The carbon reduction dividend

Publication of the first Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) league table by the Environment Agency in November marked an escalation in the process through which pressure on heavy energy-consuming organisations to make their businesses more energy-efficient is ratcheted up. The table itself is a source of some controversy, largely on account of its failure so far to take into account either the total amount of carbon emissions or any reductions that have been achieved over the past year. Instead, organisations are judged initially on whether they have implemented measures that are required to accurately measure their performance. It is a necessary first step, perhaps, but one which makes the table relatively meaningless as it currently stands. Next year, however, the criteria are set to change, with a greater emphasis placed on overall levels of energy consumed.

Regardless of the significance or otherwise of the table, this year will be the first time that organisations will have to pay out according to their level of carbon emissions. “Participants in the scheme are required to purchase allowances corresponding to their CRC emissions,” confirms a spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC). “For the introductory phase there will be fixed-price retrospective sales, where participants will buy allowances on their known emissions. The 2011 Budget confirmed a £12 price per tonne of CO2 for the first allowances sale, which will take place in 2012 to cover 2011-12 emissions.”

It is these financial payments that are creating real opportunities for the lighting industry. The DECC estimates heating and lighting combined account for 89 per cent of cost-effective savings that can be made. “Lighting obviously can play a key role,” says the spokesperson. “A no-cost solution like turning off a light is an easy way for anyone to reduce energy consumption. Many organisations are investing in technologies such as LED lights and reactive sensors. These can radically reduce energy costs, paying for themselves in a short timescale.”

Mike Summers, an associate at Arup’s lighting design division, suggests there should be potential for designers to create more energy-efficient schemes, as well as advising on how to get more out of existing installations. “Illuminances in many existing buildings are far too high and a new scheme that aims for less than 10W/m2 will return good savings compared with legacy buildings [consuming] 15W and more per square metre,” he says. “Controls that permit dimming, so that lighting is working in harmony with daylight, such as a good lighting control system and DALI dimming, will maximise savings. Look out for the re-emergence of task/ambient lighting with low background levels, supplemented by energy-efficient desk lights.”

Kevin Grant is group leader at Happold Lighting. He is already seeing increased demand from clients for more energyefficient systems and a greater willingness to countenance projects that would previously have been dismissed. “We have had several installations where we proposed energyefficient technologies such as LED-source external luminaires, which in the past may have been viewed as too expensive,” he says. “But clients are very happy to use them now because they’re reducing carbon.” He also stresses the advisory role: walkways, stairs and outside areas do not always need to be switched on, nor lit to full capacity, he says.

Manufacturers, too, expect there to be an upturn in business. “Carbon reduction via lighting installations is led by legislation,” says Richard Turner, head of research and development at Havells-Sylvania. “What this means is that we have to design an installation to follow certain standards and every year luminaires have to be more efficient.”

“This will be when CRC really starts to gain traction,” agrees Neil Webster, managing director of Tridonic. “Lighting remains one of the largest uses of energy in any company and, as such, should be very near the top of any corporation’s list to control or reduce its energy usage. This could manifest itself as simply asking staff to turn the lights off or, more probably, embracing new light sources and control technologies that will allow companies to maintain the right working environment for their staff and customers, while at the same time dramatically reducing the lifetime cost of their lighting solutions.”

A greater focus on energy efficiency is also likely to be good news for controls companies. “Hopefully controls will become embodied in the fabric of buildings and be specified first,” says Adrian Kitching, OEM and distributor director at Megaman. “There are still many commercial properties which have not utilised the carbon load scheme to update old fluorescent linear technology to either T5 or LED.”

Stephen Woodnutt, managing director of Delmatic, suggests the new regime could see a move towards a greater use of integrated controls, where lighting is included along with other functions, such as heating or air-conditioning. “In many cases clients can simply integrate other services so they are controlled by existing lighting management system presence detectors, providing substantial additional energy savings at little extra cost,” he says. The exact opportunity for lighting professionals is likely to vary by industry and depend on whether any installations have taken place previously.

Grant, for instance, suggests there is huge potential to improve efficiency in round-the-clock operations such as hospitals or casinos by modifying how lighting is used, while energy-intensive operations such as sports stadia can also benefit from the installation of more efficient technologies. But he does admit to concerns. “It’s not always the best solution to use the lowest-energy equipment and it always makes me nervous when we have these initiatives,” he says. “People are trying to save as much money as possible but you can end up with some pretty gloomy spaces in which people don’t want to spend time. It’s important to get the right level of design and product input to ensure a holistic approach, which produces better environments in a way that uses less energy.

Despite leading the way in promoting energy efficiency, the Department of Energy and Climate Change has not always led by example. In 2005, it only achieved the lowest energy rating - grade G - for energy efficiency at its headquarters in Whitehall Place. Now, though, DECC says it has cut its office emissions by more than a third over the past two years, mainly through installing new equipment and making better use of building control systems. Lighting has been a central part of this, the organisation says. “We have made modifications to our lighting control system, installing additional PIR sensors and enabling more precise control,” says a spokesperson. “Existing tungsten-halogen and compact fluorescent lighting in non-office areas of the building have been replaced with lowenergy LED lighting. Many unnecessary light fittings have simply been removed and we have reduced the amount of time that lights stay on without movement being detected.”

The inaugural Carbon Reduction Commitment performance league table ranks companies solely on initiatives that have been undertaken to measure their energy consumption. Next year’s table, however, will also take into account the improvement on the previous year’s figure, as well as the total emissions and the percentage change as a proportion of turnover. “The fundamental structure of the CRC will remain unchanged, with three key drivers to incentivise organisations to improve their energy efficiency,” says a spokesperson for the Department of Energy and Climate Change. “These include robust reporting to encourage participants to account and monitor all energy use; allowance sales, which attach a price to the energy they use; and the reputational driver made up of the performance league table and the related scorecards. These put energy efficiency on the boardroom agenda and drive companies to take action.” The government, however, has also committed to simplifying the scheme and published a range of proposals in June 2011. A consultation on the suggestions will be published early in 2012.

To view the full table, please go to the online version of this article at www.lighting.co.uk

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