change from within

What time, effort and money did it cost you to achieve this hallowed status?

Don’t give up the day job

Too much of all three, Mark. But I’m not planning on doing assessments. Mostly it was to have the credibility to lobby hard for changes.

And there I was hoping you could do an assessment for me.

I was considering doing the same, who did you do the qualification/test with?

Mate- I hope it was just the lobbying that made you do it. After the rigmarole of doing the Ecohomes test assessment and dealing with the teeth-grinding, soul-destroying numbness that ensued, I vowed I would never do an assessment. I hope you can soon recover

I did the training and assessment with Sustainable Homes. It was mostly teaching by rote - they weren’t able to respond regarding any underlying issues and frequently defended themselves by saying “don’t talk to us about it - we’re just here to teach you the Code!” Not surprising I guess - that’s what they were there for.

It’s nice to have done it and it’ll be useful for blogging, lobbying, and consulting to clients on the impacts of the Code. Also nice to have access to the BRE helpline for clarifying points. But assessments in anger? I don’t think so - especially when you see how much work goes into them in relation to how little you’re likely to see back in fees!

Not sure what all the fuss is about here chaps. Admittedly, Jason is right that at the start it is soul detroyingly pedantic to complete the assessments, but once you have been doing it for a while, it’s like falling off a log. And the fees are not unreasonable once it all becomes instinctive… But then again, of course I started all this way back in the mists of time….

Unfortunately, the lobbying part is more complex now as the BRE can’t make common sense decisions internally but have to refer to their Overlords at CLG…

Rob, if you do need some help, give me a shout.

Ahhh EcoHomes assessments…Mr Devlin, my sensai…the joys of the test assessment. However I do agree with Nick that once you have a system in place, they are not that tedious. Unfortunatly I do belive we do need some sort of countrywide rigid structure to follow and they more assessors that actually underside the pinciples behind theses assessments the better rather than leaving it to the masses trying to make a quick green buck.