The ‘Designer Depot' project (BSj 04/06) is an example of building services engineers taking their own hype seriously and failing to understand the building owners' needs.

Noble words such as ‘eco template', ‘habitat' and ‘radical' are fine for projects where building services add value, such as commercial or residential works, but the logistics industry is a completely different beast.

Shippers and distributors live and breathe costs, because their customers are primarily motivated by price. Fancy eco-words mean nothing to them. They perceive distribution centres as tin sheds where costs have to be constantly reduced to remain competitive.

The industry will never buy the "designer depot" in its present form. Maybe the engineers will have a chance if they change emphasis and concentrate on cost savings - for example,"energy zero depots" - which leads me onto a related point.

Most non-perishable goods are packed in boxes or shrink wraps, then transported in semi-trailer trucks between manufacturers, distribution sheds, wholesales and retailers. The trucks whizzing past us on the autobahns are not heated or ventilated - the same story for containers on ships or trains. So why are distribution centres and storage rooms heated and ventilated when they are handling goods which are packed to withstand climatic extremes?

I tried to argue this point on a huge single product faculty I designed over a decade ago and failed miserably. The customer would have none of if because his unionized stacker drivers would not work in the cold. Also, the engineering practice I was working with at the time would never take the risk of deviating from recommendations in the Guide and ASHRAE.

Next time your readers are commissioned to design warehouses or distribution centres, ask if the stacker drivers wear woolly jumpers and mittens. If the answer is yes, then there will be no space heating systems, carbon emissions will be eliminated and running costs will be converted directly to profits for the building operator. Unfortunately, the building services engineer will earn no money because there is almost nothing to design - but then he would have made an unsecured risk decision which may save the planet.

I think it's about time for building services engineers to "think outside of the box" for the logistics industry. Awful pun, sorry.

Bill Lenehan ACIBSE, Essen Germany, Bill_lenehan@hotmail.com

Source

Building Sustainable Design