As the soap opera that accompanied the General Election result has now largely subsided, many businesses are now pondering what a “blue” government means for the UK in terms of green policy.
At least Amber Rudd accepts that Climate Change exists
The early signs appear encouraging! Those in green industries have enthusiastically welcomed both the appointment of Amber Rudd as the Energy & Climate Change Secretary and replacement of Eric Pickles with Greg Clark as Communities Secretary. Amber Rudd, unusually for a 21st Century politician, has successfully worked in commerce as a banker, city head-hunter and financial journalist prior to entering politics. Furthermore, she has repeatedly gone on record warning it is vital to take action on climate change because of the “devastating impact it could have nationally and internationally”.
In short she clearly gets it (unlike many of her government colleagues). Likewise the replacement of Eric Pickles and his one-man mission to undermine every environment policy he cast his vast shadow over bodes well for climate change policy being taken seriously.
The abolition of DECC? The news is it’s here to stay
Conversely for those predicting the abolition of DECC or changes to Electricity Market reform policy and energy efficiency strategy, this has not come to pass; they look set to remain unchanged, good news in my humble opinion!
Full steam ahead for ESOS
Against the backdrop of a Conservative commitment to continuing decarbonisation of the British economy we can expect existing policies, most notably ESOS to continue unchanged.
Therefore, with the ESOS compliance deadline of 5th December 2015 now barely six months away and order books for accredited lead assessors in many cases full to overflowing, coupled with the likelihood of achieving ISO50001 compliance within the timescale now effectively a pipe dream, the route to compliance for the majority of participants with ESOS will be underpinned by an Energy Audit-based approach to their building, process and transport-related energy consumption.
Delay starting ESOS compliance at your peril
Whilst six months should be ample for most organisations to show compliance, it is imperative that work starts now to appoint an approved ESOS lead assessor. Once this has been determined, an implementation plan can be developed and put in place.
For large or complex organisations the data gathering requirements are not insignificant. While the assumption by many organisations that de minimis rules will dispense with any activity allied to transport, they unfortunately misunderstand the requirements: namely to initially calculate total energy consumption (including transport) in order to ascertain whether transport can be excluded under the de minimis rule or as many participants are finding, transport related energy use exceeds the 10% threshold – oops!
Still struggling to navigate a path to ESOS compliance? There is help at hand
Unfortunately ESOS is not like completing your annual tax return the night before the deadline, it does in fact need to be thought about and a coherent and cost effective strategy developed and implemented. The good news is, as highlighted in one of my previous blogs, for those organisations that have grasped the nettle for ESOS, they have been pleasantly surprised by the energy and cost savings measures that exist within their business and moreover their cost effectiveness realised.
For anyone still unsure as to what to do, get in touch via [email protected] and we will help you get on track to compliance or alternatively help you to demonstrate why you do not need to comply!
To conclude, don’t delay and act today (whilst stocks last) and appoint your ESOS Lead Assessor, you will not be disappointed by the results!
Andrew Fletcher is the Managing Director at Carbon Control Limited.
This is a sponsored article.
