BSRIA CEO announces he is stepping down
BSRIA’s CEO Andrew Eastwell is to stand down in April 2014, prompting a search for his successor. He says, ‘From what I can see, there is plenty of enthusiasm and talent around to see BSRIA thrive and grow, as it has done in the last decade.’
Reflecting the industry, he comments, ‘It is astonishing how things go in cycles, and our industry is no different. 40 years ago, researchers were starting to get to grips with issues of indoor air pollution, then linked to smoking, radon gas and sick-building syndrome.
‘A huge body of evidence began to be amassed, and the techniques such as air-leakage testing using pressurisation and tracer-gases were born. These are now taken for granted, developed, refined and now turned into BS, CEN and ISO standards that apply across the world.’
He also notes how the recent sudden, by construction-industry standards, rush to meet legal energy targets for buildings has rightly focused on reducing demand, re-using heat and cold and supplying remaining demand with low-carbon, highly efficient devices.
He comments, ‘But just for a little while, we have taken our eye off the IAQ ball. It is time to re-focus efforts to make sure that in our aims to be energy meagre, we don’t swap one set of problems for another.’
