The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC) has today called for the mandatory display of an A to G rating for the energy efficiency of all non-residential buildings, to drive efficiency, cut costs encourage refurbishment.
It said the measure should be introduced as part of the UK Government's Energy Bill.
Display Energy Certificates (DECs) provide both an ‘at-a-glance indicator’ and detailed technical information on the energy performance of buildings.
The recommendations, including detailed proposals to implement a practical roll-out, are the results of an in depth consultation with a cross-section of UK-GBC members, which will be launched today at an event with the Communities and Local Government Minister Andrew Stunell MP.
Key recommendations include:
* DECs should become mandatory for all non-domestic building occupiers, with a phased roll out starting in 2012.
* Landlords should also be required to display certificates showing the energy efficiency of the services they provide. Landlords must pass data to occupiers; this should be based on the Landlord’s Energy Statement (LES) which has been developed by the private sector.
* DECs should be used to produce a range of publicly accessible league tables based on occupiers, landlords, sectors, buildings types and uses. This could replace the current Carbon Reduction Commitment league table for those organisations in the buildings sector.
Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK Green Building Council said: “If you want to go on a diet, you first find out how much you weigh. The property sector urgently needs to go on an energy diet but to do so, it has to be able to accurately measure and report on its energy use. Display Energy Certificates do exactly that and should be rolled out to all buildings as soon as practically possible.
“There is a window of opportunity to do this in the Energy Bill currently going through Parliament. A to G ratings for commercial buildings will provide a reputational driver for both landlords and tenants to take energy use more seriously, leading to carbon and financial savings.”
Justin Snoxall, Head of Business Group, British Land said: “DECs can play a significant role for the carbon agenda in non-domestic buildings, both to influence market change and to unite policies.
“The Government DEC experience in buildings since 2008 has produced numerous examples of year on year reductions in energy. In many cases public exposure of energy performance has motivated action.
“The opportunity is to replicate these successes in the private sector to influence future letting requirements of occupiers and to encourage greater action by occupiers and landlords together. DECs also have the potential to underpin the Government's other climate change policies from CRC league tables for buildings, to GHG corporate reporting, to the Green Deal and possible future fiscal measures.”
David Clark, Partner, Cundall said: “Rolling out DECs to occupiers and landlords is an essential first step to reducing energy consumption in the private sector. Companies can collect energy data consistently and then benchmark performance against their peers. Government can use DECs to measure and refine the effectiveness of carbon reduction policies in the private sector.”
The work has been carried out by a cross-section of the UK-GBC membership. British Land and Cundall sponsored the work.
The British Property Federation welcomed the launch the report.
Patrick Brown, Director of Sustainability and Construction, said: “The BPF is supportive of a roll-out of DECs to the non-domestic sector. The complex patterns of energy procurement, use and control in commercial buildings, and the split responsibilities of landlords and tenants, can often hide opportunities for cost-effective reductions in energy use, and the reputational driver of displaying a rating can help to encourage landlords and tenants to work together.
“When you think that the majority of non-domestic buildings are rented, lots of potential carbon savings arising from better use of buildings should be unlocked via the simple step of collecting energy use data and reporting it.
“We especially welcome reference in today’s report to the free to use tool which we developed with the Carbon Trust – the Landlord Energy Statement and Tenant Energy Review (LES-TER) – which helps landlords and tenants to report to each other on energy use.”
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