An organisation designed to improve and maintain professional standards among employment agencies has been launched by the HVCA. The Building Services Engineering Employment Agency represents a voluntary grouping of employment agencies that supply skilled personnel to contractors in building-services engineering.

Three Buro Happold employees raised £3000 running in the London Marathon last month, including £1500 from the company. The money raised will benefit a selection of worth causes.

Richard Ratcliffe (left) of St Martins Property receives one of the first commercial Energy Performance Certificates produced by an accredited CIBSE Low Carbon Energy Assessor, John Field.

Danfoss has taken a stake in the fast-growing heat-pump market in the UK with the acquisition of Eco Heat Pumps. This is the sixth acquisition that Danfoss has made in the heat-pump sector in less than three years.

A Parliamentary enquiry has been launched to establish what ministers, city leaders, property owners and occupiers need to do to cut carbon emissions from the country’s offices, shops and factories. The enquiry wants local firms and political leaders to get involved and support this first public enquiry into the issue.

Daikin’s split and Sky Air air-conditioning systems are now available through Climate Center, following a new arrangement with Wolseley. They will be available through Climate Center’s nationwide network of 51 branches, the largest in the UK.

Ener-G, which specialises in sustainable energy technology, has moved into ground-source technology with the acquisition of Ground Source Solutions, which is involved in renewable heating and cooling energy. The 80% stake in Ground Source Solutions brings Ener-G’s major transactions in the last six months to three.

Lighting and electrical-services specialist Parkersell has a new name, The company is part of Dalkia and has been renamed Dalkia Lighting & Electrical in a move that reflects Dalkia’s holistic service approach across all business sectors.

A call for ambient-air, water and ground sources to be included in the definition of renewable energy sources in the draft EU law on the promotion of renewable energy sources has been made by the European Partnership for Energy & the Environment. The primary technology to use these energy sources is heat pumps, and their use will strongly benefit from such an expanded definition of energy sources, combined with the inclusion of heat pumps in the EU Directive.

The web site for the exhibition H&V09 is now live (address below). This comprehensive resource has a wealth of event information and will be regularly updated with the latest event news.

David Shouksmith, project manager with building-services company Shouksmiths give a final once-over to its latest ‘complete package’ project. Concept House in Leeds was completed for main contractors Carillon and client Unite, the UK’s largest provider of student hospitality and accommodation.

Balfour Kilpatrick has been awarded a £10 million contract to design, supply and install M&E services for a new arts and technology college. Walsall College is adding the college to its existing four sites.

Hamworthy Heating has been acquired by Group Atlantic of France, which is well known across Europe for its commercial and domestic boilers, electric water heaters, panel heaters, towel driers, air conditioning, ventilation and renewable energy. It already has a presence in the UK through its Atlantic and Ygnis brands.

The Construction Products Association has cast serious doubts on the Government’s target to see 240 000 new homes a year built to zero-carbon standards by 2016 in a new report.

BRE has boosted its expertise in intelligent buildings with the acquisition of two specialist divisions of i&i Ltd, Europe’s leading intelligent-building consultancy. The acquisition brings two important services areas into BRE — intelligent-building-systems consultancy and ibexcellence, the world-renowned Centre of Excellence for Intelligent Building.

Grundfos Group has reported record sales figures for 2007 of £1.68 billion. Emerging markets in eastern Europe, Russia, Asia and China showed strong growth, but even the traditional more mature markets in western Europe showed a healthy 6% growth.

Gripple has received a second Queen’s Award for Enterprise — this time for the growth of its international business. The Gripple wire suspension system is widely used to support services such as ductwork, pipework and lighting, and nearly 300 million wire joiners have been sold to this and other industries since it was invented 20 years ago.

Inviron has been selected by Alfred McAlpine to design and install the M&E services for two primary-care-trust centres in Stockport. The £10.3 million project will see two state-of-the-art one-stop centres in Woodley and Heald Green replacing the current outdated facilities. Services to be provided by the new centres include district nursing, baby clinics, physiotherapy and nutritional advice.

Honeywell’s building solutions business (HBS) has won the IP in Security Innovation award for best application for its work at Wembley Stadium. Honeywell was also selected for the innovation award over two other category winners — best software and best hardware. The judges commented that Wembley Stadium is ‘a fantastic example of system convergence, with impressive scale to boot’; it was also described as ‘a world-class example of an integrated solution’.

One of the world’s most respected manufacturers of uninterruptible power supplies, BORRI SpA, now has representation in the UK following the setting up of BORRI UK, an exclusive distributor of BORRI products. Based in Nottingham, the new company has a nationwide team of sales and factory-trained technical personnel who will focus on proving resellers and end users with first-rate customer response.

