Memorandum submitted by NG Bailey
1.0 SUMMARY OF
KEY POINTS
1.1 The government estate has a pivotal
role in driving innovation and delivering new approaches to property
management and development that demonstrate that it is possible
to achieve considerable CO2 reductions. This will not only
be vital to demonstrate the methods and techniques required to
achieve this, but must also demonstrate to those outside of government
that it is in their financial interest to reduce their carbon
emissions and that the investments made in the estate yield financial
savings and higher asset values in the context of an emerging
low carbon economy, which adheres to the `polluter pays' principle.
In our view while there have been some notable individual improvements
in reducing carbon emissions from government offices, the UK government
must act more rapidly to achieve the SOGE targets.
1.2 To achieve carbon reductions NG Bailey
considers the following points to be of key importance to the
government estate.
— Engage building services engineers and
ICT professionals in the early stages of any new build, retrofit,
or refurbishment project. It is only through the engagement of
teams which understand the overlapping impacts of technologies
in buildings that overall low energy solutions can be achieved.
— Engage building occupants to ensure building
services and ICT solutions are fit for purpose and that designed
solutions are not "sabotaged" by occupants.
— Improve lifecycle costing methods. These
should factor the future impact of financial instruments which
are likely to help shape a low carbon economy (eg Feed in Tariffs,
Carbon Reduction Commitment).
— Carbon offsetting must be a last resort.
Offsetting decisions must not influence or disincentivise investment
decisions in energy efficiency measures.
2.0 EARLY INVOLVEMENT
OF BUILDING
SERVICES ENGINEERS
AND ICT PROFESSIONALS
IN NEW
BUILD AND
REFURBISHMENT PROJECTS
2.1 As stated above the early engagement
of building services and ICT staff can yield significant benefits
when designing and specifying low carbon energy efficient building
solutions. Our experience shows that this can yield significant
carbon reductions and long term cost savings.
2.2 NG Bailey chose to invest £5.5
million in a high quality, sustainable offices for its new Scottish
Headquarters, Solais House (Gaelic for light) to demonstrate to
CEOs, landlords, contractors and the construction industry that
standard plan office buildings can be both sustainable and financially
justifiable. The project objectives were:
— To achieve an Energy Performance Certificate
grade A.
— To examine the commercial viability of
BREEAM excellence in standard office buildings.
— To deliver the project on time.
— To achieve BREEAM "Excellent"
status.
2.3 The opportunity to create a bespoke
architectural concept building was not available to us. The office
was constructed in order to merge two offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh.
We wanted a workspace for 150 staff, between both locations,
that was also nearer to key customers in the area. We wanted the
new office to be as sustainable as possible, but recognised that
most importantly our employees deserved a quality space to work
in and an appealing location. The chosen business park's ethos
and provisions for tenants were very good, however the location
presented a number of challenges from a sustainability perspective
including the lack of public transport and planning restrictions
imposed by the developer.
2.4 Early engagement of building services
engineers held the key to understanding whether design aspirations
could be met and that chosen technologies and solutions would
work together.
2.5 One example of the interconnectedness
of the approach is illustrated by the eventual solution that was
delivered to reduce the direct and indirect energy consumption
used by the offices' servers. The original specification demanded
server capacity that would require 6kW of electricity. This not
only required its own electrical supply but also provided a heat
output which would require air conditioning (an additional electrical
demand), to maintain the temperature within the parameters required
to ensure the servers function. The multi disciplinary project
team were tasked with reducing the power requirements of the servers,
without impacting upon functionality, and to create a low energy
cooling solution sized to ensure that server performance was not
compromised.
2.6 It was possible to reduce the type of
equipment required through thorough evaluation of the way that
technology is both used currently and likely future requirements.
ICT professionals redesigned the server solution so that the system
required only 1.4 kW, while meeting all functionality requirements.
