Carbon regulation for commercial property should be overhauled - UK-GBC

The UK Green Building Council (UK-GBC), bringing together experts from across the construction and property industry, has today (Monday) launched a new task group to help fix the nation’s energy hungry non-domestic buildings.

The UK’s non-domestic buildings are responsible for around 17% of all UK carbon emissions and according to the Carbon Trust, could be reduced by 75% at no net cost. That would result in a financial benefit to the UK of up to £4.5bn, cumulative to 2020 .

The UK-GBC task group, of around 30 different UK-GBC members and including some of the industry’s largest and best-known companies (see notes below), will make detailed recommendations in March, on how to mandate Display Energy Certificates (DECs) for all commercial buildings and how to improve the Carbon Reduction Commitment.

The group is sponsored by British Land and Cundall and government officials have been invited to act as observers on the group.

Paul King, Chief Executive, UK Green Building Council said:
“Government policy in the non-domestic buildings sector needs urgently sorting out. We’ve got Energy Performance Certificates that haven’t really taken off and we’ve got Display Energy Certificates that only apply to some buildings. Businesses are also trying to get their head around the Carbon Reduction Commitment following a moving of the goalposts in the Comprehensive Spending Review.
We think government could simplify regulations to both reduce the burden on business and achieve greater carbon reductions, cost effectively.”

Justin Snoxall, Head of Business Group, British Land said:
“There is a window of opportunity to both simplify the Carbon Reduction Commitment and progress thinking on ways to encourage greater environmental collaboration between building owners, occupiers and building management. This collaboration is starting to happen in the industry, but improvements to the regulatory regime could make this the norm rather than the exception.”
 
David Clark, Partner,  Cundall said:
“Measuring, benchmarking and reporting the actual energy consumption of commercial buildings is the first step to reducing their energy and carbon. We currently don’t do this very well in the UK. If DECs and the CRC can be aligned then this will reduce bureaucracy and provide landlords and tenants with the tools to work together to start making energy savings.”