NEWS | DIGEST IN BRIEF Small firms unsure about apprenticeships The number of apprenticeships in construction-related fields fell by 24% in the 2017/18 academic year, according to figures released by the Department for Education. According to a survey commissioned by the training firm JTL and carried out with The Enterprise Trust, small businesses remain unsure about the benefits of taking on apprentices and find the application process confusing. It found that 92% of sole traders had never employed an apprentice and while 47% of respondents working in building services engineering had hired apprentices in the past, only 23% were currently doing so. Leti working on zero carbon guidance The London Energy Transformation Initiative (Leti) has set up nine working groups to produce guidance on delivering zero carbon buildings by 2030. The groups will cover areas such as whole life carbon, demand management, benchmarks and energy metrics, and will offer guidance on targets around energy fabric efficiency targets, peak demand shifting and KWh/m2. To ensure were going in the right direction, were considering all aspects of the built environment. What is key is that we come up with a technical definition of what a building needs to be to achieve climate change goals, said Clara Bagenal George, Elementa Consulting environmental design engineer, who helped initiate Leti. Double win for Arup at SFE Faade of the Year Arup Faade Engineering has picked up two awards at the SFE Faade of the Year Competition 2018. Alongside Sir Robert McAlpine, Arup won Innovation Category of the Year for Maggies Bart, and it also won the refurbishment category for the University of Leicester engineeringbuilding. Buro Happold Faade Engineering won the New Build Category with Louvre Abu Dhabi. The winners were announced at the Glass Supper 2018. For more details, see next months CIBSEJournal. Audits aim to reduce impact of air pollution on London pupils Five schools to trial new air-filtration systems to reduce indoor pollution levels Schools in London are to be given filtration toolkits to try to reduce the impact of soaring outdoor pollution on children and staff. Consultancy WSP is also leading a programme of air-quality audits. This will focus on sources of pollution around 20 nursery schools in particularly polluted areas of the capital. Five will trial new air-filtration systems aimed at reducing indoor levels of NO2, PM10 and PM2.5, which are linked to lung disease and asthma. This is the second phase of a programme that has already audited 50 primary schools, resulting in several new measures being adopted, including upgraded heating equipment. The audits will also review methods to reduce pollution outside nurseries, including restricting vehicle access and moving playgrounds away from congested roads. Classrooms were revealed as particularly vulnerable to indoor air pollution in a study carried out by University College London and the University of Cambridge, funded by the Mayor of Londons Office. The age of school buildings, problems with poorly maintained ventilation, the positioning of windows, and carpeting were identified as contributory factors. Most of the classrooms studied were found to be suffering from higher exposure to small particles than World Health Organization guidelines recommended. It is high time the government delivered a new Clean Air and Environment Act and introduced the scrappage scheme we need to remove the dirtiest vehicles off our streets, said London mayor Sadiq Khan. Poor productivity linked to CO2 levels High concentrations of carbon dioxide (CO2) inside buildings have a direct impact on productivity, a two-year research project has claimed. The indoor air quality study, carried out by Oxford Brookes University and LCMB Building Performance, with support from government agency InnovateUK, is the first time researchers have tried to link the UKs poor productivity to environmental factors. It said office workers are able to work up to 60% faster when the concentration of CO2 islower. High concentrations lead to poor decision-making, slower reaction times and increased tiredness, said the report. The research, which was also supported by facilities management firm Emcor, also said CO2 levels are rarely measured in offices and poor working conditions were usually put down to fluctuating temperatures and stuffiness. Several workplaces were assessed using Internet of Things-enabled sensors, while employees were sent a series of tests up to three times a day and their performance correlated with the CO2 readings. When levels were lower, their results improved by as much as 12%, the research said. The study also concluded that, because modern buildings are sealed for energy efficiency purposes and the opening of windows is controlled air quality depended on air conditioning. In many instances, the buildings did meet ventilation standards, but CO2 levels were still high. 8 January 2019 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE Jan19 pp08-09 News.indd 8 21/12/2018 16:54