WASTE & SUSTAINABILITY
Waste Not Want Not
Adam Pigott, Engineering Manager from Kinect Energy Group, discusses the impending introduction of updated energy management legislation and what these changes will mean for businesses in the care sector.
New energy legislation updates are being introduced to ensure businesses, including those in the care industry, streamline their energy efficiency and carbon footprint and will require them to rigorously record their energy consumption. Eligible care providers that fail to comply could face large fines.
You may think these are just more legislations being introduced to generate more work for businesses, however, they also offer opportunities to make significant savings and become more energy efficient in their gas, electricity and water use.
Furthermore, the new legislation introduces the requirement to report not just on electricity and gas consumption, but on energy used by business-related transportation – a requirement that introduces a whole new set of challenges.
Unlike the CRC, where qualification was based on a reasonably high energy consumption threshold, SECR will impact all UK organisations that employ 250 people or more, or who have a turnover in excess of £36m, and a balance sheet of £18m.
Many participants will not be particularly energy intensive and, consequently, won’t currently have the necessary structures in place to capture and report the mandated information.
For these businesses, it will be a steep learning curve and it will be interesting to see how, in the longer term, the resultant benefits stack up against the additional administrative requirement.
ENERGY SAVINGS OPPORTUNITY SCHEME
(ESOS) PHASE 2 Meanwhile, the Energy Savings Opportunity Scheme (ESOS) Phase 2 will also present challenges and opportunities in equal measure to the care sector.
STREAMLINED ENERGY AND CARBON
REPORTING (SECR) The new Streamlined Energy and Carbon Reporting (SECR) Framework will launch in 2019 as part of a drive to enable business and industry to make a 20% reduction in energy consumption and CO2 emissions by 2030.
While initiatives like SECR are broadly welcomed by the industry and will have a significant impact on the UK’s wider carbon footprint, in the short-term the implementation of SECR may create more work for businesses, in particular smaller ones.
Although full governmental guidance remains a work in progress, the framework looks set to broaden the number of businesses in the care sector that need to comply, from roughly 6,000 with the existing Carbon Reduction Commitment (CRC) reporting requirement to nearly 12,000.
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ESOS first came into effect in 2015 to raise awareness of how much energy large organisations consume and ultimately provide recommendations to reduce the amount of energy being wasted, and the associated emissions of CO2.
As a mandatory legislation, eligible businesses have to comply with ESOS and many thousands have reaped the benefits of Phase One, having saved substantial amounts on their energy bills over the last few years.
Phase 2 has now launched, and businesses in the care sector are being urged to act now to ensure that they are ESOS compliant well before the December 2019 deadline, with a view to avoiding a potential shortage of accredited professionals the sector experienced in the run up to the close of Phase One.
Phase 2 will also affect those that previously completed compliance as part of Phase One, so I would urge all organisations, even those that complied four years ago, to assess the extent of their operations in the UK from top level down.
If you employ 250 staff or more or have a turnover in excess
www.tomorrowscare.co.uk
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