Tag Archives: Buildings

Reducing building CO2 emissions through better design

Posted on November 9, 2013 by Admin

November 2013: The GLA have commissioned research to determine the “most effective way for buildings to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions through the design and fabric, based on the Building Regulations modelling tools.” This study will support the GLA’s recent Supplementary Planning Guidance on Sustainable Design & Construction guidance (for more of which here) and London Plan targets which requires all major planning applications from 1 October 2013 will need to provide CO2 emission savings 40% beyond the 2010 building regulation requirements.
Full details of the commission here.

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Energy and Climate Questions to the Mayor

Posted on September 18, 2013 by Admin

September 2013: This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to:

How the Mayor’s programmes will respond to the forthcoming IPCC’s (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) 5th Assessment Report; the Mayor’s “climate sceptic views“; London’s growing energy demand; £145k spend on climate change adaptation;  the amount of energy generated from waste incineration; the number of GLA officers working on energy efficiency retrofit; the amount of ECO funding that could be directed to London; the operation of the RE:FIT schools energy efficiency programme in Harrow; the RE:FIT schools programme in Brent; Government’s proposed changes to building regulations and its potential impact on London Plan energy requirements; the Mayor’s response to DECC’s Community Energy – Call for Evidence; the Mayor’s support for community energy schemes in London – such as Brixton Energy; publication of the latest London Energy and Greenhouse Gas Inventory (LEGGI); the cost of producing ‘Using Local Powers to Maximise Energy Efficiency Retrofit – How to’ materials for London’? (report here); the terms of loans provided by the London Energy Efficiency Fund (LEEF); extending LEEF loans to the private sector; details of the LEEF Advisory Committee; consultancy companies working on LEEF; the amount spent by LEEF; the number of loans given out by LEEF; rollover energy contracts for SMEs; Londoners energy bills; the amount of renewable electricity provided by Source London electric vehicle charging points; funds previously spent on adding energy efficiency measures to Metropolitan Police buildings currently for sale; developing a Fuel Poverty Action Plan for London; the supply of electricity to London’s electric vehicle charging points; the supply of electricity to London Underground; London Green Deal targets; a London Green Roofs map; the Mayor’s Green Deal assessment on his home; stimulating Green Deal finance packages; spend of the Green Bus Fund; funding received from the Green Bus Fund; identifying brownfield land in London suitable for sustainable energy projects; CO2 savings achieved by the Mayor’s climate change programmes; potential for the London Pension Fund Authority to invest in low carbon energy projects; when the next update to the Mayor’s Climate Change Adaptation Strategy is to be published; how climate change will affect London’s summer temperatures; new anaerobic digestion plant in Surrey; the level of waste being directed to the Beddington incinerator; the London Plan’s policies on incineration; the Mayor’s approval of the Beddington incinerator; if the Mayor had pressed for the Beddington project to develop as a anaerobic digestion plant; if the Beddington incinerator can operate in combined heat and power (CHP) mode; heat network around the Beddington incinerator; the growth of waste incineration in London to 2016; the role for future incineration in London; local planning controls and fracking; the fracking potential in London; details of the new RE:NEW domestic energy efficiency programme; targets for the new RE:NEW programme; the choice of the Capita Group to manage the new RE:NEW programme; GLA buildings that have been treated by the RE:FIT programme; whether the Mayor’s Environment advisor had visited the Kings Cross CHP and district heating scheme.

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Mayor releases emission accounting guidance for the construction industry

Posted on September 8, 2013 by Admin

September 2013: New GLA report – “The Construction Scope 3 (Embodied) Greenhouse Gas Accounting and Reporting Guidance is aimed at helping professionals working within the construction industry to better understand and account for the embodied greenhouse gas emissions associated with construction; for example, those emissions relating to the extraction of raw materials and manufacture and transport of products used in new build and refurbishments”.

This report was led by Best Foot Forward working in collaboration with the Greater London Authority and the London Sustainable Development Commission.

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Latest review of implementation of London Plan energy policies

Posted on September 5, 2013 by Admin

September 2013: The GLA have recently produced their latest update on how the energy and climate policies in London’s spatial planning strategy – the London Plan – have helped drive forward the development of lower carbon buildings in the capital. The new 2013 report – along with previous years studies – can be downloaded here. An earlier post here provides some details on these reports.

