Some of the UK's leading property chiefs have called on David Cameron to ensure all commercial landlords must provide the energy efficiency of their buildings.
In an open letter to the Prime Minister, the UKGBC and British Property Federation pointed out that non-domestic buildings in the UK, such as offices, shopping centres, hospitals and schools, account for 17pc of the UK's carbon emissions. However, at present, only public sector buildings are required to provide Display Energy Certificates (DECs) which rank their energy efficiency from A-G. . The council sees obvious benefits in energy certificates for the likes of shops and shopping centres - not least in encouraging them to improve their green credentials in the public eye. They also believe that if all landlords are required to display their DECs, this would create competition between owners to push up standards in terms of their green credentials.
Paul King, Chief Executive of the UK Green Building Council said, "It's very simple - if you don't know how much energy you are using, you can't manage it. We've simply no idea how our buildings up and down the country are actually performing, so mandatory A-G ratings are the crucial first step in helping businesses understand and reduce their energy use."
Support has been offered from a number of high profile construction firms, including Bovis Lend Lease, Marks & Spencer, British Land, Land Securities, Hammerson, and Wilmott Dixon Capital Works.
The proposal was presented during Parliament as part of the Energy Bill on 10th May. Committee sessions are expected in June.
Currently, commercial building operators have to calculate an energy performance certificate (EPC) when a building is let or sold.
However, unlike EPCs, DECs measure the actual energy performance, not the estimated amount based on its design.
The ratings will also have to be displayed for viewing in a building's entrance or lobby, as they are currently only mandatory on public buildings.
Some headway has already been made towards this as the coalition government set out in the Carbon Plan that all commercial buildings will have to display their actual energy performance on site within 18 months. The move would mean use of display energy certificates (DEC) will be mandatory for all commercial buildings by October 2012.
Patrick Brown, assistant director at the British Property Federation, said: "This is what we had hoped for, it really encourages the better management of buildings. We have a lot of tools to measure planned sustainability, but very few measure actual performance."
Paul King added: "This is great news and something we've been campaigning on for a long time."