A number of top firms in the industry have signed up for a new flexible learning programme aimed at addressing the growing shortage of qualified building-services engineers, launched by the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers.

Users of the web site of “Modern Building Services” are being offered a 10% discount for a seminar to launch a new guide in the Knowledge Series of the Chartered Institution of Building Services Engineers. “Fan coil units : solutions for the 21st century” explains how chilled-water FCUs are a highly effective means of providing air conditioning for buildings. The event is on Monday 19 May at CIBSE's headquarters at Balham in South London.

Buro Happold raised £1383 for the charity RedR (Register of Engineers for Disaster Relief) with a company-wide ‘wear red for RedR Day’ in February. This was the second time the price has run a RedR Day since the scheme started three years ago.

Dalkia has reinforced its position in public-sector property manager by retaining its contract with the Welsh Assembly Government. This contract will allow Dalkia to provide flexible and effective services to the WAG, building on its long-term relationship with the Welsh regional government.

The extension of Enhanced Capital Allowances to include electrical systems may be one of the most important changes under the new system, according to property tax and finance specialist Davis Langdon Crosher & James.

Modern Building Services has launched a new service to simplify the task of matching the staffing needs of companies in the building-services industry and engineers. A new area on our web site enables engineers in the industry to post their CV and those looking for staff to access those CVs.

Birmingham building-services provider JS Wright has completed the £4.6 million fit-out of the 14-storey Park Plaza County Hall Hotel near the London Eye. The 2-year project was the biggest in JS Wright’s 118-year history and has resulted in the company’s work in London accounting for 70% of its forecast turnover of £19 million for 2007/8.

The UK’s first centre of excellence in low-carbon technologies for buildings is set to open at London South Bank University. The Centre of Efficient & Renewable Energy in Buildings will open in 2009. It will be a unique resource for teaching, research and demonstration of low-carbon energy technologies in the built environment.

Against the background of the introduction of Energy Performance Certificates for buildings, the CBI has launched a guide for business, with commercial real-estate advisor CB Richard Ellis.

The price of ductwork systems could rise by 10 to 15% as a result of rising steel prices, according to the Association of Ductwork Contractors & Allied Services (ADCAS). The association represents ductwork suppliers and suppliers of associated components and warns that the impact of rising steel prices cannot be avoided.

Prêt a Manger has appointed specialist maintenance provider M. J. Quinn Integrated Services to look after air conditioning, refrigerated display cabinets and general refrigeration in its 160 shops throughout the UK

Grundfos has opened a £12 million 1700 m2 factory in San Luis Potosi, Mexico.

There is huge potential to save energy in shopping centres using a combination of natural and mechanical ventilation to maintain indoor environmental quality, according to a new study. The beneficial effects of natural ventilation in buildings such as schools have been well documented, but until now there has been little work on how the system can be applied to large areas with a mixture of enclosed areas and common internal open spaces — such as shopping centres.

The Association for Consultancy & Engineering has continued its drive to have more engineering disciplines included on the Government’s list of professions suffering from skills shortages.

Five major trade associations are supporting RAC09 at the NEC from 24 to 26 February 2009 and being promoted as the premier event for low-carbon cooling solutions.

Balfour Kilpatrick has been awarded a £4.5 million contract to design, supply and install mechanical and electrical services for a new community hospital by Robertson Capital Projects.

Following consultation with members, the council of the Heating & Ventilating Contractors’ Association has pledged its support to the development of a single organisation to represent mechanical and electrical contractors — brought about by the convergence of the HVCA and the Electrical Contractors’ Association.

As part of its initiative to sell safety-critical gas parts only to CORGI-registered installers, Parts Center, part of the Wolseley Group, is hosting CORGI days at all 200 of its branches from 28 April to 2 May.

Asbestos surveying, management and environmental consultancy Redhill Analysts has been awarded RoSPA’s (Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents) Silver Award for Occupational Health & Safety.

The Buderus GB162 wall-hung gas-fired condensing boiler has won one of the world’s best known design awards for its excellence of technical design. The prestigious iF product-design award was presented at a high-profile award ceremony in Hanover.

Following the decision by Wolseley Parts Centers to supply sensitive spare parts for boilers only to Corgi-registered installers, ATAG Heating UK has appointed Parts Centers as a main supplier of its spares in the UK.

Power Electrics (PE), one of the UK’s biggest independent generator specialists, has opened a sale, hire and service centre in Abergarw trading estate in Bridgend.