New scheme aims to make business premises more energy-efficient
A new scheme from the Carbon Trust and real estate advisor Savills is aiming to help make business premises more energy-efficient.
The idea is to act as a ‘one stop solution’ for the occupiers of commercial properties in a variety of sectors, including retail, warehousing, hospitality, leisure and industry, providing the expertise and resources they need to cut their energy usage.
The scheme will help businesses to make energy savings by:
- Assessing where energy usage can be cut, and giving expert advice on the right technology and timeframes to get a return on investment;
- Connecting businesses with accredited suppliers, who can make the improvements they need at the right price;
- Helping to get projects off the ground with an energy efficiency-financing scheme, operated in partnership with Siemens.
The focus is on installing new energy-efficient equipment like lighting, heating, ventilation and high efficiency air conditioning, rather than building changes like insulation.
The scheme will be open to businesses that rent their premises.
Whilst we don’t know what the success of the scheme will be, what we do know is that when you’re moving into new business premises because you’re upsizing, downsizing or starting-up, it’s an ideal time to look at your energy usage and find efficiencies.
According to the Carbon Trust, non-domestic buildings make up 18% of the UK’s total carbon footprint, and they could make energy savings of at least £4 billion by 2020.
Given these numbers it would clearly be a positive step if more businesses incorporated looking at energy efficiency into the process of taking on a new commercial property, and as a real estate advisor, Savills are very well placed to facilitate this.
For more information and ideas on how your business can cut its energy bills, take a look at our energy efficiency and energy management guides.