CIBSE loses £120k on campus DECs

CIBSE has been forced to withdraw money from research and technical publications after suffering a £120,000 revenue shortfall because of a change to the rules on display energy certificates.

The revenue shortfall was highlighted by past-president Brian Moss in his CIBSE Gold Medal Address on 2 September.

Moss explained that in June the government announced that campus sites would be allowed to produce a single DEC, rather than a DEC for every building as had been expected previously. As a result of the change, he said, CIBSE would certify approximately 400 fewer DECs than it had budgeted for this year, representing £120,000 of lost income.

Other organisations will also suffer. Moss said the 13 accrediting bodies would lose business worth about £900,000 in total, and had to find ways of making up the shortfall. “In the case of the institution, money must now be withdrawn from learned society functions such as research and technical publications,” he said.

Moss added that the original NHS estimate was that 10,000-18,000 buildings would require DEC certification. That number had dropped to fewer than 1000. Similar reductions in the number of DECs required would apply to other campus-based organisations such as universities and secondary schools, he said.

In his address, Moss also said CIBSE should take responsibility for day-to-day implementation of energy efficiency provisions in the Building Regulations.