What are building services, energy and environmental engineering?

Building services, energy and environmental engineering is an independent, extremely varied field which opens up interesting and technically demanding tasks for engineers. Our industrialised society depends on qualified energy and environmental engineers for its further development: industry and commerce, households and public services need a safe and efficient energy supply and must be able to base their requirements for heating and cooling systems on thrifty and environmentally friendly technology. Energy and environmental engineers are, however, not only involved in the supply of energy and water, heating, air-conditioning, sanitation and control systems and in the area of facility management; they are also required to find solutions to the problems of waste disposal and answers to environmental questions. 
Traditionally, energy and environmental engineers find their tasks are concentrated in the home market. 
Rapid industrial development within Germany demands new, high-quality solutions; furthermore, renovation and reconstruction projects require considerable specialist knowledge in the field of building services, energy and environmental engineering. Additionally, the European and global markets are gaining in importance in this area. 

Our lives are characterised by technology to a large extent: we make use of the most varied kinds of energy at almost every time and place. At home and at work we enjoy a comfortable environment: we use cold and warm water, we make use of numerous technical systems, and at the same time, waste water and other waste products are dealt with in a professional and environmentally friendly manner. 

In this, saving energy and protecting the environment are central tasks. They can be fulfilled only by making use of highly developed technology. Because we place great value on energy and the environment, building services, energy and environmental engineers face new, challenging fields of work and great responsibilities. All this means that this career path will be in great demand in the future. Engineering planning companies, firms which produce heating, air-supply, air-conditioning and cooling systems, companies which supply gas, water, heating and electricity, and companies with high energy requirements: these are all branches which require building services, energy and environmental engineers. And this trend can be expected to increase.

Saving energy and protecting the environment: these are important focuses in the development of heating, ventilation and air-conditioning systems. High-efficiency boilers and burners; new, thriftier energy technologies such as block heat and power plants; heat pumps; systems to make use of regenerative energy sources; improved cooling system technology; optimsed hydraulic networks in heating systems; more economical ventilation and air-conditioning systems; more intelligent solutions for making use of waste heat; improved measurement and control technologies; integrated building services; centralised control and financing systems for large concerns: all these fall within the domain of building services, energy and environmental engineers working in heating, ventilation and air-conditioning technology.  And together with construction engineers and architects, building services, energy and environmental engineers are involved in finding ways to reduce heating requirements through energy-saving building.

Example: heating systems. In recent years, energy-saving boilers and burners have become well established. Low-temperature boilers and calorific value boilers use energy efficiently and are optimised to produce a minimum of emissions. Aditionally, heat pumps and block heating and power plants ensure that energy is used even more efficiently.

Example: office and administration buildings. Here, comfortable and economical air-conditioning systems play an important role. And new solutions in building automation ensure that the diffent technical components function optimally together. 

Example: housing. Low-energy houses demonstrate high-quality living environments and, at the same time, low energy requirements. Building services, energy and environmental engineers make important contributions to such developments - with improved components for the building shell as well as new heating, ventilation, heat recycling and control technologies.  

Energy supply lines, through which energy in the form of gas, heat and electricity is provided, are based on a complex interplay between techologies including energy generation, transformation, transport, distribution and use. In power stations, heating plants, refineries, coal purification plants and gas treatment facilities, raw, primary energy sources are converted into usable energy. Transporting this energy requires a complex and wide-ranging system of electricity, gas and heating networks.

National, regional and local energy supply companies have technically sophisticated and capital-intensive plant at their disposal. The energy and environmental engineer faces interesting tasks here, too: new power plants with increased efficiency; improved environmental protection techniques in the production of electricity; the use of regenerative energy and recyling waste energy to produce electricity and heat; the construction of gas and heating networks; and the planning and implementation of energy supply concepts.  Improving efficiency in the various areas in which energy is used is also a field which presents building services, energy and environmental engineers with many opportunities to make a decisive contribution.

Water is our most important resource. Obtaining, purifying, transporting and distributing water are the tasks carried out by water supply companies. In view of increasing levels of pollutants - for example, nitrates and herbicides - these tasks are becoming more and more difficult. Building services, energy and environmental engineers contribute to these processes. Further, they are concerned with sanitation technology which helps to ensure that drinking water can be used hygienically, economically and without problems - especially  in housing, hospitals and public baths.  And finally, it is also important to treat waste water and prepare water for industrial uses.

Rubbish - the flip side of affluence. In industry and commerce, in public facilities and households, we not only produce high-quality industrial products, services and a comfortable environment - we also produce waste. Indeed, this is a natural law: wherever order and structures are built up, disorder also arises  (entropy).

Engineers have the responsibility and the technology to keep this disorder in check. They do this via environmentally appropriate products, reducing waste, recycling, and by developing environmentally friendly waste disposal and recovery methods. In this, there are many techniques - from analysis and measurement techniques through highly sophisticated waste disposal solutions to environmentally friendly production processes.

Building services, energy and environmental engineers work in many fields and in a great variety of companies and organisations: as free-lance entrepeneurs they may run their own planning engineering bureaux; offer their services in the management of large building complexes and industrial plants; or run their own companies, for example, in building construction and installation technology. They may be employed in large and small companies, for example, in research and development, in the construction, implementation and management of supply plant, or as industrial management engineers in the manufacture of energy and supply equipment.

Building services, energy and environmental engineers also have a place in public services - for example, in local authority supply companies for electricity, gas, water and heating.  And they are similarly needed in public administration: for example, to manage  building services in large public  buildings or to use their technical expertise to solve environmental problems.

Building services, energy and environmental engineers are in demand: in the foreseeable future there are likely to be too few engineers for the many tasks and responsibilites required. Studying  building services, energy and environmental engineering is therefore a degree with a future. And by the way, the degree program is not only for men. Women especially find rewarding careers in building services, energy and environmental engineering.