On 11th November BSRIA welcomed 380 industry professionals at the Brewery in London for its annual Briefing: performance and wellbeing, beyond compliance.

The event was opened by BSRIA chief executive Julia Evans, who welcomed leading industry figures.

She reminded everyone that wellbeing was “currently very much in the news” and “at the forefront of academic thinking in the engineering world”. Indeed, Building Performance Evaluation and sustainability would dramatically change in the next 20 years.

The event was chaired by Sarah Ratcliffe, programme director, Better Buildings Partnership, who asked the question: “What do we know about performance and wellbeing?” Sarah said that 80 per cent of the buildings we will occupy in 2050 have already been built, making it a challenge to meet our carbon emission targets. But the COP 22 – Marrakech Climate Change Conference and looking at climate change, CO2 emissions and the built environment should help raise the profile of the topic.

She added that clear air and access to daylight has a ‘positive impact’ on any workforce, essential when staff costs contribute towards 90 per cent of company operational costs. She went to say that buildings are not performing as they should be and asked if performance outcomes and setting targets would change this?

Speakers included Lynne Ceeney, BSRIA’s new technical director; Professor Paul Cullinan, honorary consultant in respiratory medicine at the Royal Brompton Hospital; Nicola Gillen, European Practice Lead for Strategy Plus, AECOM; Ben Roberts, senior mechanical engineer, Hoare Lea & Partners; Matthew Webster, head of wellbeing and futureproofing, British Land.

Julia Evans closed the morning and thanked the panel of speakers and the chair.

The afternoon keynote speaker was Rt Hon Lord (Paddy) Ashdown GCMG CH KBE PC. He said that the built environment was a great industry to work in but that “we live in serious times”.

On this note, an unashamedly melancholy account of a post-Brexit, President Trump world was given which amounted to a “watershed of our time”. He said they were both isolated events but shocking conclusions had been clearly reached: there was a “public convulsion” for the second time in one year with much anger and division.

But he continued to claim that he remained an optimist and that one had to “stand up and argue”. He suggested that 70 years of western liberal values and consensus was coming to an end and that “the hard knock of reality” and “sharp corners” had been knocked off: one must deal with “what is rather than what could be”.

Lord Ashdown’s valedictory comment was that he wasn’t sure where this left the UK’s relationship with China but repeated the old Chinese saying “may you be condemned to live in interesting times”.

Julia Evans closed the event with thanks to all the sponsors – especially Trend – delegates in attendance and the announcement that the Briefing would be returning “bigger and better” next year in November.