HVCA president warns of green invasion

HVCA president Gareth Vaughan has warned m&e contractors that installers from other disciplines are moving in on the green services market.

The building services engineering sector was well placed to be at the forefront of a green revolution – but there were others players, from other disciplines, who were already developing the skills required to install “green” products.

“They will not be slow to pick up the ball and run with it, should we let it slip from our grasp,” said Vaughan.

Drawing on his experiences at the annual convention of the Mechanical Contractors’ Association of America (MCAA), which took place in Scottsdale, Arizona, earlier this year, he said that “our American cousins have heard the sustainability clarion call loud and clear – and are responding in a manner, and at a speed, that has made the USA the great and powerful nation it is today”.

“It is my belief that the ‘green fever’ that has our US colleagues in its grip is one that is very well worth catching – and that the greater our engagement with sustainability, the better it will be for the nation, the planet, our industry and our businesses.”

The quest for sustainability across the built environment was not a passing fancy, he said, but was here to stay – so that, sooner or later, low and zero-carbon buildings would become the norm.

Technologies that depended, in whole or in part, on renewable energy sources were being developed and marketed, and many such products already existed.