“I have to admit that it’s hard not to feel a sense of deja vu when I read a government report that’s calling for greater collaboration and allround better performance in the UK construction industry. We have really heard it before from Sir Michael Latham (Constructing the team, 1994) and Sir John Egan (Rethinking Construction,1998).

“In our features this month, the themes of integration and a collaborative approach are high on the agenda.

Energy management needs to be embedded into all sectors of British Business, but the sector that should be most clearly focused on efficiency seems to a degree to ignore the issue. Why is the FM industry often ignoring leading on energy management?

Private Frazer’s catchphrase in Dad’s Army reflects the mood at many Climate Change discussions. The decarbonising targets of an 80% reduction by 2050 are challenging, to put it mildly. However, it may be possible to reach our targets on emissions, although there is a mountain to climb.

As specialists in HVAC, building engineers are used to tracking the regulatory requirements around M & E. Over the last year, however, it has been a regulation relating to the construction side of our industry that has caught a number of companies on the hop. I am referring, of course, to EN 1090 which dictates requirements for CE marking for the ‘Execution of steel structures and aluminium structures’.

“This month, industry experts offer their views on indoor air quality. It’s one of those topics that has been around for quite some time, but now it is combined with a greater emphasis on wellbeing and is rising up the agenda for our built environment.

As government moves to decarbonise the UK's heating, MBS looks at a brief history of our move to gas, and why it's going to be such a challenge to find new sources of heat for homes, industry and commercial buildings. 

LG Electronics Air Conditioning and Energy Solutions division offers several engineering tools focused on HVAC, during the overall life-cycle of a building, relating to three categories.

"It’s been a tough week for the construction industry. Not only did we discover more about the awful management practices at Carillion, but Dame Judith Hackitt’s final report on the Independent Review of Fire Regulations and Fire Safety did not pull any punches when it came to our sector’s working practices: Ignorant; indifferent; inadequate.

As you’ll see from our front cover, MBS is celebrating 15 years of bringing its readers the broadest coverage of this sector, with insights from experts in all areas of building services - designers, contractors, installers and end-users.

"At Ecobuild this year, representatives of the Better Buildings Partnership were making it known that clients are fed up to the back teeth of buildings that don’t deliver what they want – efficiency, maintainability, operational effectiveness. These weren’t just general moans, but a clear message that enough is enough. (See our News Analysis)

One of the most topical areas currently for VRF installations is the specification of Hydro Kits, which extract heat from a VRF Heat Pump or Heat Recovery system, air-cooled or water-cooled; for the production of domestic hot water.

In our continuing Top Tips series, we offer an infographic of insights from experts who have written for MBS or taken part in our round table. This is a quick summary of some of the advice that leading engineers and consultants have offered in the run up to the introduction of MEES. 

In the March issue we are looking at a number of solutions to familiar problems – how to ensure that homes and businesses have affordable, reliable heat with minimal impact on the environment. Or how to keep temperatures in data centres within tight margins in the face of rising energy costs and planning requirements.