黑洞社区

Sustainability consultants are in danger of becoming the 鈥渨itch doctors鈥� of the industry, a leading green engineer has warned.

Prashant Kapoor, head of sustainable planning and research at WSP, said the green industry needed a professional body like the RICS or RIBA to champion quality and consistency. Otherwise, he said, sustainability risked being viewed as an 鈥渁lternative medicine鈥�, not a mainstream practice.

He said: 鈥淭here are many people who say they鈥檙e sustainability consultants. If the field is going to have credibility, there must be a professional code of conduct.

鈥淎lso, fees are all over the place. You can be charged from 拢200 to 拢2,000 for the same work.鈥�

There are a lot of evangelical people out there who are not really helping.

Jon Spring, Turner & Townsend

Existing groups such as the UK Green 黑洞社区 Council 鈥済o some of the way鈥� but do not have enough scope, he said.

Jon Spring, a director at consultant Turner & Townsend, welcomed the proposal but said the body would need a clear remit to distinguish it from similar organisations.

He said: 鈥淚t鈥檚 a good idea because there are a lot of evangelical people out there who are not really helping. There are enough thinktanks and talking shops 鈥� we need action.鈥�

But Adrian Fox, a director at Arup Energy, said creating such a body would be a 鈥渞etrograde step鈥�. He said: 鈥淪ustainability has to be a matter of course. If we separate it out, we will lose something.鈥