Energy Management Accreditation
BUILDING ACCREDITATION SCHEMES
What is accreditation and what can it do for you?
Accreditation involves showing that a standard, practice or level of competence has been reached. In relation to building energy management this usually requires having implemented an energy management system, undertaken some form of footprint or audit, or reduced your emissions by a certain amount. You can then publicise this either through ‘self reporting’, or through getting ‘certification’ from an independent third party. SMEasure can be an important part of an energy management system by helping you measure, analyze and manage your energy use, and as such can also form an important part of an accreditation programme.
Why would you want to be accredited?
There are all sorts of reasons why you get accredited whether it be for reasons of:
• Managing your environmental risks and opportunities to a proven and high standard
• Corporate social responsibility
• Helping to get contracts or fulfilling a contractual requirement
• Being formally recognised for actions you are taking, which in turn can help company moral, publicity, may reduce insurance costs, and giving your organisation ‘an edge’.
Below is an overview of some of the major accreditation schemes that are about and are of relevance to building energy management. The costs given below are just for materials and certification. There will be the man-hours of undertaking any accreditation too of course…but the idea with energy management is that this pays itself back!
Name: BS16001EN Energy Management Systems
Who: British Standards Institute
What is this accrediting? Specifies requirements for, and guides you in developing, an energy management system. This isn’t an accreditation as such, but external, independent organisations can certify that you have implemented an energy management system to the standards of BS16001.
Who is this for? This is for anyone who requires more guidance on an energy management system and who wants to be managing their energy to a proven high standard. It is particularly important for those involved in the CRC Energy Efficiency Commitment as BS16001 can count towards an early action metric. If undertaking an energy management system all in one go seems overwhelming, you might want to look at BS8555 for guidance on a phased implementation.
Costs: Costs of certification itself will vary depending on the size of your organisation and who you get to do the certification. The BSi sells a book on requirements and guidance for £100.
Rate of renewal: Three years.
Website:http://shop.bsigroup.com/en/ProductDetail/?pid=000000000030172146
Name: ISO 14001
What is this accrediting? This standard certifies your Environmental Management System (EMS) (that is environmental, not energy) as being of a certain standard. The EMS emphasizes identifying and controlling environmental impact, continual improvement and a systemic approach.
Who: International Standards Organisation
Who is this for? An organization or site within an organisation of any size, but smaller organisations might want to start with BS8555, rather than jumping in at the deep end with ISO14001.
Costs: A book on implimenting ISO14001 can be bought from the Stationary Office (TSO) for £40.50.
Rate of renewal: Every three years
Website:http://www.bsigroup.com/en/Assessment-and-certification-services/management-systems/Standards-and-Schemes/ISO-14001/ and http://www.iso.org/iso/iso_catalogue/management_standards/iso_9000_...
Name: Carbon Trust Standard
Who: The Carbon Trust
What is this accrediting? The Carbon Trust Standard certification provides a benchmark of good practice for measuring, managing and reducing greenhouse gas emissions from an organisation, including gas, electric and business travel.
Who is this for? This is an early action metric for the CRC scheme. Otherwise it is for organisations who want to shout loud and proud that they have reduced their greenhouse gas emissions.
Costs: This depends on your energy usage (gas, oil, electric, petrol, diesel). If this is less than £50k/annum certification costs £1000, and assisted certification £1700. If energy usage is £50-500k these prices go up to £2000 and £3500 respectively.
Rate of renewal: Every two years.
Website:http://www.carbontruststandard.com
Name: BREEAM Awards (BRE Environmental Assessment Method)
Who: Building Research Establishment
What is this accrediting? This is for new builds, retrofit and the management of resources (not just energy use) in a building showing that a high level of environmental awareness is being put to practice. Credits are awarded across a range of areas and added up, this leads you to get a score of pass, good and upwards to outstanding.
Who is this for? This is good if you are having a retro-fit and you want to show it is up to scratch. Otherwise this can be useful in thinking about environmental impacts of buildings more broadly, and as a tool for relative beginners it will no doubt get you on your way to achieving energy specific standards like BS16001.
Costs: This varies depending on building use, starting from £2000.
Rate of renewal: This is a one off assessment.
Website:http://www.breeam.org/index.jsp
Name: Industry Green
Who: Julie’s Bicycle
What is this accrediting? This is accrediting the process of understanding, improving and communicating your CO2 emissions from on-site sources as well as travel, audience travel, freight and accommodation. It can also be applied to CD packaging manufacturers. Part of this requires using the free online IG tool.
Who is this for? Focussed on, but not restricted to cultural organisations, this can be applied to tours, events, festivals and offices.
Costs: This is externally certified by a third party organisation. Industry Green costs £500 in the first year and £250 each year after that.
Rate of renewal: Annual
Website: http://www.juliesbicycle.com/about-jb/industry-green