Built environment taskforce created to devise energy procurement guidance

A team of cross-industry experts has been created to help devise guidance for the built environment on renewable energy procurement.

The UK Green Building Council (UKGBC) has pulled together the team to help draft documents for businesses of all sizes in the sector as part of its commitment to tackling climate change.

Decarbonising the UK’s energy supply sector is central to the UK achieving its national net zero targets and supporting the transition towards an electric heat and transport system. By 2050, it is forecast that around 80% of buildings will use electric heat pumps.

To achieve this target, the built environment must deploy large amounts of renewable energy, including solar PVs, and become increasingly flexible, with buildings able to actively manage their demand to respond to the availability of zero carbon electricity on the grid.

How buildings procure energy also has a critical part to play in enabling change across the energy supply system in support of net zero and in light of the ongoing global energy crisis due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

UKGBC is therefore launching a new project to better equip those who procure energy for buildings, to do so in a way which enables them to achieve their climate goals at the asset level, whilst contributing to the continued decarbonisation of our energy supply sector. The project will build on guidance published in 2021 on Renewable Energy Procurement and Carbon Offsetting and. seeks to provide greater insight into the wide range of procurement circumstances which the industry currently faces.

To support the project, UKGBC has selected a team of 17 cross-industry experts ranging from developers, energy consultants to legal experts who will be responsible for fine tuning the final scope of the project, sharing knowledge, completing research, and reviewing material in support of the project’s final guidance documents.

Together with the Task Group, UKGBC will produce further guidance to inform and improve energy procurement decisions for stakeholders of all types and scales. The project will also seek to improve engagement between energy suppliers/generators and energy customers, as well as consider how the insight from the project can be used in an advocacy capacity to support energy market reform.

Task Group individuals supporting this project include:

• Joanna Burton, Principal Sustainability Consultant, Acclaro Advisory
• Nick Proctor, Founder and CEO, Amber
• Greg Borel, Managing Partner, Ampersand
• Emma Andrews, Director, Burges Salmon
• Ben Richardson, Associate Director, Buro Happold
• Rebekah Needham, Associate Director – Renewable Energy, CBRE
• Samantha Carlsson, Senior Sustainability Manager, Derwent London
• Andy Haigh, Director, Climate Positive Solutions, Grosvenor
• Phil Pearson, Project Director, Utilities and Energy Infrastructure, Hoare Lea
• David Mead, Associate – Property & Asset Management, JLL
• Andy Mazzucchelli, Energy and Sustainability Manager, Landsec
• Simon Crowe, Managing Director, Low Carbon Alliance
• Alexander Crockford, Senior Counsel, Real Estate (Construction), Macfarlanes
• Nils Rage, Head of ESG, Stanhope
• Kirsty Berry, Director of Projects, Syzygy
• Kyle Gray, Energy Efficiency and Carbon Manager – Purpose, Stakeholder and Sustainability, The Crown Estate
• James Blake, Director, Head of Sustainability, Turley

UKGBC’s Senior Advisor, Tom Wigg said: “Transitioning the energy supply system to zero carbon renewables has been the cornerstone of national decarbonisation progress to date, with electricity now around 70% lower carbon than it was in 2012. As we move away from fossil fuel sources of energy to heat our buildings and power our transport systems, rapid action is needed now to secure a resilient supply of renewable energy and ensure our climate targets can be achieved.

“The new Task Group will work together to determine how to robustly assess the quality and performance of an energy product and create tailored guidance to enable customers of all types and sizes to better navigate the procurement options available to them, as well as considering how this information can help customers more accurately calculate the impact of their consumption and procurement strategies.”