In the UK, the Government introduced a requirement for annual renewal of DECs -this is not in the Directive itself. Another innovation was the added feature that DECs had to be based on actual metered daa. Indeed, studies by the Department of Communities and Local Government(CLG) show a positive net present value compared to the 10 year renewal envisaged in the final version of the Directive.
In addition, the Carbon Trust and the statutory Committee on Climate Change (CCC) both recommend that all non-domestic buildings should have DECs. This is well beyond the Directvie’s requirements, but such a measure will be necessary if the UK is to have a chance of meeting its statutory target of 34% reduction in carbon emissions by 2020. The experience of many organisations in both public and private sectors provides eloquent testimony to the effectiveness of higher reporting standards.
The Carbon Trust and CCC support is due to their recognition of the opportunity to use DECs as facilities management tool. They provide simple, visual signals of current and past performance. They can therefore assist to frame an argument to senior management about the future investment in easily understood terms.
