The HVCA has a crucial role to play in ensuring that its members gear up for “the most profitable commercial opportunity” building services engineering has ever known, according to Martin Burton, the Association’s newly-elected president.
Speaking at the annual general meeting of the HVCA, Burton stressed that - in the context of the government's ongoing commitment to carbon reduction - the Association must assist its members towards a fuller understanding of sustainable and renewable technologies, 'from solar thermal to heat pumps, and from photovoltaics to hydrogen fuel cells'.
'We must provide them with detailed guidance on matching the right renewable technology with the right application, and on minimising the carbon footprint of their own businesses - and we must ensure that appropriate technical training arrangements are in place,' the president insisted.
HVCA members must also be prepared to promote low-carbon options to their clients.
'We must convince our members of the commercial wisdom of joining microgeneration, Competent Persons and other accreditation schemes, which - as well as providing a passport to new business - underline their competence and farsightedness,' said Burton.
It was the role and duty of the HVCA to ensure that its members were equipped for 'the big challenges and even bigger rewards that lay ahead'.
'And it is my role and duty as president to ensure this happens.'
Much had already been said and written about energy efficiency and conservation, about the application of renewable technologies, and about the development of a truly sustainable built environment.
'You don't need me to remind you that, increasingly in the years and decades ahead, such environmental considerations will set the standards and define the shape of our buildings.
'Nor do I have to point out the key role which the building services engineer will come increasingly to play in turning the low-carbon dream into a functioning reality,' the president concluded.