news update For all the latest news stories visit www.eibi.co.uk
Telecoms giant slashes its carbon footprint Vodafone UK has reduced its carbon footprint, saving 100GWh of energy, equivalent to 25,000 tonnes of CO2, in three years. The energy saved could power a town with a population of 65,000 people for a year and represents a financial saving of around £10m. The energy savings were achieved by optimising heating and cooling systems in offices and managing air flow to keep technical sites cool in the most energy efficient way. Thirdparty energy auditor Energy Efficiency Verification Specialists (EEVS) validated savings. Vodafone has pledged to power its network using 100 per cent renewable electricity by July 2021 and to help its customers save 350m tonnes of CO2 by 2030 through its connectivity and Internet of Things (IoT) technology. Working with facilities management company Mitie, and as part of its energy performance contract, Vodafone has so far audited 90 of its buildings, including offices, contact centres, data centres and Mobile Telephone Exchange (MTX) network sites, to assess energy usage and ensure efficiencies. The audits checked that a building’s lighting, heating and air conditioning systems were operating at the highest energy efficiency rating. At more complex locations, such as data centres and MTX sites, where 24/7 power is essential to keep the network running, sensors providing real-time data were used to identify energy saving opportunities. For example, temperature sensors in data centres enabled the airflow to be automatically adjusted up or down remotely, ensuring the correct environment for this critical equipment in the most energy efficient way.
INDUSTRIAL SECTOR LEADS THE WAY
UK energy consumption falls again Energy consumption fell again last year, by 1 per cent overall - and in every sector of the economy. It is now just 142m tonnes of oil equivalent (mtoe) - almost 3 per cent lower than fifty years ago. Gross domestic product has grown by three times over the same period, according to the Government’s latest “Energy Consumption in the UK.” Last year, the industrial sector recorded the largest decrease in consumption, dropping from 22.9mtoe in 2018 to 22.3mtoe in 2019, a fall of 2.8 per cent in a single year. Almost all of this reduction was due to improvements in energy efficiency in industry. Overall consumption decreased in all industry sub-sectors, except iron and steel where there was a 3.3 per cent increase. The largest decrease in percentage terms was in vehicle manufacturing which fell by 5.0 per cent, followed by mechanical engineering, down by 4.5 per cent.
Practically all subsectors saw a decrease in overall consumption, with the largest falls in chemicals (down by 70ktoe) and mineral products (down by 64ktoe). Consumption in bioenergy and waste did increase slightly (by 25ktoe), though it fell in the food and drinks sector; this was partially due to the volatility associated with a small number of sites, and also ongoing improvements by government statisticians in estimating final consumption levels. However, when considering impacts at the industrial sub-sector level, there was some variation. Most recorded an increase in output, with improvements in energy intensity
more than offsetting any potential increase in consumption due to increases in output. The most notable success was in the chemicals sector which saw the largest relative impact of intensity improvements. The vehicle sector saw the largest increase in output factor in absolute terms. Although this was more than offset by intensity effects, this was to a lesser extent than in the chemicals sector, relative to actual consumption. On a longer-term basis, since 2000 the industrial sector has shown decreases in the energy used to produce a unit of output by a third. In other words, during this century efficiency investments are now delivering 33 per cent more output of wealth per unit of fuel consumed. These improvements have been driven particularly by improvements to intensity in the vehicle manufacturing, chemicals, and iron and steel sectors.
Green Bond funds aimed at energy-efficient homes Funds worth £400m raised from Barclays Bank’s 2020 Green Bond will be allocated for mortgages designed to improve homes already deemed to be energy efficient. Back in 2017, Barclays issued its first ever Green Bond, providing funding for domestic residential assets. More than half the new money now raised is being allocated to refinance Green Homes mortgages issued by Barclays. The bank is offering discounted mortgages for properties that achieve the highest energy efficiency thresholds. The money raised from the latest issuance - reported to have been four times oversubscribed - is also going towards the re-financing of existing mortgages, enabling the homes covered to install more energy efficiency measures. The bond offers a yield of 1.7 per cent. The Carbon Trust is acting as assurance provider for the bank’s wider green bond framework. The bank is also providing £175m for investment over the next five years in innovative energy saving companies. Much of this activity is being stimulated by a critical
shareholder resolution tabled this January. This followed research published by the NGO ShareAction. It revealed that Barclays was the single biggest investor in fossil fuel projects in Europe. Sums of over $85bn had been provided for coal, oil and gas companies. This March Barclays joined several other household name finance companies to reduce its financing emissions to net zero by 2050.
Leading UK insulation manufacturer failing ‘to show climate leadership’ One of the UK’s largest insulation manufacturers, Rockwool, is facing a legitimacy issue in expounding the environmental benefits of using its products to save energy in buildings, particularly when the manufacture of them is a major source of carbon emissions. Buildings account for over 40 per cent of the UK’s total energy bill and
36 per cent of CO2 emissions. Better insulation could slash their total energy demand by 50 per cent by 2050 according to the Mineral Wool Manufacturers Association (MIMA). “Rockwool has so far not been showing climate leadership. Talking about avoided emissions is not enough, and does not excuse it from cutting its own emissions,” says
Maxfield Weiss from the European office of the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP). CDP gives Rockwool only a “B” grade in its 2019 climate score. Weiss argues that, to reduce its emissions in line with climate science, Rockwool’s initiatives should lead to absolute emissions reductions as the company grows its business, not just emissions measured per unit of
production. Production of mineral fibre insulation is among the most energy-intensive industrial processes. He has calculated that “companies need to decrease their own carbon footprint by an average of over 4 per cent each year in order to live up to the 1.5°C target. We need companies to achieve absolute decarbonisation,” he warns.
06 | ENERGY IN BUILDINGS & INDUSTRY | NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2020
EIBI_1120_006-7-8-9(M).indd 1
10/11/2020 12:47
