The CIBSE lends its support to Building’s Green for Growth campaign

Industry is working to ensure Green Deal qualifi cations and accreditation procedures are in place to protect consumers

The Chartered Institute of British Services Engineers (CIBSE) is backing Building’s “Green for Growth” campaign. We welcome the campaign’s focus on public sector retrofit programmes and Display Energy Certificates to stimulate more green building.

We need to see growth in the UK - growth in the number of jobs and workplaces, provision of good quality housing, and provision of infrastructure to support our economy. But there seems to be a misconception that “being green” is a barrier to achieving this. Instead of spending our cash importing energy, we need buildings that use less of it. That means doing the really simple things - turning equipment off when it’s not needed - things that don’t cost much more than effort. These are things that are easily identified by getting a Display EnergyCertificate. Since our buildings use nearly half our energy, cutting the energy used in our buildings should be a matter of national priority.

Building energy-efficient offices and factories also makes UK business more profitable, because they spend less on energy. Building energy efficient homes cuts consumers bills far more effectively than any regulation of energy tariffs. And building green buildings as a whole develops new skills and knowledge that UK plc can use to grow its business around the world.

Stephen Matthews, chief executive, CIBSE

Topics