March 24, 2008—The City of London recently announced the start of a groundbreaking program to cut carbon emissions from London’s buildings. London is the first city in the world to complete the municipal tender process and appoint a company following a deal developed by the Clinton Climate Initiative for the C40 group of cities at the New York Large Cities Climate Summit in May 2007.
Energy service companies Dalkia and Honeywell were selected to help cut energy use in Greater London Authority buildings by 25 percent. A procurement process will let every public sector organization in London benefit from the same deal, and private sector businesses are also encouraged to participate—Canary Wharf has already announced their support for this program and plans to begin with some of their iconic buildings.
Under the C40 program, a whole group of buildings are retrofitted at once, allowing energy services companies to achieve economies of scale and invest in more expensive, long-term infrastructure, such as decentralized energy supply, out of the savings from cheaper, quicker measures. London is also working with the other C40 cities to encourage the wider introduction of new technologies while reducing the cost of current low energy and carbon technology by buying in bulk through joint procurement.
Dalkia and Honeywell will provide a range of services include surveying and auditing buildings to assess potential carbon savings, and then planning and implementing the energy efficiency measures that the buildings require in order to meet the agreed guaranteed energy savings targets. Savings from energy bills of an estimated £1 million annually are expected by retrofitting the first 42 public buildings targeted.
