Theory and practice

David Strong has managed a happy mix of academic pursuits and industry experience throughout his career, leading to his position as head of BRE Environment. "The role here is a culmination of all I've been working towards," he says. However, Strong is the first to say this has been by a series of 'lucky breaks' more than long-term planning.

Strong began his working life as an articled student with John Laing Construction – the first of his steps in mixing industry with academia. "The four year degree course at Bath University was very pioneering for the 1970s. The first year was a combination of architecture and building engineering. I didn't have to decide on opting to become a building services engineer until the end of my second year," he explains. During industrial placements, Strong clocked up working hours in various departments at Laing. "It was an incredibly broad and valuable grounding. I had lengthy periods working in the buying office, production control, site engineering and design office."

After finishing his first degree, Strong once again wanted to avoid the pure academic route to his Doctorate, opting instead to look for industry sponsorship for an idea to develop a domestic gas fired heat pump, which Strong patented whilst an undergraduate. In return for making over the patent to Glynwed, the company sponsored Strong for his DPhil at Oxford University.

A successful prototype of Strong's design was built and with oil prices rising and talk of an end to the once seemingly-endless supply the market was highly receptive to products which would save energy. But, says Strong: "The tragedy was that by the time the product development and field testing had finished, oil prices had collapsed again so the financial justification for a domestic gas fired heat pump was removed."

Not a man to be put off by such a setback, Strong says that his research presented other spin-off opportunities: "The major benefit was that I became responsible for licensing from Holland what became the UK's first condensing boiler." At the time, Strong had to fight hard to gain British Gas approval, since the monopoly supplier wasn't too keen on products which cut back on gas use.

After a stint with the Institut CERAC in Switzerland, investigating geothermal power, Strong returned to industry and WS Atkins' then small energy division which he helped to grow. "In the mid 1980s, there was lots of government support so the energy consultancy business in the UK boomed. Unfortunately, oil prices took a rapid decline in real terms again! In spite of this we grew the business and were offering energy advice to major commercial and industrial organisations." Strong is philosophical about shifts in the energy markets: "Fluctuations in the price of oil have been very frustrating, and they also send out mixed messages to investors," he says.

Strong went on to work for other organisations dealing in energy efficiency as a director of the former Shell subsidiary Emstar and the electricity research centre, EA Technology.

Arriving at BRE in 1998, Strong thinks that the organisation faces a 'fascinating challenge'. "The timing is right, sustainable development is at the core of much government policy and building designers, owners and developers are becoming increasingly aware of the corporate social responsibility and brand equity issues associated with the built environment." In the light of this new emphasis, BRE recently merged its energy and environmental divisions, creating a body of over 200 experts. "Had we tried to do this ten years ago, we would have been too early.

“Our task at BRE is to be the grit in the oyster – to help our clients by asking difficult questions about sustainable design and management of buildings and to improve the way things are done at every stage in the life-cycle of a building.”

Having seen energy crises come and go, Strong is certain that our current position is different from twenty years ago: "The thinking has shifted now. We realise that these issues need to be thought about in a much more holistic way – water usage, building materials, ecology, energy, transport; so that all facets of what makes a sustainable development are considered."

In spite of this enormous challenge, Strong is characteristically positive: "This is an exciting time for anyone involved in the process of delivering more sustainable buildings. Any organisation that doesn't acknowledge and recognise that the world ten years from now is going to be a very different place, is burying its head in the sand."