Leading organisations in London and UK are first to sign up

Hospitals, colleges and councils will be helped to cut energy use and save millions off their fuel bills under a major expansion of a climate change programme announced today by the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson. Just days before the start of the Copenhagen climate change summit, the Mayor visited a London fire station in Ilford, one of 42 buildings in the GLA family to have benefited from a green makeover started earlier this year.

Ilford fire station’s energy overhaul has enabled it to slash more than 40 per cent of its carbon emissions. A further nine fire stations, 10 Metropolitan Police Service and 22 Transport for London buildings have between them achieved on average a 27 per cent reduction in carbon emissions and have saved £1 million off the annual fuel bills of London. The Mayor has pledged another 58 Greater London Authority Group buildings will follow.

With the support of the Clinton Climate Initiative (CCI) – part of the William J Clinton Foundation – London is the first city in the world to have launched a framework of approved energy service companies, which cuts through red tape by creating a clever financial model enabling public sector organisations to retrofit their buildings with energy efficiency measures more easily.
The London Development Agency-led scheme is now set to be adopted by Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, Barking and Dagenham Council and University College London. NHS London has expressed support for the scheme and will be working with the London Development Agency to allow NHS organisations across the capital to benefit from the framework. It is estimated if all the public sector buildings in London used this model, they could save around £500million off bills and the model can be replicated across the UK.

Eight per cent of London’s carbon emissions – 3.5 million tonnes annually – come from public sector buildings, so there is huge potential for delivering massive cuts through this programme.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: ‘As expectant eyes around the globe turn to Copenhagen to see whether world leaders will take action on climate change, here in London we are making a difference right now.

‘Cutting energy consumption in public buildings may not sound glamorous, but it could help us save the world from the threat of irreversible climate change. With a third of carbon emissions coming from our buildings, giving them a green makeover, is supremely good for the planet and for the public purse.

‘This innovative financing and procurement model has cut out all the time delays and hassles for public sector organisations. We have tested it on our own fire stations, police stations and Transport for London buildings, so we know it delivers the goods in cutting carbon but also in making substantial cost savings and stimulating the demand for low carbon skills and technologies. We are willing and ready to share our solution with the rest of the UK and other world cities attempting to tread the same path and I am thrilled to see a clutch of foresighted organisations have already done so.’

President Clinton, said: ‘Buildings contribute a significant portion of the carbon emissions released by the world’s largest cities. I am pleased the Clinton Climate Initiative has been working with London to expand its building retrofit programme, which will reduce the city’s emissions and energy costs. London’s leadership is showing what can be done to protect our planet and create jobs in cities around the world.’

Peter Bishop, London Development Agency Group Director for Design, Development and Environment. said: ‘We need to act to mitigate the impact of climate change. By investing in the energy efficiency of London’s public sector buildings, the London Development Agency will help get major reductions in London’s carbon dioxide emissions. As this programme grows across the capital, it will make a measurable difference on climate change.’

Brian Coleman, Assembly Member, FRSA, Chairman of London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority, said: ‘This project is a good example of the work London Fire Brigade is doing to cut carbon emissions, and Ilford is the first station to benefit from this programme and another nine are nearing completion. This Authority has approved for another 20 to be part of this scheme which enhances the Brigade’s commitment to the Mayor’s green vision. The fire service may be best known for helping Londoners in an emergency, but the range of sustainability projects we are involved in is another important way we can protect our city.’

Kit Malthouse, Deputy Mayor for Policing and Vice Chair of the Metropolitan Police Authority, said ‘Earlier this year the Wembley Police Station became the first building within the GLA family to start implementing a range of energy saving initiatives. Since then we have been making excellent progress with the other police buildings which are part of this programme. Work has now started on three more Metropolitan Police sites and we hope to have all ten projects off the ground in the coming months. It is our ambition to make the Metropolitan Police estate across London more sustainable, and we are very proud to be leading the way for this exciting and important scheme. We will continue working to make our buildings more sustainable and become an example of a modern public service that fully meets today’s high environmental standards.’

Charles Stafford, TfL Director of Group Property and Facilities, said: ‘Transport for London is committed to helping the Mayor meet his target to cut carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025. BEEP is another example of how London is leading the way to tackle climate change. As the nation’s capital London is home to a multitude of public sector buildings: with eight per cent of London’s carbon emissions coming from them hopefully others will follow our model and retrofit their buildings to be more sustainable.’

The framework is available for use by any public sector organisation in the UK. The University of Cambridge and the Core Cities group (Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Liverpool, Manchester, Newcastle, Nottingham and Sheffield) have today signed up to benefit from the same deal. The Higher Education Funding Council for England is also pleased that the scheme has been made available to universities, with a number already expressing an interest. In addition, the South East England Development Agency will be introducing the programme to local authorities across the South East region. For London-based public sector organisations, the London Development Agency will provide support in the use of the framework. The programme is cost-neutral for organisations as the money recouped through guaranteed energy cost savings over a set period which will fund the investment in improvements.

The Mayor has a target to cut London’s carbon emissions by 60 per cent by 2025, and is implementing a raft of programmes to combat climate change and improve Londoners’ quality of life. These include: the launch of a public bike hire scheme and cycle superhighways in 2010; a programme to help at least 200,000 homes get a free carbon makeover by 2012; converting London’s bus fleet to hybrid; and a comprehensive plan to support the mainstream introduction of electric vehicles in the capital.

