This project would never have got off the ground without the Carbon Trust - working with them gave us the confidence to set our ambitious targets which we have now exceeded. The consultants feel like an extension of our team. They provide us with the latest thinking and we are now part of the Carbon Trust Chief Executives panel.
John Kost, Safety, Health and Environment Director, Capita Group Ltd.
The business case
With an annual turnover of over £2,500 million, and more than 38,000 employees working from over 300 buildings, Capita Group provides business process outsourcing and professional support services to private and public sector organisations across the UK and Ireland.
“At the time, energy costs were relatively stable, so money wasn’t the main incentive,” explains Safety, Health and Environment Director, John Kost. “The financial savings we’ve made have been a bit of a windfall really. We could see the language in bid questions changing, particularly from public sector organisations. We had to prove we were sustainable when competing for big contracts.”
The same year, Capita made a public statement in its annual report of its work to reduce carbon emissions. However, John wanted to do more and decided to take advantage of the Carbon Trust’s Carbon Management service.
Capita set itself a target to reduce emissions across the top 20 sites by 12% over two years, a target which three years on has been met and exceeded. CO2 emissions have now been cut by 28%, a reduction of 4,400 tonnes.
The approach
Focussing on the top 20
Through discussion and analysis with Carbon Trust consultants, Capita decided to focus initially on its top 20 energy consuming sites, collectively responsible for £3.5 million worth of energy each year and an annual footprint of 18,400 tonnes of CO2. The aim was then to extend the efficiency drive to a further 120 smaller sites, whose combined energy spend amounted to about £500,000 a year, and on to the remaining 160.
“The focus on energy has generated a momentum of its own,” says John. “It’s not a one-off project, it’s a whole new way of doing business. It has taken on a sort of viral effect – you could describe it as a carbon virus!”
Adding value
John wanted to use the relationship with the Carbon Trust to add value to the strong Facilities Management team already in place.
“I knew we would be taking control away from the individual for things like temperature, lighting and printer default settings and that the facilities managers would be in the firing line for any complaints. I also needed to get their full buy-in for taking responsibility for energy consumption at their sites and taking the lead as energy champions.”
As a result, the Carbon Trust helped John create an Energy Reduction Template which the team could use to survey their own buildings and see what they could do. The Carbon Trust also provided intensive training for the facilities managers to educate them on the best ways to ensure that every Capita building operates as efficiently as possible.
The Carbon Trust also helped John to recognise which potential purchases were eligible for Enhanced Capital Allowances (ECAs).
Small scale action for big results
“We have been amazed by the savings we have made, mostly from small scale actions and improving the basic running of the buildings – resetting the controls on the heating, air conditioning, ventilation and lighting to ensure they are only on when needed. Our buildings are pretty standard. Most office-based companies could do the same just by applying good management and adopting best practice.”
In addition to the above, typical actions Capita has implemented include: ensuring windows are clean to make the most of natural light; using horizontal rather than vertical blinds to maximise light and minimise glare; and making sure that equipment is regularly serviced and cleaned.
John has instigated training for his team on the building management systems in their premises so they can understand the full potential of what it can do and make their own changes. ‘Smart-metering’ for electricity and gas is now being expanded to all sites and the exercise will be complete by 2011. The half-hourly readings enable the energy champions to monitor the progress of energy saving projects.
Carbon Trust consultants also helped to dispel a number of myths such as the idea that it is more efficient to leave lighting on rather than to turn it off when an office or area is vacant for a short period of time.
Upgrading systems
Where necessary, Capita has taken more comprehensive action. When it came to the end of a long-term lease of a building in Basingstoke, it found it would be liable for £1 million in ‘dilapidation charges’ payable to the landlord for ordinary wear and tear. As the building was in a good location and there was no reason to move, the company decided to remain in situ and spend the dilapidation charges on a refurbishment of the building. Capita took the opportunity to upgrade the lighting, heating, air conditioning and ventilation systems, install K-glass glazing and to increase the thermal insulation. Ultimately, an expenditure of £1.35 million resulted in a reduction in energy consumption of 45%.
“A thermographic survey on the building to show heat loss demonstrated that it not only had poor insulation levels but the external envelope of the building was not weather tight; it leaked heat like a sieve,” says John.
New technologies
Installing additional thermal insulation in an older building presented a challenge. Capita used a high tech composite material, which it had heard about from the Sustainable Building Centre. This organisation showcases new commercially available products and helps train how to install them.
Capita also used sustainable suppliers for its flooring products, and reduced the thermal gain of glazing by installing Pilkington K glass. Energy use was further reduced through tactics such as installing autodimming light sensors and motion sensors on the lighting controls. In addition, the building was used to try out newer technologies such as solar panels to provide hot water.
Taking the initiative
Inspired by the success of their action, John looked at how he could extend activity into areas of the buildings not under his control.
John explains, “We lease all of the buildings we occupy, which has obvious implications. In some we pay for the energy for lighting and office equipment, but the landlord covers the heating and air conditioning and shared areas; in others we control more or less. With so many buildings in our portfolio we also experience the full range of landlord/ tenant relationships from those where it is hard to get basic changes made to ones where we work well in partnership.”
Working in partnership
An example of a good working relationship is the building Capita’s TV Licensing team occupies in Bristol. John took the initiative and contacted the building’s manager. As a result of their conversations, John spent time working with him and the local Capita Facilities Manager and as a result, was able to achieve more in terms of increasing energy efficiency of the Capita occupied areas than he would have done alone.
“Looming on the horizon is the issue of the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) and how that impacts the tenant/landlord relationship. Landlords can simply pass on energy or CRC costs (usually with a mark-up), so there is little incentive for them to make efficiencies. We are also starting to notice clauses coming into tenancy agreements around the CRC and, with some, it is a case of caveat emptor - some may be trying to charge the tenant for the whole carbon allowances cost, not net cost after the rebate,” concludes John.
Staff engagement
John admits in one area he has been lucky. “Capita is a company that is driven by competition, so we introduced an energy performance league table. No director wants his or her site to be bottom and with our template it is very easy to see how the different buildings are performing.”
The company has also carried out staff engagement activities to show employees how they can reduce their own carbon footprint – at home as well as at work.
“It’s important to engage people in the energy saving process to maintain an ethos of sustainability throughout the business, particularly as the bulk of our savings have come from greater centralised control within each site.”
Travelling light
Capita is also encouraging the use of public transport and video conferencing. The monthly meetings of senior managers, which used to see people travelling to London from across the UK each month, now have been replaced by video conferences. The average emissions of the company fleet (almost 2,000 vehicles), have been reduced to 147 gm CO2/km and are subject to a progressive cap on emissions levels with a target of 160gm CO2/km by the end of 2010.
Setting the standard
The introduction of the Carbon Reduction Commitment Energy Efficiency Scheme (CRC) gave Capita a further incentive to focus on energy efficiency, and led to the company’s application for the Carbon Trust Standard for two of its divisions – Integrated Services and Insurance and Investor Services – which it achieved in November 2009.
“I rather naively thought it would be quite straightforward to get the Standard as we’d already done a lot,” admits John. “It’s much harder than I expected! There’s a strong focus on governance and sustained emissions reduction rather than just past performance, so it widened our view of what we need to work on. However without the past three years of work, meeting the Carbon Trust Standard would have been impossible. It provides important independent endorsement that clearly demonstrates to our staff, customers and shareholders that we have taken and are continuing to take effective action to shrink our carbon footprint.”
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