Joe Tilley, Sustainability and Strategic Portfolio Director at Crown Commercial Service
From residential to commercial buildings, the UK’s built environment is responsible for 25% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions. Through its provision of buildings for millions of citizens accessing public services, the public sector plays a significant role in helping with the country’s Net Zero journey.
Energy efficiency and management in the heating and cooling of public buildings are crucial to the UK’s decarbonisation goals. Changes to how the public sector manages its estate have enormous potential to be a force for good.
Net zero challenges for local authorities
Local authorities are prioritising Net Zero in response to the climate emergency. Yet the challenges of energy efficiency and heat decarbonisation cannot be underestimated. According to our research, upfront cost is the biggest obstacle to implementing net zero strategies. Additional barriers include:
- lack of inter-departmental and stakeholder coordination
- access to affordable and readily available energy efficiency technologies
- limited capacity and experience
- insufficient information about their existing energy performance
Practical steps to net zero
Energy efficiency projects represent an investment opportunity for local authorities, but knowing where to start can be difficult. Many of the buildings needed in 2050 are already built, so retrofitting and decarbonising the buildings you’ll be using for decades is a good place to begin.
Take a ‘whole building’ approach. Heat decarbonisation combines low-carbon heating system upgrades with energy efficiency measures; the solutions are interlinked.
Understand your data. Do you know where your primary energy consumption is coming from? After you understand where you are wasting energy, the changes you implement will be more effective.
Conduct an energy audit. An audit can help you understand what energy efficiency improvements will deliver more impact. Using the data you collect and the results from your audit can highlight potential areas for improvement, helping you prioritise.
Write an action plan based on your priorities. Use your action plan to allocate resources and timing to implement improvements to the building.
You can then identify short, medium and long-term actions, including:
1. Switching to LED lighting
Lighting accounts for nearly 5% of global CO2 emissions. A global switch to energy-efficient light-emitting diode (LED) technology could save over 1,400 million tonnes of CO2 and avoid the construction of 1,250 power stations.
With savings of up to 50 to 70%, LED lighting is recognised as one of the most actionable and ready-to-implement technologies for cities to transition to a low carbon economy and peak emissions.
2. Heat networks and air source heat pumps
One option for local authorities to consider is a heat network. A heat network, sometimes called district heating, is a distribution system of insulated pipes that takes heat from a central source and delivers it to a number of domestic or non-domestic buildings. Heat networks allow you to exploit larger-scale – and often lower cost – renewable and recovered heat sources that otherwise cannot be used.
Installing heat pumps can also help reduce carbon emissions, allowing you to save money on heating bills by replacing older, less efficient boilers. However, heat pumps can increase electricity demand. So, factor it into your business case and financial forecast.
3. Choosing renewable energy sources
Local governments can dramatically reduce their carbon footprint by purchasing or directly generating electricity from clean, renewable sources. Options include generating renewable energy on-site through solar panels on a municipal building and purchasing green power through power purchasing agreements. In addition, securing a longer-term renewable power supply contract at a fixed price can offer more certainty in power costs and origin.
4. Scaling up smart building technology
Central and local government organisations can integrate advanced technology solutions into operations, ecosystems, and maintenance regimes.
Introducing IoT solutions that use sensor data is a cost-effective way to tackle energy inefficiencies from heating to lighting. In addition, designing and deploying automation into systems, buildings management, operations, and ecosystems at scale can enhance capacity while helping building managers focus on more complex operational processes.
5. Investing in retrofits
Energy efficiency retrofitting allows you to upgrade the energy performance of public sector buildings for their ongoing life. Energy efficiency retrofits help reduce operational costs, particularly in older buildings, by improving insulation, water efficiency and heating, ventilation and air conditioning systems.
How CCS can help
Crown Commercial Service offers ‘end-to-end’ solutions to help with decarbonisation initiatives plus innovative funding options to tackle upfront costs.
Our twin-agreement solution consists of a framework for accessing specialist Asset Finance advisors and a funding platform through the Leasing and Loans Dynamic Purchasing System. We also maintain a list of CNZ grants.
