Enigin Update - UK Property Industry to get Common Energy Efficiency Language
THE UK property industry has agreed on common metrics for measuring energy efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions.
In “Establishing the Ground Rules for Property”, a new report by the Green Property Alliance gives investors and tenants the first ever set of industry-agreed metrics that can be used to measure and compare energy use – and its associated greenhouse gas emissions in commercial buildings.
The report was published after the Green Property Alliance claimed that currently in the UK there are over 100 methods to measure sustainability.
The report calls for clarity; encouraging property owners and tenants, advisors, sustainability framework providers and the government, to join in with a common language for measurement and reporting. The move is seen as a driving force for greater sustainability from commercial and non-domestic buildings, which account for almost one-fifth of UK carbon emissions.
The organisation claims that having a common approach will lead to greater progress towards reducing the carbon emissions and lowering energy costs in properties properties.
Paul Edwards, Head of Sustainability at Hammerson, Chair of the British Council for Offices Environment and Sustainability Group and Chair of the Green Property Alliance Working Group said:
“Accurate, meaningful measurement of sustainability impacts is vital if its performance is to be effectively managed. A vast array of sustainability tools and frameworks are available to the industry with subtle variation between each.
“The publication of today’s report will hopefully encourage convergence in the basic building blocks of the main frameworks the industry uses so that buildings can be compared no matter which framework they use. We hope it will also provide some simple guidance to organisations who have yet to report, and that it will encourage them to do so.”
Chief Executive of the British Property Federation, Liz Peace added:
“It has traditionally proven difficult to clearly articulate sustainability performance in rented offices and shopping centres due to the split responsibilities of landlords and tenants. The publication of today’s report sets out some helpful ways that landlord and tenant performance can be measured, improvement can be motivated and achievements articulated.’
Stuart Bowman, vice-president for sustainability at CoreNet, commented:
"The key to the success or failure of performance improvement initiatives is the availability of accurate, consistent, relevant and universal data and accurate benchmarking that can help occupiers highlight opportunities for saving, and best and worst practice.
"This paper hopefully marks the new beginning of an approach that has been a long time in coming."
Louise Ellison, Research Director of the Investment Property Forum, stated:
“This set of common metrics brings welcome clarity to the process of monitoring sustainability at a time when property investors are increasingly aware of the need to measure and monitor sustainability performance of their assets alongside investment performance.”
Enigin Distributors already realise the importance of easily understood energy use data, as they have been providing it to their clients through the installation of Enigin PLC's Eniscope, a real-time energy management system. Eniscope delivers easily understood real-time energy data to the network for decision makers to decide on the best action to take to save energy.
Enigin PLC's Eniscope system also stores and provides full historical data, allowing analysis over time to further sculpture energy efficiency strategies and implementation, plus providing comprehensive reporting on energy use for landlords, tenants and other interested parties.
