Upskilling for en-masse retrofit

An article in the Guardian last Wednesday discussed a report by the Royal Academy of Engineering, which concluded that "eco-bling" such as wind turbines and solar panels will not help the UK cut carbon emissions quickly enough to meet the government's ambitious carbon reduction targets. That's hardly news - it's pretty obvious such technology is just part of the solution rather than a total fix.

The report also warns that a major step-up in the retrofitting of old buildings needs to take place.  Interestingly, it said the UK building industry would struggle to meet demands to make all new buildings zero carbon by 2020 because of a lack of skilled workers who understand how energy is used and saved in buildings. The report requested British government funding for a study to examine exactly how many workers would need to be upskilled in order to meet government building energy targets.

Reading the piece reminded of what appears to be a disconnect in Ireland regarding our ability to energy upgrade old buildings and to build low energy new ones. The construction industry clearly sees the retrofitting of old buildings as a major source of potential work in the coming years, and it has stressed time and time again that it has the skills needed to meet this challenge. It also sees the exporting of Irish construction skills as a potentially big area of work - with a green and low-energy reputation as one of the key thngs defining the Irish building brand.

But on the other hand, Construct Ireland has been hearing and seeing for years just how badly energy-related work in buildings can be: insulation not properly installed,  draughty gaps around windows and doors, badly-filled cavities, bad internal insulation jobs that lead to condensation and mould, crude heating systems and controls, building regulations not being met.

These problems are far too common, and to suggest we can immediately begin retrofitting successfully on a massive scale is naive.  The wider industry is still emerging from the property-boom mantra of quick new build with little focus on energy standards or retrofitting. Things are are improving of course, and the sustainable building sector has been at the forefront of the focus on quality.

Nonethless, what's clearly needed is a gradual approach to renovating our building stock with a focus on training, upskilling and standards first and a staggered rise in the number of buildings upgraded each year as standards improve.