The British Property Federation (BPF) launched an online tool at Think 07 that calculates carbon dioxide emissions from landlord-provided services in buildings.
This will assist in the preparation of display energy certificates that show how much energy a building uses. These become compulsory for public bodies occupying spaces of more than 1,000m2 from next April.
The tool, called the landlord energy statement, calculates emissions from air-conditioning, ventilation and lighting that landlords have provided. Matthew Smith, policy adviser for the BPF, said: 鈥淚t provides a full picture so when a public body is in a building it doesn鈥檛 own it can ask the landlord for its CO2 emissions.鈥�
He added that the BPF had just won Carbon Trust funding to develop a tool to enable tenants to calculate carbon emissions from their own equipment. It is hoped that together the two
tools will help overcome the landlord-tenant divide, as both parties can work out the emissions for which they are responsible.
Smith said: 鈥淭his will give them information on their emissions so they can discuss what steps to take to reduce them.鈥�
He added that the communities department was considering broadening the use of display certificates. 鈥淚t specifically mentioned hotels and shopping centres. You can imagine it won鈥檛 be long before it goes further.鈥�
He also noted that before the end of this parliamentary session the communities department was expected to announce a working group to develop the non-dwellings version of the Code for Sustainable Homes.
He said this was likely to be different from the code because of the diverse nature of non-dwellings. He expected the department to focus on targets for energy and water use, and suggested these targets might be incorporated into the 黑洞社区 Regulations.
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