FOCUS M&E
ZEROGAINS
32 NOVEMBER 2021
BRYAN MCLAGGAN, MD, COMBINED TECHNICAL SOLUTIONS (CTS)
PROVIDES FMS WITH A GUIDE TO THE WAYS ENGINEERING SERVICES
CAN HELP IN THEIR DRIVE FOR NET ZERO CARBON
As the UK economy ground to a halt in
2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic,
progress towards net zero gathered speed.
According to the Department for Business,
Energy & Industrial Strategy, year-on-year
CO‚ emissions nosedived by 11 per cent to
the lowest levels for almost 150 years, a
drop which also catapulted the country to
the halfway stage on the journey to carbon
neutrality by 2050.
Indeed, in 2020 total greenhouse gas
emissions were 48.8 per cent lower than the
1990 baseline the government is using to
measure net zero progress. However, it would
be short-sighted to take these statistics at face
value and assume that, because we are halfway
there with roughly half of the time le• to go,
maintaining the current direction and speed of
travel will get us to the end destination on time.
Firstly, last year’s figures represent an
unprecedented series of events that will not
be sustained as economic activity recovers
in the post-pandemic era. And second, as the
economy and population continue to expand,
so too will the UK’s energy requirements across
a whole host of areas, from transportation
networks to the built environment.
The latter, for instance, is widely
acknowledged to account for around 40 per
cent of carbon emissions. New buildings are
becoming more and more energy e£ icient, but
it is predicted that 80 per cent of the buildings
that will be in the UK in 2050 have already been
built – this makes improving the performance
of our current stock essential if net zero targets
are to be met.
Here, the commercial sphere has a crucial
role to play. There are 1,656,000 non-domestic
buildings in England and Wales, which account
for around 24 per cent of building stock
emissions – a not insignificant proportion.
At Combined Technical Solutions (CTS), we
have continued to move steadily to green
and sustainable engineering practices.
Our friend and industry colleague,
Neil Fright, CEO of Carbon
Numbers said: “CTS has
long recognised the
power of technology,
but it is now embracing
policy and behaviour
change as two big
levers in driving down
carbon, and they are
doing this in the most
ethical and transparent
way.”
The best time to inspect
building insulation is during a
heating or cooling season when the
building’s internal temperature is
signiƛ cantly diff erent to that
outside, when poorly insulated
SIMPLE STEPS TO IMPROVE
ENERGY PERFORMANCE
So, what can other companies and
building managers do to maximise the energy
performance of their premises? Of course,
we realise that not every organisation has
the fortune to move into a high-quality new
build or retrofit sites to improve sustainability.
Therefore, the following tips are simple steps
which should be broadly attainable for most.
The first, although a very basic concept, is an
essential pre-requisite to any serious strategy
to improve a building’s energy performance –
measuring energy consumption.
Organisations should begin by gaining
a detailed understanding of where their
ine£ iciencies arise. There is guidance
for businesses looking to measure their
greenhouse gas emissions, but it can also be
useful to work with a specialist to benchmark
your company and understand where
improvements can be made.
Among the most common of these
improvements, from our experience, is to
properly insulate. Suboptimal building
envelopes are notorious sources of energy loss,
and insulation can help to address some of
these ine£ iciencies.
The best time to inspect building insulation
is during a heating or cooling season when
the building’s internal temperature is
significantly di£ erent to that outside,
when poorly insulated spots will
become obvious. The extent
to which you can improve
insulation stretches across
a large scale, from entire
building retrofits to
the simple installation
of dra• excluders.
Typically, the more
you invest, the better
the return, but it is
important to note that
there are compromise
solutions for sites without
the budget to make drastic
improvements.
Good insulation performance will
spots will become
obvious.”