It is being suggested CIBSE members take a pragmatic approach to climate change and get on with the job; after all, this fits with our laudable sustainability aims. But there is no, or very little, reliable source of information on what is sustainable, and you will not get any help reading Part L or anything else.

Look at the advertisements in your magazine. Apparently everything now has a low carbon footprint – how did that suddenly happen? In fact, can anyone tell me how to work out the lifecycle carbon footprint of anything, as well as all its other effects on the environment, recycling possibilities, lifecycle energy use, waste, packaging etc? And what is the job we are to get on with exactly – being sustainable or being low carbon?

My guess is we will just follow the current fashions because that is safe and we are all human beings who feel comfortable being part of the crowd. But please don’t fool yourselves you are saving the planet, as the planet doesn’t know or care!

Do I believe in human-induced global warming? Perhaps it doesn’t really matter. Other more important things seem to simply slip by unnoticed. How is third world poverty going, are they still dying in their millions from grinding economic deprivation? Perhaps we could and should do something about that?

It is futile to try and engineer the climate of the planet, how are we going to do that? We at CIBSE have enough problems with engineering simple buildings, and as many opinions on the “right” solution as you could ever want.

John Cooknell CEng MCIBSE

Source

Building Sustainable Design