With just under a month to go until the big night, as the 2016 CIBSE Building Performance Awards are presented to this year's worthy winners, we caught up with a winner from two years ago taking a turn as a judge. Munish Datta, Head of Plan A and Facilities Management at Marks & Spence r, is judging the Awards for the second time. A winner back in 2014 with M&S Cheshire Oaks, Munish heads the creation of the strategy and delivery of Plan A, M&S’s sustainability programme, for M&S properties across the world and heads the team that delivers facilities management for the M&S Global HQ in London. How do you see these awards as different from other awards? The CIBSE BPA awards stand out for recognising in use building performance as opposed to intended or designed performance across a number of categories and industries. Why do you think the CIBSE BPA are important? These awards are important as they celebrate organisations and buildings that are ac...

CIBSE would not be able to manage all of the work it does without an army of volunteers behind it, tirelessly giving their free time to the Institution. At the highest level, busy engineers serve as board members within the organisation deciding its future direction. We spoke to board member and Vice-President Cathie Simpson , to find out a bit more about what members of the board do.  November and December are a busy time for a CIBSE Vice President, as we have the privilege of visiting Regions to attend Annual Dinners.  The first this year was in Northern Ireland where I was able to squeeze in a visit to the Giant’s Causeway visitor centre courtesy of Gary Bennett, who was instrumental in its design.  (Culinary note: the best gravy in the world is made with Bushmills whiskey – unbelievable!)  My visit to the Northern Ireland Region left me with an impression of ‘innovation and sustainable design’.  The East Anglia Regional dinner followed in Cambri...

A whirlwind couple of months after Ryan Rodrigues of HurleyPalmerFlatt won the 2015 Graduate of the Year Award at the CIBSE Young Engineers Awards, we caught up with the young electrical engineering consultant to get his perspective on life as a newly minted engineer When I first started off as a building services graduate engineer, I was advised to replicate the mechanism of a sponge and absorb every bit of information I could. That is the attitude with which I approached my role and any projects I worked on. As most of my colleagues have a wealth of experience, there was a huge knowledge pool and an environment to ask questions about the way things were done.  This has helped expand my very own knowledge base and allowed me to work on multiple projects, each more diverse from the next. Graduates are often seen as an extra pair of hands within businesses as they can quickly move from project to project as and when required.  To be honest, it was rather ov...

The integration and interconnection of building operating systems over an IP network provides building managers with significant benefits but they can also expose businesses to greater cyber security risks if they don’t have a fall back plan says an anonymous CIBSE expert, working in the security industry.   The 17 June was an important date for building owners and operators. On that day in 2010 the Stuxnet malware (malicious software) was identified. Unlike conventional malware, which wreaks damage in the virtual world, Stuxnet targeted the software controlling pumps, valves, lifts, lighting and machinery. It was the first computer virus with the potential to cause real-world damage. Stuxnet was designed to specifically target programmable logic controllers running Siemens software through vulnerability in the Windows operating platform. The internet is awash with theories as to where the virus originated. The most popular is that the US government introduced the virus to targ...