14 minute read
News Update
Upturn leads to skills shortages
Advertisement
The speed of the economic recovery is already revealing cracks in the building services labour market, according to the Building Engineering Services Association (BESA).
During a webinar hosted by the Association, recruitment experts warned that without significant investment in upskilling existing workers and adding to the sector’s headcount the industry would struggle to keep pace as the industry bounces back from the pandemic.
They said demand for skilled labour was surging because the engineering and construction sectors were accelerating faster than expected. “If we don’t do something dramatic about upskilling over the next three to five years we will not have a workforce capable of taking on the work created by the economic recovery,” said BESA’s director of training and skills Helen Yeulet.
She cited a study carried out by the consultancy McKinsey in 2017, which showed that 14 per cent of the workforce would need to be completely reskilled and 40 per cent at least partially. “And that was long before we had a pandemic,” said Yeulet.
CO2 emissions set to soar in 2021
Global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions are on course to surge by 1.5bn tonnes in 2021 – the secondlargest increase in history – reversing most of last year’s decline caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, a new report from the International Energy Agency shows. This would be the biggest annual rise in emissions since 2010, during the carbonintensive recovery from the global financial crisis.
The IEA’s Global Energy Review 2021 estimates that CO2 emissions will increase by almost 5 per cent this year to 33bn tonnes, based on the latest national data from around the world as well as real-time analysis of economic growth trends and new energy projects that are set to come online. The key driver is coal demand, which is set to grow by 4.5 per cent, surpassing its 2019 level and approaching its all-time peak from 2014, with the electricity sector accounting for three-quarters of this increase.
PROBE BY NATIONAL AUDIT OFFICE
Failure of GHG to be investigated
The National Audit Office is to investigate the reasons why the English £2bn Green Homes Grant scheme was suddenly abandoned by the government after just six months. This high-level auditing exercise will consider in particular how the scheme was designed, and whether it could ever have met the objectives set for it by Chancellor Sunak last July, of assisting 600,000 households and ensuring employment for 100,000 people.
Another objective is to look at who precisely did benefit from the scheme, and which energy-saving items were actually installed under it. Just £191m has been spent. While householders made 113,700 applications, only 55 per cent of these were ever approved by the scheme administrators. In the end, just 52,000 homes were improved - only 8 per cent of the Chancellor’s declared target. Around 43 per cent of these were low-income households, where “double” grants of up to £10,000 were available.
Proportionately the region with the highest uptake was the north west, with the lowest the other side of the Pennines, in the north east.
The NAO team are also set to examine in detail the procurement of the contract for the scheme’s IT platform, and its management. ”The Green Homes Grant was a good initiative, poorly implemented”, concluded the House of Commons Environmental Audit Committee chair Philip Dunne (left) - a Conservative MP.
“This government’s green credentials risk being undermined. Simply abandoning a critically important decarbonisation scheme when cracks appear sets a poor example in the year we aim to show climate leadership.
“Cutting emissions starts at home. The homes we live in contribute a huge amount of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, so undertaking effective retrofits and stemming those emissions is key to reaching net zero by 2050.”
Of the measures installed, 81 per cent were insulation, of which 27 per cent were for loft insulation, and 18 per cent for cavity wall insulation. Just 19 per cent were for low-carbon heating. There is little evidence of any installations of “secondary measures” like thermostatic radiator valves or double glazing.
New energy efficiency labels for electrically powered products
The Government is to introduce a new “right to repair” law to come into force this September. Covering many electrically powered products, the new rules are estimated to reduce by 1.5m tonnes the amount of electrical waste reckoned to occur in the UK each year. This is in line with changes being made in each of the 27 remaining European Union countries.
New energy labels have also been introduced for simplified energy efficiency labelling for products, with ratings running on a scale from A to G instead of up to A+++: These will cover the same 34 different product categories as before, ranging from domestic washing machines and cookers to commercial refrigeration
Previously, many products now qualify for a classification that had fallen victim to confusing grade inflation, being frequently classed as A+, A++ or A+++. Overall efficiency standards have already increased enormously during this century, owing largely to these energy efficiency standards introduced by the EU.
The simplified system is based on a newly calibrated A-G scale. A far higher standard will be applied for each grade, so that very few appliances will immediately make it into the top A group. These new ratings will apply in Great Britain, while EU rules will continue to apply in Northern Ireland.
