Every building should flaunt energy performance says NG Bailey

The government should launch a policy forcing all landlords to hang giant Display Energy Certificates (DEC) inside their buildings to help kickstart a low carbon retrofitting revolution of the UK's building stock.

That was the stark message from leading green construction firm NG Bailey at the CBI today, which warned the UK is ill equipped to meet its carbon cutting 2020 and 2050 targets.

“Our current policies won’t deliver the goals," said NG Bailey sustainability director at Cal Bailey. "But I think we can achieve a dramatic change in our behaviour, and incentives for landlords, by making energy performance more visible by a simple branding method."

NG Bailey is a founding member of the UK Green Building Council, which is trying to push the refurbishment of non-domestic buildings up the political agenda as part of plans to halve emissions from the built environment by 2020.

At present, only public buildings must prominently display a DEC, however Bailey urged for the legislation to be rolled out immediately to all large buildings over 1,000m sq and then applied to smaller buildings in five years' time. He suggested buildings should display a 1m sq certificate in lobbies or receptions.

The policy could boost the value of better performing buildings, thus financially rewarding any landlords who build to high energy standards, he said, and would be simple and cheap for the government to implement.

However, critics at the event argued Bailey's idea was overly simplistic and failed to take account of the entire carbon footprint of a building, including waste management systems, public transport access and carbon embodied in construction.
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