Press releases
The Ultimate Headache Cure?
June 2009
Since its launch in 2007, DEFRA’s list of sustainable ‘quick wins’ for procurement managers has grown to encompass modern advances in technology and is now mandatory for all central government bodies. Graham Standring, programme manager for property investor and developer Calthorpe Estates, explores the categories and what they mean for landlords and public sector facilities managers.
The long list of sustainable targets for the public sector, including the SOGE requirements, is potentially giving facilities managers something of a headache. Faced with the need to lower carbon emissions and increase energy efficiency, facilities managers and public sector procurers have a tough job in ensuring that they make the grade in terms of sustainability.
The Sustainable Operations on the Government Estate (SOGE) are perhaps the most stringent of targets set for the public sector. Now mandatory for all central government bodies, the requirements act as a stake in the ground for the future of sustainability on the government estate, with the headline number being a CO² emission reduction of 340,000 tonnes by 2013, a massive 25 percent cut.
Quite possibly the light at the end of the SOGE tunnel, DEFRA’s Quick Wins provide a comprehensive checklist for facilities managers of the sustainable technology that should be in a procured building. The guide is also a useful aid for landlords looking to attract public sector occupiers and for anyone looking to reduce overhead costs.
For this reason, the list has become essential reading for procurers in both the public and private sector when specifying property, and alleviates much of the stress associated with ‘going green’.
In an attempt to simplify its comprehensive nature, the Quick Wins can be broken down into two key categories – water and energy.
Energy Consumption
Arguably the keystone of the Government’s sustainable agenda, reducing energy consumption features heavily in the Quick Wins catalogue, and should be implemented at each and every level of a building’s life cycle. For example, a building needs to be heated and cooled, so the installation of heat recovery air conditioning is an absolute must. The process of extracting, cooling and re-using waste heat from a building greatly increases its efficiency and falls in line with SOGE requirements.
Choosing the right air conditioning for your next building isn’t just important, it’s essential, which is why DEFRA states that all units in government buildings must have a minimum energy rating of ‘class B’. Exemplified within our Calthorpe House development, the system installed successfully controls internal temperatures through heat recovery air management and high levels of thermal insulation.
High efficiency condensing boilers improve the building’s core sustainability, managed in turn by eco-friendly aggregates such as solar control glass that regulate the amount of solar heat entering the building and minimise the amount lost. This means less need for air conditioning and a lower carbon output. Although this may not be the quickest of quick wins, it can be one of the most environmentally beneficial.
Another big win in the sustainability stakes is combined heat and power (CHP); the simultaneous generation of usable heat and power in a single process. If procured correctly, a quality CHP system can achieve energy efficiencies of 70 percent at the point of use – a significant contribution to sustainable energy goals and a testament to the value of CHP as a quick win.
Water Consumption
Second only to energy is the raw material central to our eco system, and something which is becoming increasingly scarce – water. Having multiple advantages in urban areas, harvesting rainwater to supplement a building’s basic water requirements dramatically reduces consumption and should be at the top of any procurement managers quick win list. For obvious reasons, rainwater harvesting is nothing short of essential for all new construction projects. Calthorpe House is again an exemplar in this method of reducing consumption and uses a reclaimed water system to supply its WCs, in line with the Quick Win specification.
To achieve DEFRA's best practice standard, the harvesting system itself must monitor consumption, water collection levels and have the ability to activate the mains back up supply when levels run low. In addition to cutting consumption at the base level, installation of low flush toilets and automatic taps are also listed in the quick wins as key water saving techniques.
Utilising these technologies has earned Calthorpe House a coveted BREEAM ‘Excellent’ rating and a reputation as one of Birmingham’s most environmentally aware buildings. As an example of best practice in building sustainability, the project consists of 105,000 sq ft of open plan ‘Grade A’ office space designed from the ground up to meet government requirements.
Apart from being especially good for meeting public sector SOGE targets, Calthorpe House acts as a large quick win for any occupier taking up space, lowering environmental impact by ‘ticking off’ many of the DEFRA recommendations instantly. The full list of Quick Wins is available at www.defra.gov.uk/sustainable.
Eventually, all public sector departments will need to be housed in buildings that conform to these requirements. However, procurement managers that wish to stay ahead of the game can consult the DEFRA Quick Wins catalogue and save themselves an unwanted SOGE fuelled headache. After all, prevention is certainly better than cure.