It has been a difficult period for the Building Services sector and like most of the areas within the Construction industry the recession has hit hard. Project funding has been cut along with capital expenditure. This combined with the problems in the general economy has inevitably led to redundancies and job losses and seen a huge talent pool created of people looking for work.

The OECD report highlighting the economic impact of counterfeiting and piracy features a section regarding electrical components and with the report including special mention of its Electric Dragon campaigns, it is important for those in the supply chain - and building services professionals - to play their part and be vigilant.

We've all been there - trying to take accurate measurements while holding both ends of the tape measure at the same time and marking the wall with a pencil that you can't quite manage because you don't have three hands! If that sounds familiar then you are in for a treat with the introduction of the new TLM130i from Stanley, a quick and efficient precision laser tool that makes light work of a host of measurement tasks.

In many operations, within the industrial, construction and commercial sectors, the use of water is often an accepted process cost.  There is scant attention paid to reducing such a significant service cost with fixing leaking taps often being the extent of energy saving in this area.

With water shortages reported recently in Australia, in many of the Mediterranean countries and in a string of other countries across the globe, we are increasingly becoming aware of the fragility of this planet's future and our place within it. We have huge quantities of water on the blue planet, yet only 2% of it fresh water.  We have a growing population, set to hit nine billion by 2042 - that's 2.7 billion more than now - so not an inconsiderable rise in numbers.  Not unreasonably, they will all want drinking water, bathing water, better food and a better quality of life - all of which demand more high quality water.