The CCI – the action arm of the C40 association of large cities around the world that have pledged to accelerate their efforts to reduce carbon emissions – has assisted London in establishing the building retrofit programme and signing up organisations to the framework.

Currently, the process organisations have to go through to retrofit buildings is complex and lengthy. This scheme involves an OJEU compliant framework of suppliers for public sector organisations to use, doing all the hard work for them.

The list of suppliers on the framework (known as the framework agreement panel) are: Balfour Beatty, COFELY (GDF SUEZ), Dalkia FM (MITIE), EDF Energy, E.ON Sustainable Energy Business, Hoare Lea Consulting Engineers, Honeywell, hurleypalmerflatt, Interserve, Johnson Controls, Schneider Electric’s Buildings Business, Willmott Dixon Ltd

The measures being installed by this programme in the first trial buildings are being managed by leading energy services companies, Honeywell and Dalkia FM (MITIE). These include insulation, double glazing, building fabric and draft proofing, building management systems, lighting, heating, more efficient air conditioning, solar panels and Combined Heat and Power energy generation systems.

The model of procurement behind today’s announcement is unique as it combines all the usual stages of planning, tendering and implementing improvements (such as assessing which buildings to improve, understanding the changes required, producing specifications, then undertaking various procurement activities) into a single procurement process. This significantly simplifies the approach for both suppliers and the Greater London Authority. The GLA has set carbon reduction and financial targets that must be achieved which will encourage the suppliers to maximise energy reductions whilst ensuring a financial payback for the project. This approach considerably reduces the financial risk for the Greater London Authority or for future participants. If targets cannot be achieved on a particular building there is no cost for the initial auditing work, and where work does progress, suppliers are incentivised to deliver the energy savings and the financial payback is guaranteed.

Ilford fire station is the first building to be completed under this London Development Agency-led scheme – the fire station has been installed with a range of energy efficiency measures which will save more than 125,000kW of gas, and 55,000kW of electricity, and nearly 50 tonnes of carbon equalling more than a 40 per cent cut in carbon. Measures installed include: lighting upgrades (replacement of inefficient fittings with T5 units, including appropriate controls), boiler replacement, voltage optimisation, thermostatic radiator valves (TRVs), drying room timer, draught proofing, photovoltaic installation (9kW output system, to be located on the appliance bay roof), cavity wall insulation.

Projects to retrofit public sector buildings, would usually fall within the scope of the EU procurement regulations, requiring that the intention to contract is advertised in the Official Journal of the European Union (OJEU). This framework allows public sector organisations to procure energy services quickly and in the knowledge that European procurement obligations have been met.

London’s programme is part of a global Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Programme which brings together many of the world’s largest cities, energy service firms and financial institutions to reduce energy consumption in existing buildings. CCI works with industry, financial, government and building partners to overcome market barriers and develop financially sound solutions that accelerate the growth of the global building efficiency market. CCI has helped initiate more than 250 retrofit projects encompassing over 500 million sq ft of building space in more than 20 cities around the world. These include municipal buildings across five cities such as Houston; more than 20 schools and universities; and the largest public housing stock in North America.

Working with governments and businesses around the world to tailor local solutions that are economically and environmentally sustainable, CCI focuses on three strategic programme areas: increasing energy efficiency in cities, catalyzing the large-scale supply of clean energy, and working to measure and value the carbon absorbed by forests. CCI serves as the action arm of the C40, an association of large cities around the world that have pledged to accelerate their efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. To learn more about the work of the Clinton Climate Initiative and the William J. Clinton Foundation, please visit www.clintonfoundation.org

For more information on the C40, visit: www.c40cities.org

London’s commercial and public sector buildings alone produce around 15 million tonnes of carbon per year and accounts for 33 per cent of total London emissions. The premises which are part of the Greater London Authority Group produce 0.18 million tonnes of carbon each year, which is one per cent of London’s commercial sector emissions

GLA group buildings included in the pilot stage of the programme will be competed by end of March 2010

The buildings are 1) Honeywell – 22 TfL head office buildings including: 55 Broadway, Windsor House, Griffith House, Ashfield House, 200 Buckingham Palace Rd, London Transport Museum Collection Centre, 172 Buckingham Palace Rd, 13 Allsop Place, Pelham Street, Wing-Over-Station, Victoria Station House, Faith Lawson House, 100 Petty France, 20 Cranbourn Street, Townsend House, Lost Property Office, Selbie House, Western House, 15-17Allsop Place, 210-212 Baker Street, 216 Baker Street, Baker Street: Revenue Control. 2) Dalkia FM (MITIE): 10 LFEPA (London Fire Brigade) Fire Stations including: Greenwich, Heston, Holloway, Homerton, Ilford, Norbury, North Kensington, Romford, Westminster and Woodford fire stations and 10 Metropolitan Police buildings including: Forest Gate Police Station, Southwark Park Police Station, Islington Police Station, Bexleyheath Police Station, Edmonton Police Station, Wembley Police Station, Chadwell Heath Traffic Unit, Croydon Police Station, Hertford House (office building), Edinburgh House (office building)