The think tank Green Alliance has long pushed for a right to repair. Its spokeswoman Libby Peake told BBC News: “This is good news – but it’s exactly what the government said it would do on leaving the EU. The big test is whether the UK will continue to keep track with future EU standards.”
news update
FOUR PRODUCT AREAS TARGETED FOR IMPROVEMENT
COP26 to kickstart energy efficiency
A key objective of this November’s much-trailed intergovernmental conference on Climate Change, to be held in Glasgow, (called COP 26), will be to concentrate upon improving the energy performance of four specific product categories. Each of these is responsible for substantial and unnecessary amounts of energy wastage. The energy efficiency in use of such products needs to be doubled globally by 2030.
Hosting the conference will be the UK Government. In charge of adaptation and resilience policies is the Energy & Clean Growth minister, Anne-Marie Trevelyan (right). In recognition of the importance of her role, Mrs Trevelyan was invited to be the opening keynote speaker at the 2021 International Energy Agency’s 6th Annual energy efficiency conference.
The Minister devoted the bulk of her speech seeking to resuscitate an earlier IEA initiative, called the Super-efficient Equipment and Appliance Deployment initiative, (SEAD). Her campaign will concentrate upon air conditioners, refrigerators, motors and lighting. She said that: “We know that better international coordination is central in achieving energy efficiency gains and meaningful progress on emissions reductions across sectors, and such is the same for product efficiency policy.”
She explained that “ahead of COP26, we want to use this opportunity to raise international action and boost international coordination through SEAD.”
There were two specific aims “the first is to strengthen the SEAD initiative, re-engaging all existing membership, bringing in new members and developing a longterm plan for action after COP26.” The second was to “set the pace of ambition and put in place a process which supports countries to achieve increased action more quickly, easily and at a lower cost - and achieve the multiple benefits of doing so. This ambition is to double the efficiency of the key product beings sold globally by 2030 – focusing upon air conditioners, refrigerators, motors and lighting.”
Already, initiatives are being undertaken working together with the key relevant UK trade associations, like the Lighting Association and the British Pump Manufacturers Association.
Roadmap for hospitals to reach net zero targets
Hospitals and other healthcare facilities worldwide can prepare better for both climate change and future pandemics by adopting green technology and cutting planet-heating emissions from their operations and supply chains, believe health experts, reports Reuters.
A new roadmap setting out ways for the health sector to reach netzero emissions said healthcare has a “substantial” climate footprint, accounting for 4.4 per cent of global emissions, mostly due to the use of fossil fuels for energy and products.
The new roadmap, launched at the Skoll World Forum, details national healthcare emissions data for 68 countries and recommendations on how to decarbonise the health sector.
It urges wealthy countries with big-emitting health systems to cut emissions the fastest and steepest, while calling on poorer countries to develop their health infrastructure using clean energy, such as solar power, and other green technologies.
Without action to shrink those emissions, they would more than triple by 2050, equalling the annual emissions from 770 coal-fired power plants, said the report from non-profit network Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) and engineering firm Arup.
Co-author Josh Karliner of HCWH said the world was already experiencing twin climate and health emergencies, such as respiratory illness from fossil fuel pollution and injuries and smoke inhalation caused by wildfires.
“Health care bears the brunt of these two crises while also, ironically, contributing to them through its own emissions,” he said in a statement. “It’s imperative for health leaders to lead by example and act now to reach zero emissions by 2050.”
IN BRIEF
Wayth takes the reins at the EI
The Energy Institute has appointed Dr Nick Wayth as chief executive following the departure of Louise Kingham.
Wayth spent nearly 22 years at BP plc in a variety of roles. Most recently he held the post of chief development officer of alternative energy, where he led BP’s strategy and business development in a broad range of renewable technologies, including solar, offshore wind and digital energy. Kingham, who has headed the EI for more than 20 years, is stepping down to become UK head of country and senior vice president for Europe at BP.
Queen’s Award for HVAC specialist
Armstrong Fluid Technology has won a Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development. The award, the first for a company in the commercial-scale HVAC sector, recognises Armstrong’s leadership in sustainability, including improvements in daily operations, contributions to the sustainability of customers, and support for initiatives in local communities.
Of the list of 205 organisations recognised this year, Armstrong is one of only seventeen to receive an award in the Sustainable Development category.
In 2013, the company brought together its sustainability efforts to form a single global programme, called Planet Proposition, to drive progress towards more ambitious environmental targets.
Sustainable homes in, coal power out
ENGIE has been granted outline planning permission for the redevelopment of Rugeley Power Station in Staffordshire.
After three years of extensive community engagement and planning the company will now progress plans to transform the former coal-fired power station site, which it owns, into a sustainable, mixed-use development of 2,300 new lowcarbon homes.
news update
Majority support green taxes
Green gas for offices, homes
Six in ten people support the principle of green taxes, that environmentally damaging behaviours should be made more expensive, and only one in ten oppose, according to the results of a recent survey of over 2,000 people by Green Alliance.
