Take our chance

But at the CIBSE/ASHRAE conference in Edinburgh he made no bones about the future of the planet. It was nothing short of apocalyptic: killing heat, fires, floods, reduced food production and social unrest.

Perhaps we have heard this too often now. We have become immured to the awful possibilities of an overheated planet, and now we simply turn off when someone starts on about it – again.

But engineers must face the truth of the situation and take responsibility for helping to solve the problem. Wyatt says that we are in the calm before the storm and that, while we have the time and the money to do so, engineers must start taking action.

ASHRAE president Richard Rooley shares these concerns. He goes further, saying that perhaps engineers should refuse to design systems that won't be efficient. So often we hear excuses about cost cutting and lack of time for proper commissioning. Do services engineers need to take a harsher line? Systems designed by structural engineers always work – buildings don't fall down. But building services engineers leave their designs working inefficiently, using too much energy and often not properly understood by the users.

This is effectively an abuse of engineers' skills. Why bother pursuing high qualifications and Institution standards if the systems are going to end up this way?

Climate change is a disaster for the planet; an opportunity for building services engineers. It may be awful to say it, but our businesses could benefit greatly from building labelling and energy audits. Yet with these gains comes responsibility and it's one which we're being called upon not to shirk.

Yes, government has a role to play, but we're the ones who know what must be done, and how to achieve it. Services engineers should call to mind the CIBSE motto: for the greater comfort of mankind.