Firstly, the Government is talking a good story, but it is not even enforcing its own regulations, which means it is very hard for the industry to set professional standards and make them stick. There is a huge gap between what the Government says and what it actually does.

Local building control officers (BCOs) have been left in charge of Part L of the Building Regulations - a key piece of legislation for driving up sustainable building standards, cutting waste and reducing energy consumption.

Trading standards officers are to be given the responsibility for making sure the requirements for Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs), Display Energy Certificates (DECs) and air conditioning inspections are met - again vital measures designed to reduce the carbon footprint of our existing building stock.

BCOs are comfortable with structural, drainage and fire safety issues, but most of them have very little idea about energy efficiency. Trading standards already seem to have their hands full with rogue traders and illegally imported goods, can they really be expected to take on such a complex and specialist issue as building services systems?

It smacks of political expediency. The Government has put regulations in place and there are people to enforce them, but only in theory.

It is far more likely that lawyers will drive enforcement by influencing the sale or rental value of a building. During the due diligence process they will be working to a checklist and woe betide any hopeful seller or landlord who cannot produce the relevant evidence that their building meets regulations.

By 6 April 2008, Energy Performance Certificates (EPCs) will be required for all homes when they are first built and for commercial buildings with a floor area over 10,000m² when they are built, sold or rented out. By 1 October, EPCs will be required on the sale or rent of all remaining domestic and commercial buildings with DECs required for all public buildings over 1,000m².

By January 2009 the first mandatory inspections of air conditioning systems over 250kW should have taken place.  This will be followed two years later by inspections for all air conditioning systems over 12kW.

Unless these are rigorously adhered to, I fear we are seeing another negotiating mechanism for buyers and tenants to use for playing the property market.

Zero Carbon

In the domestic sector, all new houses will have to be zero carbon by 2016. While improved energy efficiency and better build standards will go a long way towards that target, real carbon neutrality can only be achieved with the help of renewables.

Research carried out for the Energy Saving Trust estimates that the market for domestic renewable energy systems will be worth £2.3 billion a year from 2016. It also concluded that nine out of ten new homes could hit the target with the help of onsite renewables, but there is a problem.

The Renewables Advisory Board (RAB), an important industry group advising the Energy Minister, believes the 2016 timetable is damaging the market by: "Postponing much of the hard work until 2016, with little opportunity to learn or build capacity in the UK onsite renewables sector in the next eight years".

The RAB warns that house building will slow as the projected uptake of renewables outstrips global manufacturing capacity for a number of the most cost-effective technologies.

It wants the Government to reform the planning procedures to encourage faster uptake of renewables in larger housing developments to move the timetable forward from 2016.

There are common threads holding all of this together: A lack of joined up thinking and a lack of political will to make it all happen. Yet we have very tough carbon reduction targets to hit. Emissions are still rising, but our government has committed to cutting them by 20% over the next 12 years - and even that is not likely to be enough to mitigate the serious effects of climate change and we will have to go further.

At the moment, the Government seems content to allow the property market to decide by using legislation to influence the value of a building. This will create a commercial motivation for building owners and operators to refurbish and recommission their building systems, but the politicians also need to give the legislation teeth so that only competent engineers are able to flourish in this market.

Competent Person Schemes (CPS) were created by trade associations to establish the skilled workforce the country needs to meet sustainability targets. Only the companies who invest in skills deserve to have a business advantage over those who are only interested in riding on the back of the sustainability wave to make a quick buck.

This is where legislation can make a difference because clients can only be assured of meeting the requirements if they employ competent companies. However, if the legislation is being ignored where is the motivation to join a CPS?

Opportunity

For our part, M&E Sustainability is helping to prepare the mechanical and electrical industry by developing technical standards, training courses and awareness campaigns to ensure contractors are ready to take advantage of this potentially huge business opportunity.

Formed by an alliance between the Electrical Contractors' Association (ECA) and the Heating and Ventilating Contractors' Association (HVCA), M&E Sustainability is producing contractor-specific guidance covering subjects such as installing domestic lighting and renewables, power factor correction, heat pumps, biomass boilers and combined heat and power (CHP). It is also co-ordinating training provision and running a website alerting contractors to changing legislation and business issues while also providing technical guidance.

"We are telling our members that they need to adapt their businesses now," says ECA Director David Pollock. "The M&E landscape is changing fast, and in the next decade the business environment and skills we require will probably be unrecognisable from the situation today. 

"There are huge opportunities for members in the design, installation and maintenance of sustainable technologies, but conversely, those who are not properly skilled in these areas will be left far behind."

M&E contractors have many of the core skills that can be deployed to bring buildings up to the required standards to meet Part L and get ratings closer to A than G on their energy certificates.

"Resource efficiency is also a key part of the sustainability agenda," says HVCA Chief Executive Robert Higgs. "The most competitive, and environmentally aware, M&E companies will be ‘doing more with a lot less'. While preserving precious natural resources and cutting waste, this will also deliver increased profitability.

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