London Mayor names Business Energy Challenge Gold award winners

London mayor Boris Johnson has presented RICS, JLL, EC Harris LLP, ExCeL London (above), Intu, and Linklaters LLP, with Gold awards at the Business Energy Challenge awards, which celebrate private sector businesses that have made the biggest cuts to their energy consumption and use cleaner, greener sources of energy. Fifty-nine participants had submitted data over a six week period and were assessed on the carbon intensity per square metre of their properties; with 27 of the most successful being given a Bronze, Silver or Gold award to recognise their efforts when compared against their baseline 2010/11 energy usage. Around 75 per cent of London’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions come from buildings, with workplaces accounting for 42 per cent of total emissions. With 80 per cent of London’s buildings likely still to be operational in 50 years’ time and with much of that estate being energy inefficient the Mayor has set out a building retrofit programme. The Business Energy Challenge aims to challenge the commercial sector to take action and improve its energy efficiency to help save on operational costs.

Some of London’s leading businesses across 1000 London locations (including shops, restaurants, banks and office premises) signed up to the challenge including Boots, HSBC, Royal Bank of Scotland, Marks and Spencer, BT, Lidl, Workspace Group, McDonalds, Asda and Aviva. The energy data collected will be used anonymously by University College London to inform energy performance benchmarks for wider use across the private sector.

Top award winning energy efficiency ideas included Intu’s new gas controls to ensure optimum use, ExCeL’s improved management of heating systems which reduced the hours that the boiler and CHP plant was running, and RICS’ HQ new building refurbishment, which includes a new roof and insulation.

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “It is fantastic to see so many London businesses stepping up to my energy-busting challenge. The wide range of pioneering methods deployed to cut energy usage has been highly commendable and demonstrates what can be achieved by businesses of all types. Becoming energy efficient makes good business sense by cutting costs as well as helping the city to meet its targets to become a leaner, less energy-wasteful city and I urge more businesses to rise to the Business Energy Challenge.”

The Business Energy Challenge was developed with assistance from the C40 Cities Climate Leadership Group, drawing upon the experiences of other innovative cities around the world.

Mark Watts, Executive Director of C40, said: “Cities working with businesses is a critical part of achieving carbon goals, and we look forward to other C40 cities benefiting from London’s expertise.”