Consultants needed to be involved at the planning and design stages. They need to consider all the issues whether they relate to building services or not if they are to find the right solution.
As an industry, we can continue to put up buildings that just about meet the sustainability requirements. Sometimes cost and client pressures dictate that we have to.
We should always follow the principles of sustainability, however, and try to persuade our clients and partners to stretch the boundaries rather than just keep within them.
We have to get involved early at the planning and design stages. The consultant has to be able to consider all the issues ranging from ecology, flooding and terrain to energy efficiency, sustainability and comfort. The required result is a highly efficient, low-energy, low-carbon building.
For highly sustainable buildings, we must pay as much attention to the services as we do to the envelope. Once built, the envelope doesn't emit any CO2, it is the services that do that.
Lean design is the name of the game with low heating and cooling loads.
We must use innovative technology and systems that integrate
the building within the local environment. We do this by supplying the demand with highly efficient equipment for heating, cooling and ventilation.
Just because we can naturally ventilate a building doesn't mean we should, or that it is the most efficient solution to cooling issues.
The optimum solution varies depending on location of the building and the tasks undertaken in it.
If it is to be fit for purpose, it must be designed for comfort as well as for productivity. And, of course, one size doesn't fit all. Buildings have to be tailor made.
As I said in my last column, we can and we should get by on less energy than in the past - we are going to have to.
That doesn't mean our buildings are going be less comfortable or less fit for purpose. We are going to deliver those along with high energy efficiency. How are we going to do that?
By carefully integrating a series of conflicting issues starting with the decision to build and refurbish existing properties in the first place - we can and we should.