A majority think specific types of green taxes are good ideas, including carbon taxes on producers or consumers, greening the VAT system and implementing new material taxes. This gives government a mandate to start to green the tax system through Treasury’s imminent Net Zero Review.
The findings show that people want the government to do, and spend, more on the environment. 80 per cent believe the government should be responsible for dealing with environmental issues, and 62 per cent want higher government spending to address them.
People also believe responsibility extends to them: 63 per cent feel it is important to change their own lifestyle to tackle climate change and 64 per cent say they have already made some changes.
Homes and offices in the King’s Cross area of London are set to be powered exclusively on green gas.
This move will reduce the predicted annual carbon footprint of the neighbourhood by 50 per cent, saving an estimated 16,000 tonnes of CO2, equivalent to the average annual carbon emissions of around 1,600 Londoners.
The deal, which has been facilitated and managed by Optimised Energy will see 40,000MWh of green gas delivered to King’s Cross per annum from an Iona Capital owned plant.
The plant generates green gas from its anaerobic digestion facility in Scotland, where waste and residues are broken down to produce clean energy.
The energy centre will then efficiently generate heating and hot water using large boilers and Metropolitan King’s Cross will then distribute the heating, hot water and electricity to 2,000 homes and 372,000m2 of offices using its estatewide district energy network.
HUGE CARBON COST OF ATTENDING CONFERENCES
Home energy consumption rises
Abandoning physical attendance at conferences significantly reduces emissions per head by participants. Those travelling to the average international 12-day conference – like the impending COP26 on climate change, due in Glasgow this November – will each score up an average of 2,961kg of carbon emissions.
The bulk of this, 2,300kg, will be due to flights. But even when locals attend such a conference, totalling up hotel accommodation, local transport of ten miles to the venue and conference venue, fuel will still come to 660kg per head, according to the Polish National Centre for Emissions Management.
In contrast, participation in a viral conference lasting 12 days – including emissions from home gas and electricity; computer manufacture; and use of networks and data centres - averages out at just 36kg per person. That is only 7 per cent of the carbon footprint of being at a local conference. And just 1 per cent of the emissions caused by attending an international conference.
However, working from home full time, as over one third of the British workforce did during this year’s lockdown, increased home energy consumption considerably. Prepandemic, only around 5 per cent of people worked at home.
This has led to fears that British employees continuing to do so could be left colder and poorer in the longterm, unless more is done to retrofit draughty homes.
UK households used 14 per cent more heating this winter during weekday working hours compared to the same time last year, according to research by smart thermostat company tado°.
However, some European nations with well-insulated homes registered only a slight increase in home heating use. In Germany heating use jumped by around 9 per cent, while Denmark and Sweden saw a rise of just over five per cent each.
Research by Energy Helpline estimates that the average homeworker’s energy bill could have risen by as much as £107 this winter, if working from home five days a week.
A hundred people working at home burn a lot more fuel than a hundred people in one office. If we are in a situation where the home office or flexible working is here to stay, this just might finally motivate the UK government to speed up energy renovations of homes.
Brick manufacturer aims for net zero factory in UK
Brick manufacturer Ibstock plc is to make a major investment in its Atlas factory in Walsall, West Midlands. The factory will be a pathfinder project to test and pilot operational efficiencies which, the company believes, will lead to Atlas becoming the world’s only Scope 1 and 2 Net Zero brick factory.
A combination of reduced process emissions and greater thermal efficiency will cut the carbon intensity of bricks produced at the Atlas site by 50 per cent compared to the existing factory. The remaining emissions will be offset using high-quality emission reduction projects. Once completed, Ibstock says Atlas will be an exemplar of British manufacturing and global environmental best practice in the construction products sector.
The Group’s Sustainability Roadmap to 2025 sets out ambitious decarbonisation plans. This Net Zero pathfinder project, along with a host of other initiatives at other sites across the UK, marks the latest important step in pushing the business beyond its Roadmap.
The new Atlas investment will be Net Zero for Scopes 1 and 2 emissions; Scope 3 will be addressed at a later date as part of the Group’s longer-term sustainability strategy. To achieve its ambitions, the Group is utilising a standard methodology that aligns with the UK Government’s Industrial Decarbonisation Strategy.
Commenting on the investment plans for the Atlas Factory, chief executive officer of Ibstock plc, Joe Hudson (left), said: “The Net Zero journey is one we share with our customers. We have seen a transformational shift in attitudes from all of our key stakeholders; and there is a ‘sea-change’ in how our customers, and, in turn, their customers, view environmental issues. As the UK’s leading brick manufacturer we recognise that we have to adapt and respond – and this is reflected in our Sustainability Roadmap to 2025.”
