The case for Centres of Excellence in sustainable building design

Low carbon construction skills
The need for excellence in undergraduate teaching
The construction industry relies on designers to develop and test new ideas in
low carbon design and communicate these ideas in a form that can be delivered
by the traditional construction supply chain. Without designers educated in
passive energy conservation techniques, the industry will continue to pursue
the prevalent approach, simply based on setting targets for carbon emission
reductions in performance specifications. Without a holistic approach to design
for energy conservation the only option for the supply chain is to try to achieve
the targets with bolt-on technology.
The construction industry and academia do not engage well. This means that
many of the usual routes for disseminating the results of academic research do
not work with the construction industry. In the absence of research engagement,
undergraduate teaching forms the best route for dissemination of new thinking
in low carbon design into the industry. However the lack of industry engagement
also works the other way, in that university teaching involves little input from the
construction professionals who are daily testing and proving the new ideas in low
carbon construction.
The scheme for Visiting Professors in Building Engineering Physics has
demonstrated how placing experienced practitioners into university engineering
departments has revolutionised the teaching of design and low carbon skills for
undergraduates [King 2010]. With a grounding in appropriate engineering theory
and holistic design practice, together with exposure to the challenges of realworld
design projects, graduates from these courses are uniquely equipped to
contribute to low carbon design industry.
Such graduates are in great demand and will quickly find themselves in positions
of influence within the industry. Their knowledge in the field of low carbon design
generally far exceeds that of their superiors and we see such graduates engaged
with projects at all levels. Increasing the base of low carbon educated graduates
across the construction industry therefore represents a substantial opportunity to
drive change through the industry from the ground up.
The need for excellence in continuing professional development
Whilst creating cohorts of low carbon design undergraduates will undoubtedly
change the construction industry from the ground up, in order to achieve the
rapidity of change required it will also be necessary to address senior employees
in the industry.
A number of specialist centres at UK universities, such as the Centre for Window
and Cladding Technology at the University of Bath have successfully developed
postgraduate teaching in a modular form. The modules can then be offered
to the industry as a component of a practitioner’s continuing professional
development. This approach has proved very popular in allowing industry
professionals to access new expertise without undertaking an entire Master’s
degree program.
The need for industry training and trainers
The Green Deal proposals, amounting to a need for training over 12,000 new low
carbon specialists each year, will also create a significant demand for people to
train them. There simply are not sufficient specialists in the industry at present to
deliver this volume of training. Furthermore, it must be ensured that the training
provided appropriately addresses techniques for carbon abatement at the lowest
social cost as well as the simple technological fix approach.
The case for Centres of Excellence in sustainable building design 29