Landlords drive down energy use in offices

Landlords can now report, monitor and drive down their buildings’ energy use and CO2 emissions in an industry-standard way, thanks to a new online service.

Produced by the British Property Federation, the landlord’s energy statement (LES) allows landlords to summarise their energy use and work out the carbon dioxide emissions from their office buildings’ landlord’s services – things like heating, air conditioning, lifts and lighting in common areas.

The LES process helps landlords understand their buildings’ energy efficiency, compares the performance against similar buildings with similar uses, identifies any areas for improvement and illustrates where year on year improvements have been made.

The LES has been produced with technical help from the Usable Buildings Trust, funding from the Carbon Trust Networks Programme, and developed in conjunction with seven of the country’s leading commercial property companies.

Landlords can use LES for individual buildings and, taken together, can produce energy use and CO2 emissions reports for the whole of their property portfolios. The aim is that the LES will become the standard form of reporting for office buildings. It could also be developed for other forms of commercial property.

The LES will enable the industry to gear up for future legislation, such as the EU Energy Performance of Buildings Directive (EPBD) requirement for buildings to have display energy certificates, the broadening of emissions trading schemes, and the introduction of sectoral targets proposed in the Climate Change Bill.

For example, the LES has been designed to assist occupiers in preparing display energy certificates, when these are required by the EPBD. While the certificates concentrate on CO2 emissions, the LES also looks at the reasons behind them, illustrating the contributions of energy efficiency, on-site and off-site renewable energy and purchased energy supplies.

The LES can be produced both as a building average and subdivided between the building’s tenants, providing them with information on their share of the energy used and CO2 emitted by their building’s communal services. Landlords can also aggregate the LESs from all their buildings in their property portfolio to build up a picture of their portfolio’s total energy-based carbon footprint.

The LES was launched by Carbon Trust Chief Executive, Tom Delay, at the BPF stand (H8) at the Think 07 conference and exhibition in London’s ExCel.

Liz Peace, chief executive of the BPF, said: “If we are to win our fight to reduce carbon dioxide eemissions, then existing buildings are the key battle ground. The landlord’s energy statement is the first step toward victory as it will enable landlords to measure, report and then reduce the emissions from the communal services they provide in office buildings.

“It clearly demonstrates the property industry is committed to playing its part in helping the UK meet its CO2 emissions targets.”