Alan Gayle is a sales and marketing consultant specialising in the construction industry. In this column he offers advice on how to make an impact in the market. This time he wonders if sustainability is sustainable.

On 31 October the Government announced the details of its Comprehensive Review of renewable energy subsidies. A large element of it relates to electricity generated by solar power using photo voltaic (PV) roof panels.

I expect you’re familiar with the concept: The energy created is used to reduce electricity bills and any excess is sold to the National Grid through the Feed in Tariff (FIT).

It seems that when the Government introduced the FIT a couple of years ago an entire industry in PV panels just materialised overnight.

Within a few months the choice went from one or two suppliers and contractors to dozens – maybe hundreds. The combination of availability and the generous FIT means PV panels have been popping up on roofs all over the country.

Now the Comprehensive Review proposes slashing the FIT rates and therefore drastically reducing the payback from installing PV panels. On 1 April 2012 (but backdated to 12 December) the rate for small domestic installations will go from 43.4p per kilowatt hour to just 21p. That’s a reduction of 51%. Ouch! Payback time for a typical domestic installation will increase from around eight years to around 12.

The plight of the solar industry is compounded further when you consider that this review came after February’s Fast Track Review that slashed the rates for the largest commercial ‘solar panel farms’ by as much as 71% – down from 29.5p per kilowatt hour to just 8.5p.

So what’s all this got to do with marketing and the stone industry?

Well, I’m no expert on sustainability and I know even less about Government policy-making but if this is an indication of the Government’s attitude to reducing emissions through schemes they fund, I think it will be quite some time before building products manufacturers take another big step towards producing more sustainable products.

Call me a cynic but in my experience most developers, contractors and suppliers (I accept that architects often have a different attitude) don’t really care much about sustainability – at least, not as much as they care about profit!

I’m not talking about the senior directors in their wood-panelled, executive suites that are quoted on the sustainability page of their website lauding the company’s industry-leading dedication to sustainability. I’m talking about the quantity surveyors and project managers on every site in the country that have to make a profit on their current project if they want to keep their career on track.

There will always be a cost associated with developing new, sustainable products or, as is the case of natural stone, demonstrating your existing credentials through recognised, independent accreditations. The question this recent change in the FIT raises is who will pay for it? The client? Contractors? Manufacturers?

Companies tend to innovate because they think it will give them a competitive advantage and provide a good return. In other industries ‘saving the planet’ might be good enough reason for R&D investment but not in construction. If you develop a product which is proven to reduce greenhouse emissions but it costs just 2-or-3% more it will take a very long time for the investment to pay off because, given the choice, the people who actually make buying decisions almost invariable go for the cheapest option.

Without Government-funded initiates to compel the construction industry to innovate and find more sustainable solutions, it will never happen.

Because, the truth is, people haven’t been installing PV panels at such a phenomenal rate because they want to save the planet; they’ve been installing them because they want to save money.­

Alan Gayle is a sales and marketing consultant specialising in the construction industry. He spent 19 years with some of the UK’s leading building product manufacturers and has worked in the stone sector for the past eight years.

Alan now runs Gayle Associates, which provides a range of sales and marketing services for small and medium sized contractors and suppliers. His clients are seeking growth but the management are too busy to do it themselves and they don’t want the commitment of a full-time employee.