May 11, 2007—The British Property Federation (BPF) has received a £140.000 grant from the Carbon Trust to produce a new solution to measuring, benchmarking, and reducing tenants’ energy use in commercial property. The project’s aim is to lower carbon emissions in the built environment, which reportedly counts for over half of the UK’s carbon emissions
This new project will build on an existing BPF initiative that focuses on landlords’ responsibilities and enables property owners to create Landlord’s Energy Statements (LES) for their buildings. These report on the energy used by the services controlled by landlords (such as heating, elevators, and lobby lighting), and rate them by comparison with similar buildings used for similar purposes.
The new project covers the energy consumed by the buildings’ users, so that a complete and detailed picture can be drawn up of the total energy use—a Tenant’s Energy Review (TER). BPF says it will provide a framework for tenants to adequately measure, benchmark, and improve their energy use, while encouraging landlords and tenants to work together to maximize their reduction of carbon dioxide emissions from the buildings they own and occupy.
The TER project is being developed with technical assistance from the Usable Buildings Trust (UBT) and support from the British Council for Offices (BCO) and Chartered Institute of Building Services Engineers (CIBSE). Industry leaders hope that having both ratings will enable the property industry to help the government meet the carbon reduction targets laid out in the recent UK climate change bill.
For more information visit www.les-ter.org.
