On Monday I gave a talk at to public sector organisations in the West Midlands with my 10:10 hat on. Here are five things I suggested they do, which might be of interest to other organisations:
Revolving Water Efficiency Fund
Back in the early 1990s Woking Council’s then Finance Director, Ray Morgan (later Chief Executive), understood that investing in energy saving measures would reduce his bills in time. But he also understood that, if he directed the energy bill savings into a fund, it would grow in time and provide more resources to re-invest. Hence the phrase Revolving Energy Fund, which is sometimes also called Invest to Save.
Many councils have now brought in revolving energy funds through the Carbon Trust’s local government programme. Some councils have given an additional incentives to departments to identify energy-efficiency measures so that, for example, some of the savings are returned to that department rather than to the central fund. The Northern Ireland Office established a revolving energy fund for small and medium-sized enterprises. Derby set up a revolving fund for its schools. It is an extremely useful way to identify energy-saving measures and then fund them from future energy bill reductions.
But what I’m suggesting is a Revolving Water Efficiency Fund to identify ways to save water and reduce water bills. Nottinghamshire County Council and the Dept of Work & Pensions have waterless urinals and swear by them in terms of money saved.
Create a mini food chain including food growing and dealing with food waste
We have lost touch with food. We eat too much processed junk and too much high carbon food from far off places. Britain grows 5% of its fruit and 50% of its vegetables. We have set up global Just-In-Time production chains which are increasingly fragile in an era of increasing fuel prices and climate change. We need to relocalise. So find a bit of space on your organisation’s land or roof or walls to grow food. And don’t forget to add a wormery to deal with the banana skins from your packed lunch or other food waste. The worms will create compost which you can put back into your food growing site.
Look at whether your space could be used to take advantage of the feed-in tariff, possibly by allowing community groups to use it at a peppercorn rent
After years of procrastination the government has now agreed to introduce a feed-in tariff which will mean those who produce electricity from renewables like solar panels will get paid more for putting power into the National Grid than they have to pay to take it out. This is what has kickstarted the micro renewables revolution across Europe. Britain has been left behind. What you could do give over some of your organisation’s roof space to a Community Interest Company (which could be started by you or could be a local Transition group) so that they can install solar panels and generate electricity.
Green fleets using biomethane from food waste or electricity from renewable sources
Camden has been running some of its municipal vehicles on biomethane from food waste for several years now, the first UK council to do so. Biomethane is a triple win – it’s made from food waste; it means 80% fewer carbon emissions than diesel; and NO noxious emissions. All councils should be anaerobically digesting their food waste to produce biogas which can either drive a gas turbine and produce electricity, or be used for vehicle fuel. Compost is also produced as a by-product.
Find out which councils in your areas are looking into AD and whether you can get biomethane from them. If you can, then shift your fleet to biomethane-fuelled vehicles. If you can’t get hold of biomethane then move to electric vehicles but only if you use renewable energy to power them. If you don’t then you might as well stick to a small car in carbon terms although going electric will still give air quality benefits.
Use the Passivhaus standard for all new or refurbished buildings
The Passivhaus standard has been used for the last twenty years in Europe, particularly in Germany, to create buildings so energy efficient they don’t need central heating or air conditioning. The standard provides 85% of the energy requirement of a building in terms of energy efficiency. We simply cannot reach zero carbon homes by 2016 as the government has mandated without building on the work that has been done by the Passivhaus Institute in Germany and the architects around Europe who have created the Passivhaus buildings that exist today.
Passivhaus isn't just about new build – it can be used to scope retrofit work as well. That’s lucky because as we all know more than 80% of our buildings will still be standing in 2050. Passivhaus is now an aspiration in Camden Council’s draft Local Development Framework (LDF) which means our planners will be asking developers and architects who plan to work on sites in Camden to think about using the Passivhaus standard from mid-2010 when the LDF becomes policy.
So ask your property services people to use the Passivhaus standard if they're building new buildings or refurbishing old ones. It will save money in the long run in terms of dramatically reduced energy bills.
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