Whole-life costing for you

14 May, 2005

In our personal life, rather than our working life, few people buy anything on the basis of lowest price. CIBSE’s new president Donald Leeper neatly encapsulates the issue in his presidential address when he asserts that few of us use lowest price to decide which garage will service our car, let alone which surgeon will operate on our children. But when it comes to major building projects, lowest capital cost is still very much the rule — and if a lower capital cost can be realised, it tends to be accepted, no matter what the consequences might be. Our feature on whole-life costing in this issue attempts to redress the balance by encouraging a longer-term view — indeed, the ultimate long-term view covering the entire life of a building. Not only can whole-life costing reduce long-term costs, but it can also provides an approach to guide investment in energy efficiency. And it is worth heeding the findings of the Energy Efficiency Best Practice Programme that organisations in most sectors can achieve savings of around 30% with an average payback of less than three years. Get yourself tuned into the enormous potential for saving money by turning to page 15.

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