Paul Wrighton, Regional Director for Sustainable Infrastructure at Johnson Controls UK&I, tells FM Magazine what he’d like to see from the Chancellor in the Spring Budget on Wednesday. We need a renewed commitment to decarbonisation, across all sectors – especially for both domestic and SMEs, as well as looking at ways to encourage more training…
net zero
Future business energy needs will be delivered by a wider portfolio of more sustainable, more circular, and more decentralised alternatives to current supplies, says Jodie Eaton, CEO of Shell Energy UK. As facilities managers continue to face market volatility and tightening budgets, corporate energy strategies must go far beyond simply ‘buying better’. Indeed, companies need…
Following comments by Lord Callanan in yesterday’s Sunday Telegraph newspaper, Mike Foster, Chief Executive of UK energy trade body Energy and Utilities Alliance (EUA), explains why he has written to the Minister requesting urgent clarification of the government’s policy on heat pumps. In his newspaper article, Lord Callanan, Minister at the Department for Energy Security…
Veolia has extended its medical waste management capabilities to address key issues for the United Kingdom’s healthcare sector and NHS, including carbon emissions generated by traditional clinical waste hierarchy positions. New services will help organisations in making further progress towards their net-zero ambitions by optimising compliant handling, management and treatment of waste streams that fall…
Veolia is now delivering more than six times more renewable electricity to the grid than it uses at 400 offices and sites in the UK. By generating 856 GWh of electricity using a combination of biomass, landfill gas, biogas and Energy Recovery facilities (ERF), that qualify under the Renewable Energy Guarantees of Origin (REGO) scheme,…
Veolia will support The London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham’s net zero 2030 ambitions under a new long-term environmental services contract. Awarded for a term of over 9 years, the new contract includes kerbside recycling and waste collections, bulky waste and street cleansing and will expand an existing food waste recycling scheme to cover the whole…
As the United Kingdom marks National Apprenticeship Week, Karen Boswell OBE, managing director of BDR Thermea Group business Baxi UK and Ireland, explains why encouraging more young people into heating engineering is essential. With government mandates for greenhouse gas emission reduction looming, concern around the lack of new talent entering the heating engineering and manufacturing…
Veolia is helping Scottish Water on its journey to net zero by increasing the amount of renewable energy generated at Edinburgh’s largest Wastewater Treatment Works (WwTW). Seafield WwTW in Leith has been a net exporter of renewable electricity since June 2022, producing 108 per cent of the electricity it requires to run the site, with…
Retail destinations, Quayside MediaCity in Salford and Gloucester Quays, are the first of their kind to achieve ‘Net Zero Carbon – Operational Energy’, in line with UKGBC’s Net Zero Carbon Buildings Framework. The two retail destinations join an expanding list of Peel L&P buildings that have achieved net zero carbon status, demonstrating the company’s commitment…
David Lloyd, General Manager of Connected Energy Performance for Johnson Controls, comments on a recent report by former UK Energy Minister, Chris Skidmore, outlining new opportunities offered by a renewed drive towards net zero. In a major review of the government’s net zero plans, a new report by net-zero tsar Chris Skidmore calls for a serious ‘step…
Cloudfm has announced a target date of 2035 for eliminating full-scope net zero emissions, having already met its scope 1 and 2 science-based emissions targets. In common with other service providers, a large part of Cloudfm’s carbon footprint is in scope 3, which includes indirect emissions produced by a business as a result of factors…
A partnership with energy management and sustainability consultancy Verco will provide customers of EMCOR UK with a tailored approach to achieving net zero. Verco’s ‘Route Zero’ programme starts with an analysis of energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions from across a customer’s buildings and workplace. Also analysed is a measurement of scope 1,2 and…
Fiona Hodgson, Chief Executive of the Scottish and Northern Ireland Plumbing Employers’ Federation (SNIPEF), comments on over £500 million of Net Zero budget initiatives recently announced by Deputy First Minister of Scotland, John Swinney. The Scottish Government’s transformative Net Zero agenda is welcomed and supported by our sector; however, we urge greater priority is given…
Alleima AB has joined the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) partnership between the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), UN Global Compact, World Resources Institute (WRI) and World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) which promotes science-based corporate net zero targets. The global materials and industrial heating solutions provider is already a signatory to several international principles and…
A new report from Burges Salmon explores issues surrounding consent for low carbon hydrogen infrastructure projects in the UK. With the potential to overcome some of the trickiest decarbonisation challenges facing the economy, low-carbon hydrogen can play an important role in effecting the country’s transition to Net Zero. Net Zero (the UK Government’s commitment to…
