have established measures of competence to ensure that, through registration, customers can be assured that their chosen contractor has been assessed.
HVCA was the first, and remains the only, trade association in construction to introduce a single regime for the independent inspection and assessment of the technical and commercial capability of all its membership on a regular basis.
Similarly, our establishment more than a decade ago of a voluntary register of companies competent in safe refrigerant handling has led to the appointment of REFCOM to undertake the mandatory certification under the F Gas Regulation.
Through its subsidiary BESCA, the association operates a competent-persons scheme under the Building Regulations in England and Wales, along with an accreditation scheme for energy assessors and air-conditioning inspectors.
This association has put in place the infrastructure to produce standards and guidance, to provide training and to regulate the competence of individuals and companies.
Indeed, a number of businesses have already invested significantly, especially in training, to obtain certification under various schemes — only to experience little uptake as a result of customers’ non-compliance with the appropriate regulation.
Non-compliance is fast becoming a culture, partly through lack of enforcement, partly through the paltry scale of the penalties and partly through the absence of perceived benefit.
Sadly, the problem is compounded by a proliferation of certification schemes and bodies, which require companies that offer a range of services to undergo multiple certification — at a considerable cost in both time and money. To many, this does not seem an attractive investment, especially given the economic situation, when customers are not even requiring or valuing such certification.
The final negative is that, as a result of competition between certification bodies, the maintenance of common criteria for competence is being compromised by some. The resulting certification of people not fully competent and the pressure to accept the lowest charges for energy assessments are often producing valueless Energy Performance Certificates, especially for homeowners, and will also lead to superficial air-conditioning inspections. No wonder clients are sceptical.
Although enforcement is only part of the solution to these problems, without it we stand no chance of making the regulations stick. Whatever reservations we may have had about CORGI, the rigour and vigilance of its inspection arrangements for gas installers, along with the sanctions that could be imposed for non-compliance, ensured its effectiveness. Can the same be said about Parts L or F of the Building regulations? Or Energy Performance Certificates? Or mandatory air-conditioning inspections?
Anecdotal evidence provided by our members, along with the half-hearted responses received from ministers and officials when they are challenged on the issue suggest that the answer in most cases is a resounding ‘no’. Now is the time to address these issues as we embark on a 10-year programme to ensure that all new buildings will be zero carbon by 2019, a process which will involve three further revisions to Parts L and F.
As it is estimated that over 75% of the current building stock will exist in 2050, it is essential that its carbon footprint is significantly reduced to achieve targets. It is encouraging to note that this point is acknowledged in the Government’s White Paper ‘Low Carbon Transition Plan’ directed at achieving the challenging task of a 34% cut in emissions by 2020. Extremely encouraging is the prediction that a further 800 000 ‘green’ jobs will be created to make all this happen.
These are challenging times for the sector and for the nation. If we are really determined to invest in our future beyond 2050, we must invest wisely and ensure that personal, corporate and public expenditure achieve their objectives.
Poor work carried out by an incompetent ‘cowboy’ will do more damage to the carbon agenda and this industry than if the work had not been done in the first place. This industry, backed by HVCA, has the structure to deliver on the regulations — but now is the time for compliance to be enforced if we are really serious about achieving our goals — in a professional manner.
I hope that those of us fortunate enough to be able to look back 10 years from now will see 2010 as a defining moment in achieving worthwhile progress towards meeting our carbon-reduction commitment — and not a missed opportunity.
