Reputation – Are you about to lose yours?

People are unhappy about building labelling, also known as commercial energy certificates. They worry that obtaining the certificates is going to cost them serious money. They are concerned that they won’t be able to find anyone to produce their certificates on time and their properties will stand empty, losing rental income while the paperwork is produced. At worst, they might worry about the effect of poor grades on their property portfolio values. But most don’t recognise the biggest threat of all; that in one fell swoop your building’s energy certificate could destroy your company’s hard earned reputation.

Actions may speak louder than words, but cold black figures shout loudest of all. What price are years of carefully orchestrated CSR reports and considerable corporation activities when your buildings turn out to be gas guzzlers? And everybody is being reminded that buildings are responsible for half the UK’s carbon emissions more than both air and road transport. Carbon matters; to the public; to your staff and to your stakeholders.

Some people believe that the regulations may take some time to be properly enforced, so they have little to worry about in the short term. No doubt it may take some time to see consistent enforcement through Trading Standards. However, the legislation is more likely to be immediately and thoroughly enforced by lawyers, who will invariably require an EPC before proceeding with property transactions.

So how can you avoid falling foul of the Energy Performance in Buildings Regulations? Like most things the answer lies in acting, and acting fast.

Most large property portfolio owners are starting to obtain Energy Performance Certificates now, whether or not they are expecting to sell or let their properties in the immediate future.

“The problem is,” says the estates manager for a large property owning group “we just can’t be sure where in our portfolio the churn will be. We are getting the lot done – then we can’t get caught out.”

Getting a large number of properties done together may reduce the overall cost. One pub chain owner is having all their reports produced by the same consultancy firm. “We have come to a unit price per pub, some will take longer than others and we’ve come to a good deal overall.”

But are these the lucky few? Will you be able to find an energy assessor when you need one?

Well it depends what you are looking for. If you have simple buildings; small retail units and the like you will only need a Level 3 assessor. Many of these will soon be available as the large over-supply of domestic energy assessors (of whom there are believed to be around 14,000 – twice as many as are needed) re-train to become commercial energy assessors.
If, however, you have more complex buildings with chillers or air handling units or other kit that the domestic energy assessors may not be familiar with, you will need a Level 4 or 5 assessor.

And here’s where the reputational element comes in; if the grade you get is important to you, you need the best assessor. An expert Low Carbon Energy Assessor will be able to:

1. Carry out a full survey to see what is really going on in your building
Often making simple adjustments to the way your system runs, will achieve major energy savings – and improved grades.

2. Use the right software to do the accreditation
If your building has energy saving features, like sun shades or CHP plant, then you won’t get full value for these by using the standard free software that many assessors will be using. Your grade will be worse than it really should be. By using dynamic simulation software which takes account of such features, an expert Low Carbon Energy Assessor will be able to provide a better grade; the right grade for your building.

3. Produce a recommendation report which doesn’t mislead you, or your stakeholders
Buying energy assessments on price only may be a false economy. Each assessment consists of a certificate, and a recommendation report. Many assessors will only be able to produce very generic reports – either they will not know enough about the building to do better or there may not be time available – given a low fee – to investigate the true situation. A cheap survey producing a cheap report is likely to tell you for example, that your boilers, chillers and lighting are inefficient and should be replaced. A proper survey might cost more, but if it saves you spending £40,000 unnecessarily on new boilers it may well be worth it.

4. Protect your reputation
You don’t have to act on a recommendation report (and if it’s a cheap one and you believe it to be inappropriate for your building you might not want to) but do you want to field lots of questions about why you haven’t? A Low Carbon Energy Assessor can not only provide you with the best possible certificate for your building s/he can also provide a full, timed implementation plan for making appropriate carbon minimisation improvements. Not all your buildings can be wonderful, but your company’s annual report will look a lot better if you have a plan to improve them than if you don’t.

At present, numbers of Low Carbon Energy Assessors (who can be accessed via www.cibsecertification.co.uk) are relatively restricted. Nearly 100 Low Carbon Energy Assessors are listed today and a further 150 have undergone top-up training for accreditation. These individually are drawn from the ranks of CIBSE Certification, a 900 strong register of Low Carbon Consultants, widely regarded as the most expert and highly trained group of Low Carbon professionals in the country. Most of these 900 are expected to join the register over the coming months.

So as far as EPCs go its all plain sailing – just don’t ask about how many air conditioning inspectors are available to provide your air conditioning inspection reports for systems over 250kw. These all have to be done by 4th January 2009 – are you ready for that?

Your duty as a landlord to provide information for Display Energy Certificates, or how to go about getting an air conditioning assessment for your systems go to: www.cibsecertification.co.uk.