SaaS building intelligence provider Infogrid has acquired Aquicore, a leading ESG data and analytics company that empowers real estate institutions to take the actions necessary to achieve net zero carbon. The announcement comes off the back of a period of high growth for Infogrid. In response to increasing demand from customers grappling with rising energy…
Lynne Snoding, Diversey’s sector marketing manager for Food Service & BSC in the UK and Ireland, provides guidance on reducing cleaning-related energy costs as companies transition to net zero. Government targets to reduce CO2 emissions as part of the wider commitment to zero carbon by 2050 have focused attention on energy consumption across all parts…
With the United Nations urging businesses to recognise how they will meet the expectations and demands of stakeholders to reach net zero by 2050, David Lloyd, general manager of Connected Energy Performance at Johnson Controls UK&I, says technology is key. Across the world, businesses are battling to keep the lights on amid urgent calls for…
Northumberland County Council (NCC) in Northern England has been leading a local green energy revolution by retrofitting non-domestic buildings with low-carbon ground source heat pumps. In 2019, the council declared a ‘climate emergency’ following a finding that burning gas and other fuels for heat had contributed to 38 per cent of the country’s emissions the…
A free-of-charge recycling scheme offered by AkzoNobel brand Dulux Decorator Centre in the UK in cooperation with Veolia has disposed of a staggering one million paint cans. The service is designed to make it easy for tradespeople to dispose of empty paint cans in a responsible and suitable way. Professionals can arrange for cans to…
Britain’s cities need urgent transformation in the next decade and beyond if the country is to meet its 2050 net zero targets and create cleaner, safer spaces for citizens, according to a major study from E.ON and the UK Green Building Council. The two organisations have collaborated on a new initiative called Streets of the…
David Hall, VP Power Systems at Schneider Electric and Kas Mohammed, VP Digital Energy, comment on a finding by a new study from E.ON and the UK Green Building Council that half of all adults in the United Kingdom agree faster movement is needed on climate change in cities. David Hall, VP Power Systems UK…
Aramark has announced 44 per cent of the available options on dine-in menus in more than 250 universities and colleges across the United States will be plant-based by 2025. Aramark and the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) have collaborated on plant-based initiatives for almost fifteen years, working together to benefit animals, people and…
Johnson Controls has been named to the 2022 Fortune Change the World list for its OpenBlue solutions and OpenBlue Net Zero Buildings as a Service offering. Fortune’s Change the World list recognises companies that use creative tools to address society’s unmet needs and is evaluated based on measurable social impact, business results and degree of…
Peel L&P has released its annual ESG report on the progress the British regeneration business is making in implementing a Five Year Sustainability Plan. Peel, which has a record of transformative and exciting projects including MediaCity at Salford Quays and the trailblazing Manchester homeless project Embassy Village, reports progress on all 22 of its sustainability…
Adam Savitz, Sustainability Director EMEALA at Johnson Controls, comments on a recent announcement by the Mayor of London that the capital will need £75bn of private sector investment to meet net zero goal. Sadiq Khan said London needed to go “much further, much faster” to meet its net-zero goal. But as businesses across the UK…
Mitie’s most recent annual ESG report highlights the progress the facilities management outsourcer has made in incorporating 13 ambitious targets within its social value framework. According to the report, all 13 of the targets which were set in 2021 have been achieved or exceeded, spanning Mitie’s People, Environment, Supply Chain and Community pillars. Primary focuses…
A ‘digital twin’ which can model and test pathways to clean energy and net zero emissions in East Birmingham is being planned in a partnership between the University of Birmingham, Birmingham City Council and Siemens. A feasibility study has been commissioned which demonstrates how a virtual representation of the energy and transport infrastructure within East…
ROCKWOOL is claiming the UK’s lowest thermal conductivity rating for its new stone wool acoustic and fire insulation product for cavity walls, NyRock® Cavity Slab 032. Providing specifiers with a low lambda, non-combustible stone wool slab for full and partial fill masonry cavities that enables a thinner wall construction, the solution utilises the company’s patented…
Schneider Electric is supporting the development of the University of Birmingham’s Smart Campus with a suite of digital tools and services which will be delivered with the implementation of a range of smart IoT technologies. As the original ‘red brick university’, part of the prestigious Russell Group and among the world’s top 100 universities, the…
Scottish solutions business Eco Group has launched an innovative off-grid lighting system to cut energy bills and reduce the carbon footprint of businesses in partnership with renewable energy solutions specialist Kight Off-Grid Solutions. Eco Off-Grid is a standalone LED street lighting system which works independently from the grid. Powered by solar and wind energy, it can…