The study ‘Energy Planning: Monitoring the implementation of London Plan energy policies in 2012‘ provides an analysis of the energy assessments relating to all finalised (stage II) planning applications determined from 1 January to 31 December 2012. As the Executive Summary of the report sets out “London planning authorities must consult the Mayor on all planning applications that are of strategic importance to London . For each planning application referable to the Mayor, an energy assessment is required setting out how the development will meet the London Plan energy policies. Following the order of the Mayor’s energy hierarchy, each energy assessment is required to set out how the development will:

  • Use less energy
  • Supply energy efficiently
  • Use renewable energy”

The analysis highlights how the London Plan’s policies are making significant headway in helping drive forward the development of more energy efficient, climate-friendly buildings in London. Some of the findings include:

  • High levels of energy demand reduction achieved with developments exceeding the requirements of Building Regulations through energy efficiency alone. The associated investment of circa £32 million will help to reduce consumers’ energy bills.
  • Circa £20 million of investment in new, high efficiency combined heat and power (CHP) plant able to produce 29MW of electricity and a similar amount of heat.
  • 74MW of cumulative CHP electrical capacity has been secured through the planning process since 2010 to the end of 2012, broadly equivalent to the capacity required to supply 150,000 homes.
  • Circa £133 million of investment in heat network infrastructure for approximately 53,000 communally heated dwellings
  • Continued investment in on-site renewable energy systems, including approximately £16 million to provide circa 87,000m2 of photovoltaic solar panels.
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Energietübbing for Crossrail?

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Admin

April 2013: This week’s New Scientist features how “Smart heat is helping building the next energy revolution”. The article (subscription only…)  looks how the use of technologies such as  combined heat and power (CHP) and heat pumps could help “reverse some of the damaging effects that waste heat from our towns and cities is having on the climate ” –  and the use of waste heat from London Underground is also examined:

“As passengers often complain, exhaust heat accumulates in the train tunnels under many of our largest cities. Even on a cold day, temperatures on platforms in the London Underground can reach 20 °C. To harvest that warmth, German companies Züblin and Rehau, together with Arup, have designed a liner for tunnel segments that functions like the buried coils in ground source heat pumps, using the heat generated by engines and braking along with that from the surrounding ground to warm the refrigerant, again by compression. As this transfers the excess energy from the tunnel to the refrigerant, the process also causes the tunnel to cool.”

“The lining – dubbed Energietübbing – was placed into a 54-metre-long stretch of a new high-speed rail tunnel in Jenbach, Austria, to supply the municipal building above with enough heat to completely replace the existing boiler. It is still being optimised, but in its first successful winter it coped with outside temperatures as low as -15 °C. London commuters could soon benefit as well. Crossrail, a railway being constructed under the city, is considering Energietübbing for several segments of the new tunnel, where it too would both cool the tunnel and provide the resulting heat to buildings above.”

A recent question to the Mayor highlights which of the stations on the Crossrail route are planned to integrate heat pump technology to provide waste heat to buildings above.  “Out of the twelve oversite development schemes Crossrail is developing only two will not include a capability for using ground source heat pumps. These are at Woolwich and Limmo, where Crossrail is constructing a vent shaft. At these sites a large proportion of the oversite development schemes are not integrated with Crossrail infrastructure. Future owners of these oversite development schemes will however be able to install ground source heat pump technology within the buildings’ foundations. “

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Energy and Climate Questions to the Mayor

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Admin

March 2013: This month the Mayor has been asked questions in relation to:

the number of applications to the London Energy Efficiency Fund; the Mayor’s correspondence with DECC on the ECO;  fuel poverty and health; Details of decentralised energy schemes being supported by the Mayor; visits to Brixton Energy Solar projects; energy efficiency targets in the Mayor’s London Rental Standard; fuel poor families in London – and RE:NEW delivery in the private rented sector; the Mayor’s work to plug the energy gap; progress under the RE:FIT programme in London boroughs; the level of Green Deal activity in London; Is the GLA a Green Deal provider; plans in place to spend the £5,627,342 DECC Green Deal and Fuel Poverty funding to the GLA; 2013/14 funding to the RE:FIT programme; evaluation of the RE:FIT programme;
RE:CONNECT programme budget for 2013/14; Better Building Partneship programme budget for 2013/14/; events attended by the Mayor’s Environment Advisor; Bunhill CHP scheme; attendance at the High Level Electricity Working Group; and participation on environmental issues on the Talk London website.

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“Capital’s public buildings get energy efficient makeover”

Posted on January 9, 2013 by Admin

January 2013: Mayoral announcement made last month stating that “Energy conservation measures are already complete or near completion in 111 public buildings in London. The pipeline shows that 400 buildings could benefit from the Mayor’s award-winning RE:FIT programme, saving the public purse in the region of £7 million each year”. Read the full news release here. Further information on the new framework adopted for the programme at www.refit.org.uk .

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Survey of commercial property investors’ views on sustainability

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Admin

December 2012: Interesting report from independent commercial property adviser GVA who have issued their latest annual survey of commercial property investors’ views on sustainability. Points to note from the report include:

  • It is only five years to go before the EPC minimum energy performance standards kick-in (for both domestic and non-domestic properties). In accordance with The Energy Act 2011, by April 2018, it will become illegal to let residential or commercial properties that do not meet a minimum energy performance standard. The government have announced their intention to use an EPC rating of E as the minimum standard. This could have very significant implications for landlords and property investors alike with currently a fifth of commercial properties below this standard.
  • This latest survey indicates an increased emphasis on the importance of sustainability in property, despite the significant economic challenges that remain. However it will still do little to convince industry critics that the current trajectory of improving property stock will meet Government deadlines.
  • The survey shows a trend between 2007 and 2012 of investors placing increasing importance on sustainability factors within their acquisition and disposal decision making.
  • The report also stated that only a third of survey respondents believe the current poor market conditions have caused a lessening of importance towards sustainability issues by investors.

