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Make a Difference

Published on: 11 Jun 2015

As a Building Services Engineer you will be involved at the cutting edge of new technology where intelligent buildings already use their own integrated control systems to adjust conditions inside to the most comfortable and economical levels.

If you are concerned about climate change, building services engineering will give you the chance to choose and implement the environmentally friendly energy systems which can substantially reduce carbon emissions. Today, buildings account for nearly half of the total carbon released into the atmosphere as a result of burning fossil fuels. But there is a different way. Building services engineers can use energy from renewable sources. Fuel efficient systems are constantly being developed and improved.

As a building services engineer it will be up to you to specify the most energy efficient solutions to meet your clients' needs, and to advise them on optimum use of the systems you have provided, so that energy savings continue to be made into the future. In fact, designs for the carbon-neutral housealready exist. But construction professionals need to put these designs into action. In the coming decades, no other career will give you the chance to make such a big impact on saving our planet.

Facade engineering is just one of many specialist areas. Working closely with architects and structural engineers, facade experts work out how to reduce the heating and cooling loads. They maximise the use of natural light and effective natural ventilation to reduce  carbon emissions over the life of a building.

A career as a building services engineer is a constructive way to make a big impact on thesustainability agenda. The big challenge is to provide a comfortable environment for people at work, at leisure and in the home, at the lowest possible carbon usage.

One important new tool that services designers can use to plan energy use is Building information modeling (BIM). This is a process involving the generation and management of a digital representation of physical and functional characteristics of a facility. The resulting building information model becomes a shared knowledge resource to support decision-making about a facility from earliest conceptual stages, through design and construction, then through its operational life before its eventual demolition.

You can read more about BIM, and other developments, including new and recently completed projects using the latest low carbon technologies.