In addition to this energy reduction, a room temperature management
solution was designed, which incorporated both "free"
cooling from the onsite ground source heat pump and a new technology—phase
change materials (PCM), which are integrated into the plasterboard
walls. PCM effectively acts to add thermal mass by changing state
(at a molecular level), at certain temperatures. In effect the
material absorbs heat from the air at higher temperatures and
releases heat when temperatures reduce. This acts so as to balance
the room temperature. When the servers are in maximum operation
during working hours the PCM "absorbs" the heat from
the environment, thus providing cooling, and at weekend and evenings
when the temperature is lower as the servers are not in operation,
this heat is released by the PCM. The room is monitored by the
building management systems and since the office was opened the
temperature has never exceeded 26°C. This means conventional
server rooms can be designed with a lower energy requirement for
both ICT equipment and temperature control. As a result the energy
consumption, and associated carbon emissions, are significantly
reduced.
2.7 This solution is not a single technology
solution and is only possible with an investment in a solution
which involves both the early and continuous involvement of building
services engineers and ICT professionals.
3.0 ENGAGEMENT
OF OCCUPIERS
3.1 In order to ensure energy reduction
objectives are met it is necessary to engage occupants and identify
how occupant behaviour might deliver energy reduction, or, inadvertently
sabotage efforts. In both the construction and occupation phase
of Solais House, two taskforces were formed. The "project
executive team" (construction) and "Solais House user
group" (occupation) were responsible for making sure that
every aspect of the construction and occupation of the office
were tracked. The groups met on at least a monthly basis and provided
a focal point for every element of the project.
3.2 Staff engagement was critical in being
able to gain the support and consensus view on the way the building
will be operated and controlled by occupants.
3.3 The intention was to deliver the same,
if not enhanced, functionality to occupants through innovative
measures. One illustrative example is the introduction of four
Multifunction Devices (MFD), into the office in place of a much
higher quantity of, desktop printers which were both energy and
resource inefficient. Staff were initially resistant to this proposal
as, in their view, the previous solution gave time-pressured individuals
greater convenience and privacy to print sensitive documents.
The "user group" provided a two-way engagement process
which explored how staff buy-in to a new system could be achieved.
Such buy in has been critical as there is a moratorium on staff
procuring or introducing additional desktop printers. To date
this has been universally adhered to and ensures that energy consumption
and printer consumable costs and waste materials are minimised.
3.4 Technological solutions to carbon reduction
require occupants to use technology so as to reduce the "unregulated"
energy demands of a building.
4.0 ENHANCE COST
JUSTIFICATION PROCESSES
4.1 One of the fundamental barriers to the
introduction of energy efficient refurbishment or build is where
a decision is taken on the premise of an energy efficiency measure
but the cost justification does not meet pay back periods specified.
4.2 This is particularly relevant where
cost justification models are based upon current energy costs.
The opportunity to influence a building design may require additional
capital spend in the short term but can yield significant cost
savings. Cost justification models for Solais House demonstrate
that the additional investment of 850k above standard design will
result in a reduced energy cost of £3.3 million during its
lifetime. In our view this calculation does not represent the
actual financial benefit that will be realised as the realisation
of a low carbon economy will inevitably reward low carbon buildings
with higher asset values and lower operational costs. However
there are insufficient models which factor in the impact of the
regulatory and market changes that are likely to be demonstrated
in a low carbon economy, such as the influence of carbon pricing
(Carbon Reduction Commitment), incentives to produce renewable
energy (Feed in Tariffs), or the impact of Energy Performance
Certificates (EPC) or Display Energy Certificates (DEC) ratings
on market asset values. The development of a universally recognised
payback model may facilitate more investment decisions.
4.3 There are some emerging calculations,
such as the Marginal Abatement Cost Curve, which factor the cost
of carbon for organisations covered by carbon trading schemes.
Therefore, the potential for interdepartmental carbon trading
would appear to have some merits as long as the price for carbon
enables greater investment in carbon reduction measures. However
an appropriate and easy to use cost evaluation tool should be
created to allow all proposals to be evaluated within this context.
5.0 CARBON OFFSET
AS A
LAST RESORT
5.1 While carbon offsetting will enable
the government estate to achieve carbon neutrality in 2012 our
view is that this expenditure should not detract from investment
in energy efficiency measures.
April 2009
| 