Download GVA’s ‘Green to Gold’ research report here.

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Are EPCs a true indicator of energy efficiency?

Posted on December 16, 2012 by Admin

December 2012: Jones Lang LaSalle with the Better Buildings Partnership have issued the output of some interesting work they have undertaken: “Using data gathered from over 200 buildings over the past four years, we’ve measured the actual energy performance of BBP members’ managed properties in London with surprising results…There is little or no correlation between EPC ratings and actual energy performance”. This is something often raised by EPC assessors, and so it is useful to get this comprehensive research confirming this view.

The report concludes that:
“If the commercial property industry is to succeed in achieving the Government’s ambition of cutting the associated CO2 emissions of the built environment, it is imperative for the industry, backed by Government direction, to focus on actual energy performance rather than just ‘design intent’. We have shown that there is little or no correlation between a building’s design (as measured by its Energy Performance Certificate) and its actual consumption.
The BBP members’ portfolios achieved a reduction in the associated CO2 emissions of 8% and made a saving of more than £4 million in energy bills, between 2009/2010 and 2011/2012. If the level of success achieved by BBP members were applied to the total existing office stock of Greater London, savings could be in the order of £70 million.”

Somewhat disappointingly, the publication of this research was very shortly followed by the following news report from the Government Minister overseeing this policy concerning extending the coverage of EPCs:

U-turn over compulsory energy assessments for commercial buildings
“Correspondence from building regulations minister Don Foster, confirms that plans for compulsory display energy certificates (DECs) for the private sector have been dropped. Instead, the commercial sector will be required to obtain less stringent energy performance certificates, which measure projected energy use. Display energy certificates, which measure a property’s actual energy performance, are already compulsory for public buildings.”

Continue reading…

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DECC to support Mayor’s RE:FIT programme

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Admin

November 2012:  Amongst the various proposals set out in the Government recently published energy efficiency strategy is one relating to the Mayor’s energy efficiency retrofit programme targeted at public sector buildings, RE:FIT, with DECC announcing that the Department will be:

34.  …funding the initial rollout of the RE:FIT programme nation-wide to public sector organisations and will work with Local Partnerships and the Government Procurement Service to establish this support. The Greater London Authority has pioneered the Mayor of London’s award winning programme to deliver the energy efficiency improvement of the public sector estate. This is achieved through a simplified ESCO procurement framework and the provision of a RE:FIT Programme Delivery Unit team to provide technical support to projects.

35.  The RE:FIT concept was initially piloted in 42 public sector buildings across London.These projects retrofitted energy savings measures to approximately 146,000m2 of building space, delivering over 7,000 tonnes reduction in carbon emissions and an average 28% reduction in energy consumption identified.The total spend was £7 million with a simple payback period of 7 years. Since the success of this pilot over 100 buildings have now successfully undergone retrofits and over 50 organisations, including Local Authorities, NHS Trusts, and Universities, have committed to using RE:FIT and the project pipeline contains in excess of 300 further properties. A new RE:FIT Framework has recently been tendered which further develops the approach and enables a wide range of financing options to be used.

Further information on the Mayor’s RE:FIT programme can be found here. No further information on the national rollout of RE:FIT appears to be available as yet.

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Energy behaviours in non-domestic buildings

Posted on November 15, 2012 by Admin

November 2012: As part of the Government’s release of it’s new Energy Efficiency Strategy earlier this week, an accompanying research paper published is of interest in the London context. What are the factors influencing energy behaviours and decision-making in the non-domestic sector? examines how energy efficiency take up could be enhanced in buildings common in the capital such as retail, schools, government estate, sports, public offices, heritage and entertainment, healthcare, transport and communications.  There is not much research in this area and pages 6-11 of the report make particularly interesting reading, setting out the 35 conclusions from the study on why the use of energy is not taken more seriously by such organisations, leading to a common complaint in London of ‘why are the lights of so many offices on at night when no-one is there’?

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The 40 per cent symposium

Posted on October 1, 2012 by Admin

October 2012: “Buildings account for over 40 per cent of the UK’s CO2 emissions – a figure that needs to fall to almost zero by 2050. The 40 Percent Symposium is the key event for the commercial property sector and is a must-attend for all senior executives looking to manage the impact and realise the value of sustainability in their property portfolios.” The event takes place at RIBA on 28 November 2012. Full information provided at:  www.40percentsymposium.com

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