CIBSE president champions FM

In an exclusive interview with BSj, John Armstrong urged CIBSE members to take on the views of facilities managers.

"It was the core of my presidential speech, talk to facilities managers to find out how building and equipment are used," he said.

But Armstrong also said it is a two-way street and facilities managers must be prepared to listen to building service engineers. While there are improvements already, the conversation has not always been "an easy one", he said.

Political and environmental issues are forcing building service engineers to get better at collecting data about energy use. Climate change in particular is an issue that will not go away and CIBSE members are central to helping their organisations meet any legal or organisational targets.

"CIBSE is an engineering learned institution and very good at the mechanics of the design process and the production of data that designers use and we have very innovative designers. But in terms of the social nature of what we are doing, I do feel that CIBSE has never felt that is where it wants to be.

"But we are providing the internal environment for virtually everybody in the UK and that is an issue we need to consider, especially with the rise of climate change and carbon footprints so much comes down to individual people taking a more responsible role.”