Buro Happold joins with EDGE members to hit back at Chancellor’s ‘Green Retreat’

16/12/2011 1 comment

To The Editor, The Daily Telegraph

 Dear Sir,

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has asserted that environmental regulation is a burden and cost on British business, but we believe that consistent and well-targeted environmental regulation is an effective means of helping businesses in Britain to find energy efficiencies and cost reductions; to develop the potential for leading in skills and expertise with greater export capacity; and to improve our energy security in a highly cost-effective manner. Such policies have been amply proven to be effective by economies like those of Germany and Switzerland, which have weathered the current crisis well.

We are deeply concerned, that in the face of legal commitments to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2020 and to reduce them to 20% of 1990 levels by 2050, the construction and property industries will be actively discouraged by Government announcements from investing in the skills and capacity to deliver low carbon measures and technologies. Recent announcements include:

•   The removal of recycling of Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) payments for energy efficiency projects and the conversion of the CRC into a simple revenue raising tax in the 2011 Budget

•     The decision not to include provision for Display Energy Certificates in the Energy Act 2011

•     The abrupt changes to FITs payments in June and then December 2011

•     The removal of incentives to invest in energy saving measures for energy-intensive manufacturing business in the 2011 Autumn Statement

•     The reduction in ambition for emission cuts and the slowing of the pace of change to that of the rest of Europe

Such announcements have not only directly damaged businesses gearing up to deliver a low-carbon built environment, as is witnessed by the potential loss of 4,500 jobs at Carillion, but, critically, have jeopardised confidence in the robustness and longevity of other Government carbon reduction programmes.

We call upon the Government to demonstrate its genuine commitment to deliver a low carbon economy by ensuring that all parts of Government deliver consistent, credible, and well-integrated policies that show its leadership in making that aim a practical reality.

Yours faithfully

Robin Nicholson CBE RIBA FIStructE, Edward Cullinan Architects & Convenor of the Edge

Andy Ford CEng, President CIBSE

Angela Brady FRIAI, President RIBA

Professor Roger Plank PhD CEng MICE, President IStructE


Bill Bordass HonFRIBA HonFCIBSE, William Bordass Associates

Paddy Conaghan CEng MEI MCIBSE FConsE

Dr Francis Duffy CBE PPRIBA

Simon Foxell RIBA, The Architects Practice

Professor Bill Gething RIBA, Sustainability + Architecture

Dave Hampton C Env C Eng FCIOB MEI, The Carbon Coach

Stephen Hill MRICS CEnv C2O futureplanners

Mike Hitchens CEng FICE FIStrctE, Pell Frischmann

Professor Paul Jowitt CBE DIC CEng CEnv PPICE FIPENZ, Heriot Watt University

Francis Li BEng

Richard Lorch RIBA, Building Research & Information

Michael Pawlyn RIBA, Exploration Architecture & Founding Partner, The Sahara Forest Project

Yasmin Shariff RIBA, RIBA Council Member & Principal Dennis Sharp Architects

Adam Poole, Buro Happold

Sunand Prasad PPRIBA, Penoyre & Prasad

Simon Smith CEng MIStructE, Ramboll

Albert Williamson-Taylor BEng(Hons)  MSc(Struct) CEng FiStructE (Hon) FRIBA, AKT II

Chris Twinn HonFRIBA FCIBSE MEI CEng, Arup Fellow

Jane Wernick CEng FREng FICE FIStructE FRSA Hon FRIBA, Jane Wernick Associates

Members of the Edge, the multidisciplinary built environment think tank

Categories: Sustainability, Environment, United Kingdom

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Comments

John Carden at 13/01/2012 14:27 said:

I am a London based energy consultant and sit on the ESTA Council and the London committees of CIBSE and the EI.

Thanks to all for writing this letter. This is a theme which I have expressed at various stakeholder groups and events at House of Commons etc and with CIBSE and the EI.

One could add to the list of cutbacks which have actually had a negative overall effect on the economy (instead of saving money) and the deliverance of carbon targets; e.g.:

1. Carbon Trust free survey scheme (this generated a lot of business savings, competitiveness, sustainability profile and project work)
2. Carbon Trust interest free energy project loan scheme
3. CRC (Carbon Reduction Commitment) recycled fund is now a tax – indeed I have a well known retail client whom installed smart metering at 500 outlets and got captured by this tax because of this (voluntary meters count towards the CRC qualifying 6 GWh/annum)
4. The incentive to accredit to the Carbon Trust Standard disappeared with the capturing of the CRC fund, as the CTS was an early action metric for the scheme and thus had a direct financial benefit. (The CTS is the leading carbon management accreditation, accredited organisations have to have energy savings and good management policies/procedures/projects in place).
5. NOTE. Regarding the Carbon Trust Schemes, these have been utilised by tens of thousands of organisations including blue chip national and international companies over the past decade and generated the aforementioned benefits for them. This was a major and effective suite of offerings, delivered by several hundred degree qualified engineering consultants and effectively quality controlled.
6. The RDA’s (Regional Development Agencies) were delivering energy management services (again through accredited consultants) for smaller organisations, particularly in agriculture. Initial surveys were free, detailed implementation advice on a 50/50 basis
7. Energy Saving Trust has also had funding cut, doing similar work to the Carbon Trust but on the domestic (dwellings) sector.
8. The Renewable Heat Incentive has been delayed and this left a gap between the closure of the Low Carbon Buildings Programme and the RHI. This left uncertainty and projects were delayed or cancelled.

There is a low carbon economy and UK is a leader in the field and UK companies are working all over the world assisting with the delivery of Kyoto related targets. There are many carbon management related graduate and post graduate university courses in the UK which are leading the field.

The UK therefore should for many reasons be continuing to invest in all related areas of carbon management and not making short term ill-considered cutbacks, sabotaging well proven schemes which have an overall benefit to the economy and business performance.

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