AWARDS | EMPLOYERS OF THE YEAR SPECIAL CHEMISTRY Recruiting engineers with chemistry degrees is giving FairHeat the expertise to fully optimise heat network performance. Amanda Birch speaks to four FairHeat engineers who took a non-traditional route into the building services industry From left: Nikzad Falahati, Lucy Sherburn, Simran Chaggar and Jake Adamson S pecialist energy consultancy FairHeat is a firm to watch. Still glowing after being named 2021 CIBSEs Employer of the Year (small category), the consultancy which focuses mainly on heat networks is growing fast. Founded in 2015, FairHeat already has 26 employees and has plans to recruit at least 10 more this year. The company hires graduates via the more traditional route, such as mechanical engineers, but, unusually, its happiest hunting ground is among chemical engineers. Really good chemical process engineers have a wonderful base level of skills, and exactly the sort of analysis we want for coming into this area of heat networks and heat pumps, says Gareth Jones, FairHeats managing director. Responding to CIBSE President Kevin Mitchells call for engineers to share career stories, four FairHeat chemistry graduates, including CIBSE ASHRAE Graduate Engineer of the Year Lucy Sherburn, tell us what inspired them to become building services engineers (opposite). An important factor underpinning FairHeats growth is the governments decision to identify heat networks as a key technology for helping decarbonise the way in which UK homes are heated. Given that 90% of FairHeats work is dedicated to this growing, sustainable technology, does it have difficulty recruiting the right people? Jones says: If we could double the size tomorrow, we would, but when youre growing quickly, you need to make sure you bring in people that contribute to the culture rather than destabilise it. If you grow too quickly, that can be a challenge. We have limited the number of mid- to senior-level engineers and brought in graduates, which is easier, because they come in and pick it up. Jones says they receive hundreds of applications every year, but to get the right people, particularly for FairHeats graduate programme, they look for young engineers with a particular mindset and who have trodden a slightly different path. Recruits need to be good at maths, as there is a lot of site auditing work. FairHeat also likes people 16 July 2022 www.cibsejournal.com CIBSE July 22 pp16-18 FairHeat chemical engineers.indd 16 24/06/2022 17:29