News

Mayor announces shortlist of companies bidding for energy efficiency drive

October 25, 2007

The Mayor of London Ken Livingstone today (Thursday 25th October) announced that eight companies from the UK and abroad have been shortlisted, as part of the tender process to make the Greater London Authority Group's buildings more energy efficient. This is part of the initial stages of work to deliver on the deal developed by the Clinton Climate Initiative for the C40 cities at the New York Large Cities Climate Summit in May 2007, to cut carbon emissions by making existing buildings more energy efficient.

The companies which have been shortlisted are Alfred McAlpine Business Services, Atkins, Dalkia, EDF Energy, Honeywell, Johnson Controls, Siemens and TAC/Schneider. The final selected company or companies will be chosen and announced in January 2008. In August, the Mayor invited companies to submit bids to make the Greater London Authority Group's buildings more energy efficient. The first set of buildings to be retrofitted include up to 100 buildings from the Greater London Authority Group including the buildings of the Metropolitan Police Service, Transport for London and the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority.

The companies shortlisted to bid for the contract need to provide a range of services, including surveying and auditing the buildings to assess which are the most appropriate energy efficiency measures, such as energy efficient lighting, insulation and combined cooling heat and power. Alongside the energy audit, the companies need to plan, project manage and implement the energy efficiency measures that the building requires, and they will need to guarantee to meet an energy savings target over an agreed period.

The Mayor of London, Ken Livingstone said: ‘The level of response we received to our request for companies to bid for this work has been very encouraging, showing there is a real market for and interest in energy efficiency. This means that we will have a competitive tender process and whichever of these shortlisted companies we select to take forward the project, will have had to prove their commitment to this way of working. This initiative is bringing us a step closer to our aim of a 60 per cent cut in London’s carbon emissions over the next 20 years to avert catastrophic climate change.‘

The Greater London Authority Group includes Transport for London, The Metropolitan Police Authority, the London Fire and Emergency Planning Authority and the London Development Agency. The 900 buildings run by the Greater London Authority group alone could save up to 50,000 tonnes of carbon emissions each year, and in excess of one million pounds through lower energy bills, providing more money for investment in public services. Over the coming months, the Greater London Authority Group will also be developing a framework agreement which will enable the rest of the public sector in London to benefit from this scheme and we will also work to engage the private sector.

Ends

Notes to editors

1. For more information on the C40 go to www.london.gov.uk/mayor/environment/climate-change/c40.jsp or go to www.c40cities.org
2. In May 2007, the Mayor joined with President Clinton and mayors from major cities across the world to announce the creation of the global Energy Efficiency Building Retrofit Programme. The C40/ Clinton Climate Initiative programme brought together four of the world's largest Energy Service Companies (ESCOs), five of the world's largest banks and sixteen of the world's largest cities. The programme offers building owners a package with three elements: (1) an energy audit to quantify current energy use and emissions from a building and recommendations on a full range of measures to reduce them, (2) a comprehensive, discounted offer of goods and services guaranteed to deliver the identified reductions, and (3) optional financing element to pay for the works, paid back through the guaranteed energy savings. The Clinton CIimate Initiative Energy Efficiency Retrofit Programme is the first of many programmes that will be released by the Clinton CIimate Initiative on behalf of the C40 Large Cities Leadership Group. These programmes are designed to enable cities to accelerate the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.
3. London's commercial and public sector buildings alone produce around 15 million tonnes of CO2 per year and accounts for 33 per cent of total London emissions. The premises which are part of the Greater London Authority Group produce 0.18 million tonnes of CO2 each year, which is one per cent of London's commercial sector emissions.